The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-06-25

recognition, and my face so rough and sun
burned 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 no longer lovable
in your eyes, did l become aware of the
hideOus fact.
but for the fear of arousing unhappy re-
mark. BY remaining here these three days,
think l have prevented the slightest sus-
picion of the truth.
al have said to people interested that you
felt in honor bound to continue teaching un-
til the end Of the term. You will know
did not intend it to be so. meant to stay
until substitute copnd be found, and then
take you with me.
But do not come to me, Elsie, until /
send for you. DO not write. Send me every
other day blank page by mail, the SEM
blance of a letter. will send you the same,
so that no heartless eyes or busy tongues may
meddle with our"
Here was a word erased, but Elsie de-
ciphered it "misery." affair" had
been substituted.
Remember, if you are tempted to write,
i shall not read word so written, and /
make this resolve in good faith, and for your
protection as for mine."
No name was signed.
How would it have been possible to
Fred to write "your husband" after a
cold, hard, repellent address like this
But for the erased acord 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 semJlance of
letter, following close and following
Closer" more clearly defined those
wretched words
The journey required twenty miles by
carriage to the railway station of R.
Fred has given special directions,
said Elsie, upon whose cheeks burned
in two hectic Goals the fever of excite
ment, "that l 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 ut eve-
ming.
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 she knew. Without, tbs land
scape, dulled by clouds that ere long de-
scended in drizzling rain, had no inter-
COZ. 4HC Win d
bundles, that came in at the next station
and pOunced upon the unengaged seat by
Elsie's side, and asked as many questions
as she had bundles, succumbed to mono
syllables. And Elsie gave herself to
reverie.
She began by taking look at the min
iature which she forever wore, and by
giving mental thrust at the bete noire
which cOntrast-born association of ideas
had attached to this miniature of Fred,
a thrust of deadly envy at the miracle
Desdemona, who saw her lovers "visage
in his mind" she passed to the thorny
ifs of her young life. If we had never
been separated, no change would have
been gradual, and have given me no
shock If had only made him know
that night it was not him, but that which
was not him, that forced me in such ter
ror to cry out If could by dying for
it take back that cry! All, Fate's acous-
tics are so hard, no cries are ever taken
back. II l could but know whether to
him, looking deeper than looked, there
was not in my earthliness of vision some
thing which masked my soul from his
love more efcctually than the marring
of his dear face masked him from me
IL l could but gather from out the air,
as now rushed to him, one word to say,
you are forgiven!' If" and so on,
and so on.
Day declined the rain ceased; the
setting sun sent gliste,.ing sheen across
the meadow pools; tn cleared atmOs-
phere transmitted ul,on infinitesimal
sparkles sense of hoperulness and peace.
Elsie's reverie glided into sleep.
She was awakened by what seemed to
her piercing shrek.
Darling glance along the car, she saw
two children, who, entering few stations
back i'm gala dress, had caught her notice;
saw one of these, the girl, decked in tin
sci 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 a ditch, and near them,
sight too dreadful for the light She
heard the piercing shrek that had died
away return, shattered into innumerable
means. A sudden pain made her think
to press her hand against her temple
her arm was powerless to obey the inn
pulse. With the effort came sensation
of faintness, followed by unconsciousness
complete.
AT whatever time afterward she became
conscious she found herself in q large
room, the broad entrance hall of a hotel,
lying upon sofa, People, number of
PROSTATE people, on litters, on cots, on
floor spread blankets, were around.
Among these prostrates moved an anxious
crowd, presently dimmed by an over
spreading distance; and in that distance,
clear and perfect, and oh not strange,
Fred's face bending over her, Fred's voice
saying, with an intensity such as nothing
gives but the long-pent agony OF love
wrestling with fate, and treading fate
under foot at last.
"My wife my darling wife!"
n
Two ladies in the rustling silks and
clouding lace of visiting costume came
down the flower-vased steps of spacious
house upon the most famous avenue of
the west. They entered the carriage that
awaited them, and drove i'm silence many
blocks.
At last, and with sigh, the younger
lady said, "You had hardly prepared me
for such wonderful interior"
at is a WONDER" said the elder, with
an accent of real enjoyment; $50 exceed
ingly rich in details, yet with such quiet
unity as a whole! The arrangement of
the series of drawing-rooms opening upon
central one is something new with us"
"And significant in this case" sug-
gested her friend, in tone like pity.
Yes; and the draperies, especially
those portieres in three shades of velvet
and the management of light is study,
at evening as well as by day. You should
be here, my dear, at one of their exquis-
ite musicales. The objects of art, too !
that one picture by Church is enough in
itself to memorizc house. Then the
marblesl the rare flowers! those great
arches of Australian ferns, how can they
be kept growing so? And the bronzes
/ WAS nerfecflx carried AWAY hu that