Litchfield enquirer., 1874-10-08
HISS EVELYN.
 

10erel my mOtUCE cACidInleu. NOV Isee it again!" Then she laughed: |" beg your pardon" she added. Ever! now and then you remind me so much Q somebody have known." "You cannot think whoms" Mis l Evelyn asked.
 "It has come to me-" my mother said. II rather excited tone.
 heard her rise and ring the bell. The
 maid came in. My mother directed tho woman to open a certain trunk, and take out a shell-box she would find. 1 knew that the box contained variety of paper and miniatures, mementos of friends whom my mother had loved and lost long ago. sat still
 Presently the weman came back, moved my chair, so that could look iItC the salon. My mother was turning over the contents of her treasure-casket. Miss Eve lyn sat leaning wearily back in her chair.
 At last my mother uttered sudden ex clamation.
 "Come. look at this, my dear," sha said
 Miss Evelyn rose and approached my mothers chair My mother put 8 minia ture il Ter hands. Miss Evelyn looked at it, and saak OF 8 sofa near, pale and trembling.
 "This lady's name was Clara Hamilton, she said.
 "Yes How did you know? It is many many years since have heard of her. We were ct school together in France. know she married ALr. Alexander; but that is alI."
 Miss Evelyn took from her neck siender gold chain, to which locket was attached and gave it to my mother.
 "Good heavensI" the latter cried. "Clara! You have her portrait, too"
 'She was my mother" Miss Evelyn answered. II must tell you my whole story now. God sent me to you. I thought He had deserted me, I was so wicked"
 They were both deathly white, but very calm. knew ought not to listen longer.
 So called out to ask some indifferent question, rising, as if about to close the
 n Do not" Miss Evelyn said; "I wan: you to hear, too, Dr. Grey"
 l shall tell you first something of her mothers history, in as few words as possi ble. She gave US her mothers journal to read.
 II know mamma never meant me, or any one, to see it,"' she said. "Her death was sudden at the last. They had thought she journal and kept it. I was very young then, but l could not bear it to fall into my fathers hands, or worse, that woman's."
 Clara Hamilton had not married till four. and-twenty. though, being an heiress, of course she had plenty of offers. It would have been impossible to make a worse choice than she did; but she loved for the first time, when she met the fascinating, interruptions man who became her hus- band. She suffered afterward every misery, almost every form of degradation, which could be forced on any human being. Two sRdren were born utR Rot5 bdys dse efe The huence. "xamnle and in-
 The man spent such of her fortune as was not tied up beyond his reach. He forced her into the companionship of people whose society was insult, and during fhs.last two years Of her life, brought under hiSvery roof @ woman who was Q relation of his own, creature as beautiful and be- witching as ever the old-time Circe could have been.
 The daughter, Margaret, was fourteen years old when her mother died. At thir- teen, a distapt relative left the young girl fortune of hundred thousand pounds. TOTS of her married life. Her husband had so conducted himself that the English law would not have given her freedom and the guardianship of her child. The relative who left Margaret this money had lived in India, and was entirely ignorant of Alexan- der's character, so he made the wretch: Iris daughters guardian, with liberal allow ance for himself, till her majority.
 A few months after his wife's death, Mir. Alexander married the relative. whose in- fluence over him he made no effort to con- ceal from his wife.
 Happily for Margaret, the second Mrs. Alexander did not want her about, so the girl was sent to the convent school in Paris, where her mother had been educated. Nine months before the time she ran away from her father, she had been taken from school to join her parents. A relative of her step mothers was with them, who made violent love to the girl, with the sanction of her father and stepmother, who were determined she should marry him. She hated the fel- low from the first, handsome and agreeable as he was; but his resemblance to her step- mother filled her with aversion, and had !, from the first time she set eyes on him. She was courageous enough, resisted her father's persuasiOns, was proof against harsh tyranny. At one time they threat .cned to put her in mad-house. She was kept close prisoner, as it was, and allowed no associates; and was never permitted to quit the house, except under a guard whom they could trust.
 In one of her fathers outbreaks, she told him that another year would see her of age. He denied this; sine was only nine teen, he said. He showed her finally a certificate of her birth. She knew it was forged, because her mothers journal had told her the date and the place of her bilth.
 Three months were passed. They meant to make her marry Gerald Prince by force. Everything was arranged. Only two days before, through q new servant who pitied her, she learned this. The woman helped her to escape, got such things cut of the house as she could for her. Margaret's idea was to go to Paris and throw herself on the protection of the Superior of the convent where she had been educated. Her heart failed her. She felt certain that the Su- perior would consider it her duty to inform Mr. Alexander. The good nun was an up right woman, kind hearted, too, but in flexible, when what she believed justice was concerned,
 A copy of the American Register fell in her way. It had cur names, and she be- lieved that she had discovered the where abouts of her favorite schoolmate. She had only known that Felicia was married, but whether to an Englishman or American, she had never heard.
 She told us her sad story very quietly. It was dreadful to see such power of self restaint in one so young. It told more plainly than aay words could the hardness of the discipline which had taught her this lesson.
 Of course it was arranged that she would stay with us. was very glad of such a companion for my mother, and the two al- ready loved each other dearly. wrote to the Mayor of the place, where Mrs. Alexander's journal told us Margaret had been born, Tarbes, in France, asking him to search the register of such and such dates, and to send me a certificate of the birth of Margaret Alexander. It was not long before I received it.
 "You are safe, now," I said. "Thre months more, and you will be of age l your father cannot touch you, then You have only to keep hidden until tha time. It will not be difficult. You nee, be no further troubled.
 She threw off her cares, as only
 young person can. I am sure she wa
 very happy. l cannot describe to yo,
 how beautiful she grew, how delightfu
 she was in every way. can tell yol
 that loved her, loved her with a frs,
 an absorbing passion, and | do not knoy
 when it commenced. I only know tha l loved her, and that it seemed to me hAA VNvp AN~