The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-03-10

have given il some silvery, sweet name,
that should seem to reflect a little OF
her love; but he chose to call it by some
harsh family name, and to put it out to
nurse. Jacqueline almost lived at the
nurses house for the first few days;
then he said to her, " You may 60 there
twice a week, and no more ! will not
have you faded or preoccupied for any
child" And then the sad mother, with
her poor forlorn heart, condescended to
her first underhand work, and stole out
to her child Mt odd moments, when she
fancied it safe but he detected her, as
she might have been assured he would,
and had the baby sent to town, leaving
Jacqueline ignorant of its whereabouts.
One day it was brought home dead, from
some infant disorder. She fancied that
it might have recovered had she been
near to cherish and care for it. She
would have given worlds to have heard
about its last baby hours-how it begun
to smile, to COO over its playthings. 1t
narrowed her to think that perhaps no
tender, longing eyes took its last dying
look, no gentle hand ministered to it;
she wept to think that all had happened
precisely as if the child had been moth
erless.
After this affairs moved less smoothly
than before; there seemed blight upon
the household. Mr.. Dunn often came
home now out of temper; indeed, he
seemed to have used that attribute so
generously as to be always in the voca-
tive; but now he sat late at table, drink
ing deeply, finding fault with the viands,
with the weather, the market-with
Jacqueline, her voice, her words, her
manners-relenting at nothing.
Why did you marry me ?" she once
asked him, timidly enough. q" am sure
you did not love me-
81 married you, madam" he replied,
g in order to make two miserable"
u congratulate you on your success"
she retorted. Crosses were her daily
portion now and if she did not always
bear them heroically. who can cast the
first stone She would have parted from
her tormentor long $50, but what ASST
rance had she that the proof of Marks
wrong-doing had been destroyed? Per-
haps it was in his power to ruin Mark
yet. Should she faint by the way, and
make her sacrifice Of none effect? AS
her husbands character developed, she
began to fear that circumstances had
been against Mark Stretton, to see how
easy it had been to hoodwink and mis-
lead her unsuspecting mind. Why had
she not insisted upon seeing Mark, and
hearing the case from his own lips?
Why, but because she was then innocent
and guileless, and this man had only
been able to teach her suspicion. But
nothing of this helped her now however
much she was growing to dispise this
man, she was now his wife, she bore his
name, she had promised to love and
obey him. If she had not kept that
promise altogether, was it her fault? She
had begun we'll; she had meant to
ignore the past; to be scrupulous in
her duties but one never begins well
without love. The grandest housekeep-
ing results in chaos without that vital
element, and this case surely offered no
exception. Besides, in a material view,
things were becoming less opulent in
this household than before. The table
was not so bounteously spread, the
linen was looking thin, the carpets were
less tufted, and even the shimmering
silks of the mistress were wearing rusty.
TIC StGNdlll. NllOSt Cllltl ldSh IL ldu
! been to attend the bedridden father,
| had long since been dismissed. Jacque-
| line looked after him herself now, and
| found pleasure in returning to the du-
ties of her old free life; but it was only a
sort of believe, for if Mr.. Dnnn
returned home and observed her at any
time in such attendance, he would
threaten to send the useless old fellow,
as he called him, to the hospital or the
aims house. She had not so much
pocket-money now at her command as
would buy plaster for the rheumatic
back, or little fruit for the dainty pa
late. The house of Gall e. Dunn had
failed some time ago, and the junior
partner was making precarlous living
by gambling and 9th erwise swindling
the public. But Jacqueline knew moth
ing of this. She only knew that they
had left their fine house, and gone into
lodgings; that sometimes there was
nothing in the larder for q whole day;
that her husband often let himself in
at midnight, sometimes stumbling up
stairs to his room, and sometimes over
taken by heavy sleep in the hall below.
And he was no saint next morning, box
ing and frightening children on the
slightest pretext; taunting his wife with
having squandered his patrimony;
haunting her with wearing fine clothes
unpaid for; with the support of her beg
carly father with marrying him, George
Dunn, for his money.
You know better than that, George
Dunn" she once said, in reply.
Why did you marry me, then ?
Come, give me reason. You married
me to get rid of me, perhaps Capital
What a success Do you want to know
why married you ~
4" 1t doesn't signify now" she re-
turned.
BOUNDS but it does signify, let me
tell you. / married you because 1 hated
Marx ,Stretton ~
And so Jacqueline sat in her black
gown, and looked at the panorama of
her past, counting the crosses on the
quaint carnelian seal. Many crosses
in life" Did they end here? All, no !
The bitterest, perhaps, but not all. A