Litchfield enquirer., 1875-07-22

possession, anu out OI WHICH hc uiu noe awake till six weeks after he had entered the 'Gueltan Place, and word was brought to him of Emily's death.
 Chests had begun to come and go dur inr the last half of that time. Lawrence's old friends had found him out, and it suit. cd him to display his splendid estate to them. his splendid wife. Newer friends clustered r8und him; it snited him to sen' tertain sliehl lie \ prince. eHe 1ad nt time to think of the past, or of any child ish folly in it. Breakfasts, dinners, balls. hunting parties, gaiety followed gaiety d the Place, and the banqueting was kept up as if they felt the shadow chaelngi be, hind them, and must make the most of 2 brief season; for to-day the sun shone, but tomorrow it would be the gloom of
 It vas on returning at twilight from one of these gay hunting parties that, as he strode into the hall with his half dozen guests about him, Valeria came forwsrd as usual to greet her husband, perhaps her color trifle deeper than usual, cer tainly her dress q degree more dazzling dress of some silver threaded gauge over a lustre of satin, vita fantastic stomach CT of rpbies, and a great ruby burning above her forehead: while, because the early September evening had breath of chill in it. she had wrapped about her a crimson satin mantle, whose swan's-down lining only displayed the creaminess and rOndeur of her perfect shoulder. He looked at her as at some rich painting; he was proud to have his companions see what magnifcence in flesh and blood he possessed as well; and then he gallantly followed her down the hall, past the room devoted to whips and spurs and guns and hunting trophies, and into her own sitting room. G8 KTttE T.E ,.
 T have some unhappy intelligence, :" she said then, gently. "The messenger just came half an hour since, to tell us that our little cousin Emily will be buried tomorrow" 54 F g51C B 1D.G3I
 "Emilyl Buriedr' he gasped.
 "Yes; she died yesterday" said Valeria. still gently. 'Some trouble of the brain. I always thought there was trouble there. She was a poor sweet little thing She never could have succeeded here"
 ',Diedr' he said, in ghastly voice.
 Valeria made movement as if to cling about him. He put out his hand in it's riding glove and pushed her back with the open palm against her breast-no blow, yet as bitter as one. And then for one long breathing space he surveyed her. '"Thls animal" with sharpened ears she heard him mutter to himself, unconscious that he spoke: s.this creaturel this mere flesh" and in another breath he was gone, and was galloping with might and main to the place where Emily lay. But it was one of the Gueltan horses on which he galloped.
 It was nearly midnight when Lawrence reached his aunt's house. He stabbed his horse himself, climbedin window, and mounted alone and in the dark to the room where he knew. was laid away the thing he came to see. A late moon, just rising throw a wierd light across the room as he went in. The white curtains way cred to and fro in the breeze blowing through the open window; the white sheet wavered too above the rigid outline be- meath. He pulled down the face cloth to see-no Emily that he had ever known |: only the withered mask, from under which with unknown bangs, suffering soul had escaped. And then the look that grew like transformation on the sweet face that night when she surprised him with Vali- ria on the balcony, that marriage night, came back and hung before him-that face taking on it's seal of agony came back and hnng before him, an actual, visible thing upon the air, to plague his sight throughout days and nights of weary yearsl
 There is no one who ever knew a syllable about that dreadfulnieht. with the wretch- cd man pacing the room, and pausing at every turn to gaze on the wreck he had made-no one knows aught of the fiery tPDAeA iR MbhiflesU eU Uhi Yi Cf of his noble ma ture exhaled like perishable substance in Q crucible. He allowed none to enter that room, commanded his people away from him, placed her form in the coffin; and when they piled earth upon it, s'They are buEying me with you, Emily" he cried, and galloped back to Gueltan.
 It was another man from the one whom she had trapped into that sordid marriage with her who met Valeria at the door of the great place-a reckless, desperate. and wicked man. He saluted her mockingly: he treated her disdainfully; sometimes for days together failed to acknowledge her existence. If she remonstrated. he would say, "You have bought your bargain tare and tret: take it as it comes." The old stately quiet of the Gueltan Place was dis turbed night after night by the noise of rlotous orgies. to which Valeria and her mother listened remotely in alright; card parties kept up their fires from dark to dawn, from dawn to dark again, with for tune changing hands; Lawrence seemed to be trying to eVade recognition and thought of tkis thing with it's seal of aco.E ,l,. ny that hung So tinfailingfv before 6;s eyes. Now and then he forsook that haunted home and his wife there for weeks without word, vouchsafing no ex- planation on his return-his absence to her thing of misery, his return a thing to dread. The splendid color -left,~her cheek. the bright light her eye; he could no longer call her mere hesh-she was developing soul, a soul born with great throes out of sorrow. If, seldom, he re. membered that the fault was his. his more than hers, and bore himself toward her with some unaccustomed tenderness that made her heart bound and her tears start-to such pass had she come-then Tn the midst of it that face came floating before his eyes, and it. was all naught again. ''The manis madr' she said, M
 So day followed day, year followed year. They were years, indeed, long years-ten long years-in which Valeaia was tortured. as he was, like victims at slow fire. In that time she buried her mother, felt her self as alone in the world, as one lost in a wilderness, and saw Gueltan Place % un- der che hammer Y <9SII [ s1tTT'G
 Are there any of us quite outside the possibility of forgiveness? Are agonized devotion and patience and long unspoken pain no reparatiOn, 10 cleansing for sin? If Valeria had sinned, she. snffsred.s and faith and determination never once for. sock her. Only when Gueltan Place had gone did her long faith and patience do their work-did that haunting face cease to hover before Lawrence's eyes. '
 "Is it worth the toss-up?" he said: for white and statuesque and sad as Niobe. m her black clothes, the sight of her had lately softened him. 'sWould you lay it down how?" he exclaimed defiantly. Cor would you begin life again at thirty-fye. and without a penny?'
 HBeginT' said Valeria.
 He glanced up in amazement at the bright ring in her voice-in amazement. too, at the flush that his unwonted ad- dress had brought to her colorless cheeks.