Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-06-16

title laugh. You see this fine chap hired
ne to take care of you, so't you'd never
,ome in his way again. reckon you
won't ha, ha.'
You know how extravagantly demon
,trative used to be, and expect near
y strangled the poor little old man, for
remember he coughed and chOked, and
got terribly red In the face, and there were
.ears In his eyes, but he brushed them
away with his coat sleeve, and hurried
round and brought out my clothes, and
put them on in bungling way, and made
ne lie down, and covered me carefully up.
A man came 70 the door and asked If the
little 'un was dead. He said / was just
alive, and pointed to the coffin. The man
said his woman would come over if he
wanted her, and Briefly promised to call
her if he wanted her, and the man went
away. ir II rsu =
1--WE kept perfectly still untilafter dark,
and then he wrapped me up in an old coat.
and by and by, somebody outside said,
softly, joe He went 70 the door, opened
it carefully, and woman came in. She
was such perfect contrast to him that
laughed in spite of all the anxiety and
alarm l felt. She was the plumpest wo-
man I ever saw, looking more like an
enormous feather bed with string tied
round it, than like living, breathing wo-
man. And can say now that her heart
was as large and O. soft as her body. Dear
Aunt Molly Blake, l doubt if heaven
holds a purer spirit than yours, today"
"She is dead?" 't
" Yes, she died three years ago. From
that night until her death she was my
warm, true, constant friend. She was Joe
Brierly's sister, and lived five miles away,
in a log cabin, she and her husband and a
poor crippled boy. Inever saw Briefly but
once after left there, until the day he
came to his sisters funeral / knew that /
was considered dead, and indeed all that
summer and winter was little better, but
with the spring grew better. One day
Aunt Molly came to me with q blotted
paper, and little rusty key. l found it
in your dress pocket, dearie,' she said,
the bright, wool dress you wore here,
and has been hanging up in the closet
ever since ss.4,s
81 took it, spread it out, and saw that it
was letter. My mother had learned me
to read writing, and l set myself to de-
ciphering this, but from lack of practice
and the ELIGIBILITY of the writing, it was
q long time before l could make itrout,
and then I could not understand it, But
| studied it, and as | grew stronger, took
in little by little its meaning, till, chlld as
l was, the whole story was, think, near
ly as plain to me as it is now. The letter
was written to my mother, and was full
of vague hints and threats and entreaties.
One passage declared the writer's un-
changed feelings toward her, and his de-
termination to force her to yield to his
wishes. AS my wife you shall never
know another care or anxiety he wrote
Then again he said: You were not his
wife, and your child has no lawful claim,
but pride might force something from Lis
father, rather than that his son, of whom
he was 80 proud, should be disgraced, as
he would be, if the perfidy by which he
made you believe you was his lawful wife
was revealed to the world, for John Mont
ford Isl proud man, as y0il probably know.
doubt not but he made that his excuse
for not openly acknowledging the mar
riage? Let me take your case into my
hands, Genevieve; give me the right, and
your child shall be provided for out of hex
father's inheritance. even If she be not
permitted to bear his name There were
other passages, but having the same gen.
eral bearing, and one which referred to
'Harry's sudden death, which the writer
believed . sort Of Judgment for his cruel
deception and the whole was signed,
'DeVries.
81 do not think, from the time fully
understood that letter, that there was any
other wish or purpose or prayer in my
heart, save this one; to. find out il my
father was guilty of what DeVries accused
him, and to get at my rightful name and
inheritance, for, argued, then, if | was
Harry Montford's child, had right to
them, even if he was scoundrel. But
this last did not believe, for dimly re-
membered this man, and remembered how
kind and gentle he was and how fond he
was of my mother and myself, and had
little faith in DeVries, you may be sure.
But l must hasten my story. After
Aunt Molly died ! went 70 lansing and
worked nearly two years as waiting maid
in wealthy family, saving every penny
for this one purpose-a visit to England.
A year ago last fall / went, and there
learned that John Montford had died
within q year after the accident by which
his son lost his life In crossing the Eng
lish channel Ia email yacht. The yacht
had encountered heavy sea, and Harry
Montford was washed from the deck and
drowned, it deing 80 dark and stormy at
the time that he was not Immediately
missed, and when he was, he could not be
found, the vessel driving about helpless
before the wind, rendering it impossible
to stop long in the vicinity Of the accident.
"The Montford estates had all passed
into the hands Of Gilbert Montford,
nephew of John MoDtford, who had pre-.
viousiy been in VERY straitened circum
stances. The year after he came into
possession of this property, which was
very large, he had disposed of it and with
his family removed to America : ttsB
"Of my mother learned only this, and
this learned In France. She had met
young Englishn,an In Paris, where she
was living with distant relative She
was married to him as they supposed, and
left in his company, and they had never
seen her since, but It had been so long they
were not sure the name was Montford, but
had an impression 1t was: Genevieye had
always called him Harry, and think they
had troubled themselves very little about
her, as there had been large family Of
girls of their own, who had 70 be provided