The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-06-11

as lOllCWS
! "ELsIE,-I shall have left F. fol
st. Louis before you awake and read
these lines. shall walk to R, and
taking the cars there, journey rapidly
so that by Monday I may be in my place
at the law Office of -.
"That 1 had planned differently
need not tell you. And now one WORD
in justification for all the pain have
occasioned. T did not realize hou
much Ihad changed. My preoccupied
thoughts kept me from knowing that
my eyes were still redeemed beyond
recognition, and my face so rough and
sunburned as to mask me to my wife,
No friend had mercy enough to tell me.
Not until 1 saw your gaze of horror,
and felt, in spite of all your efforts to
conceal your detestation, that was nc
longer lovable in your eyes, did 1 be.
come aware Of the hideous fact.
"I should have left the house that
night but for the fear of arousing un.
happy remark. BY remaining here
these three days, think I have pre-
vented the slightest suspicion of the
truth.
"I have said to people interested
that you felt in honor bound to con-
tinue teaching until the end of the
term. You will know I did not intend
it to be SO. I meant to stay until q
substitute could be found, and then
take you with me.
"But now do not come to me, Elsie,
until send for you. DO not Write
Send me every other day blank page
by mail, the semblance of a letter. /
will send you the same, so that no
heartless eyes or busy tongues may
meddle with our"
Here word was erased, but Elsie
deciphered it misery" Affair had
been substituted.
Remember, if you are tempted to
write, shall not read word so writ
ten, and L make this resolve in good
faith, and for your protection as for
mine"
Noname was signed.
How would it have been possible to
Fred to write "your husband after q
cold, hard, repeilent address like this /?
But for the erased word Elsie would
have torn it into fragments and scat
tered it to the winds. For the sake of
"our misery" she kept the cruel scrawl;
kept it through all the miserable weeks
that followed, when every semblance of
a letter, following close and following
Closer" more clearly defined those
wretched words.
The journey required twenty miles
by carriage to the railway station
at R..
"Fred has given special directions, +"
said Elsie, upon whose cheeks burned
III two hectic Goals the fever of excite
ment, "that 1 should stay at R.
over night, and be rested for to-mor-
rows journey. He is to meet me at
the train that reaches st. Louis at even
ing"
So far as R she was attended by
friends, and early the next morning,
amidst a throng of affectionate adieux,
started onward alone. She saw no face
in the car that she knew. Without, the
landscape, dulled by clouds that ere
long descended in drizzling rain, had
no interest. The old lady, with hun
dred bundles, that came in at the next
station and pounced upon the unen-
gagged seat by Elsie's side, and asked as
many questions as she had bundles,
succumbed to monosyllables. And
She began by taking look at the
miniature which she forever wore, and
by giving a mental thrust at the bete
noire which a contrast-born association
of ideas had attached to this miniature
of Fred, thrust of deadly envy at the
miracle Desdemona, who saw her
lovers "visage in his mind" she
passed to thorny ifs of her young life.
If we had never been separated, the
change would have been gradual, and
have given me no shock! Ii I had only
made him know that night it was not
him, but that which was not him, that
forced me in such terror to cry out! If
l could by dying for it take back that
cry! All, Fate's acoustics are so hard,
no cries are ever taken back. If L
could but know whether to him, look
ing deeper than looked, there was not
i'll my earthliness of vision something
which masked my soul from his love
mole effectually than the marring of his
! dear face masked him from me! If I
| could but gather from out the air, as
now rush to him, one word to say
You are forgivenp If-and so on, and
SO on.
Day declined the rain ceased the
setting sun sent a glistening sheen
| across the meadow pools the cleared
atmosphere transmitted upon the in
finitesimal sparkles sense of hopeful
ness and peace. Elsie's reverie glided
into sleep.
She was awakened by what seemed to
her piercing shrek.
Darling a glance along the car, she
saw two children who enterino fou,
stations back in gala dress, had caught
her notice saw one of these, the girl,
decked in tinsel and tarlatan, wringing
her hands with grief the other, the
boy, lifted in mems arms, wounded,
and bleeding at the mouth. She looked
out from the car window, and saw two
men, savagely hurt, staggering beside
ditch, and near them a sight too
dreadful for the light. She heard the
piercing shrek that had died away re-
turn, shatteredinto innumerable means.
a sudden pain made her think to press
her hand against her temple; her arm
was powerless to obey the impulse.
With the effort came a sensation of
faintness, followed by Inconsistencies
complete.
AT whatever time afterward she be-
came conscious she found herself in a
large room, the broad entrance hall of
a hotel, lying upon a sofa. People, a
number of PROSTATE people, on litters,
on cots, on hoor-spread blankets, were
around. Among these prostrates
moved an anxious crowd, presently
dimmed by an overspreading distance /;
and in that distance, clear and perfect,