The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1870-06-30

nj r~,gest.G - c::s..szz..zss@sz 80 ss-:
constant demands upon his. attention
and he honered them all; but it. va:
with the chivalry Of gentleman coward
. weak woman rather than the tender.
ness ofa husband toward "a beloved
wife. He was with her constantly, 70,
she never was happy unless he was at
her side; he drove with her, read. to
her, sat beside her with yhia arm about
her waist and head upon. his shoulder,
fed the demands Of her morbid fondness
With his very life, and was all the while
alone and starving himself: There
was a jaded look~in his face, that went
to my very heart, making it thrill, now
with plying love, now with bitter tri-
umph'; but T hid both, and simply kept
out Of his way. : z''."$> '.~s
1t seemed that they had not come
home too soon. Scarcely a week had
passed. when Sylvia was taken Ill, and
| saw by the anxiety on every face that
even more then usual risk appre-
hended. There came night when no
one evenapretended: to eat or sleep, and
the doors of the sick-chamber were
kept closed under strict guard. And
when, at last, at day-dawn, the awful
silence was broken by a sudden loud
AMI sturdy cry, and. the. nurse came
out, bearing 2 great, strong boy in her
arms, she brought also the pitiful It'd
ings that the young mother had given
her life fo1 his. ....
ST. "And I'm wanted inthere; MISS said
the woman to me; "for they are WE'LL
nigh nigh orazed. viii ye please hold tho
baby for . while, till / can come back
and take it from ye ?" ~s
: I listened, half.stunned aud stupid /;
b. but she pushed me gently down into q
chair, and placed the child upon my
lap. And 50 1t happened that mine
were the first knees upon which his
child was graded.
Only for a little while; then the
nurse came and took the little live bun
die away from me, and I got up still in
. half-dazed way, to go and look for the
children. AS I passed the chamber Of
death, the door opened for the docotr
to pass out, and glanced in involun-
tarily. The widowed husband was
kneeliug by the pillow OF his dead
wife, her beautiful head upon his shoul-
der, her white arms twined about his
neck. She had died 50, they told me
afterward, and he would not let that
last clingiug clasp be disturbed, until
those who were to dress the dead for
her last resting-place came and remov-
ed him with gentle force. My good,
my noble Arnold! l. ss- .,.-:s:,
A strange shadow settled down over
the Roseneath household after this.
MI. Darrow went away Immediately !;
Mr.. Marples immersed himself more
deeply than ever in business, Mrs.
Marples gave herself wholly Up to, her
grief, and remained almost altogether
10 her own ROOM the very children.
were subdued, and went about more
quietly. and III, too, was changed.
God forgive me, if it was wicked !; but
I could noe mourn'~for Sylvia's death
as others did. She had always seemed
to me like a gorgeous passion-d flower, or
rather, like one Of those great, creamy
day-lillies, born to bloom ID beauty for
a little, little while, and then fade
away, as it were, with the excess of its
own sweetness. Not for her, own sake,
more than for Arnold's, upon whom
she had already palled, could I have
wished her longer life !; nor deny that,
through the gateway which lead to her
tomb, I sometimes caught wild glimpses
Of a possible paradise, from which I had
once madly shut out myself and him
who loved me. ss.<sss s,s..., = -.
But it was not these visions, this
hope, which wrought achange in me;
/ they were too feeting, too substantial.
too darkly tinctured with the apltiful
sadness Of early death. It:was the ba-
by,; I think his motherless child-tbat
baptized my soul with as with saving
grace: Mrs. Marples's persistent re-
titement let mo virtually mistress of
the household, and as such 'Icould as
sumo, without comment, as: much
charge Of the child as I, chose And
this meant all sthat ny other duties
permitted for. from the. moment when
the little, helpless, newborn babe had
been laid upon ny,pnacoustomed knees,
it had made r,itselfa . place. sia my
theerts close withinssthes secret cell
where the thought Of its, father en-
shrined. It be sweetest thing in all tho
world tome Was the touch of its little
clingingzhands and, when it; came to
know me, to smile and crow: and put
out appealing armseat my coming, it
seemedsto me that Fate had removed
her bittsr ban, and that it might be
given, even to me, tossbe not wholly
'joyless. The my touch of = baby.
hand had brokentup the. sealed foun-
A. e