The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-05-28

indulge IN JnlS 1OllY.
eff did not love You dearly, Sidney,
would such painful emotion rack my
hearth"
''It is the merest superstition, darling,
and you will get over it when ! am fairly
away"
Her tender eyes regarded him visit
fully for a moment, and then her tears
fell faster at the contemplation of the
coming loneliness.
After a pause, she asked care there
many passengers going out vita yOu?"
"a few-in the onddy," he replied
carelessly.
''Do you know any of them?"
Yes one or two fellows on the
'And the ladies ?" she asked after an
other pause.
81 don't know, COMFY dear; whet do
they matter to me ?"
''I heard incidentiy that-that Miss
Eastwood was going out in your vessel. j"
Indeed, [ believe she will"
Constance shivered, for with the
name of this finished iirt that of her
husband had been mole than once
linked, and his change of color was
unseen by her as he turned to manipu-
late a cigar. So for four, perhaps six
months, these two would he together
upon the sea.
Constance knew too we'll the irritable
future Of her husbands temper to say
more on the subject Of her secret
thoughts and deeply 10th was she that
such ideas should embitter the few
brief hours they were to be together
now so silence ensued, which, after
a time, she broke, while taking between
her slender fingers hand of Sidney,
who was leaning half moodily half list
lessly against the inantlepiece, twisting
his mustache with a somewhat mingled
expression of face.
Sidney, darling" said she entreat-
ingly, edo forgive me if am dull and
sad-so triste-this evening""
81 do forgive you, little one."
"You know, Sidney, that would die
for you r
" Yes; but don't Conny-for hate
scenes" said he, playfulIy kissing her
sweetly sad, upturned face and the
with this matter-of-fact kind of tender
hess.
So the dreadful morrow came with its
Ed moment OF parting
To mutfie the sound OF the departing
wheels she buried her head, with all it's
wealth Of dark, disheveled hair, among
Che pillows of her bed, and some weeks
weeks of the most utter loneliness
elapsed, ere she left it, with the keen
and ardent desire to recover health and
strength, to the end that she might fol-
low her husband over the world of water
and reioin him; but the strength and
health so necessary for the journey were
long coming back to her.
She had hoped he would write her be-
fore sailing from Southampton single
line would have satisfied the hungry
cravings of her heart; but as he did not
do so, she supposed there was not time;
vet the transport lay three DAYS in the
docks after the trunk were on board.
He would write by some passing ship,
he had said, and one letter, dated from
Ascension, reached her; but its cold
and careless tone struck a mortal chill
to the sensitive heart of Constance, aud
one or two terms of endearment it con-
tanned were manifestly forced and i'll
expressed.
"He writes me thus" she muttered,
with her hand pressed upon her heaving
bosom thus-and with that woman,
perhaps, by his side"
She consulted the map, ard saw how
far, far away on the lonely OCEAN was
that island speck. Months had elapsed
since ne had been there so she knew
that he must be in India now, and she
had the regular mails to look with
cOnfidence-a confidence alas that
soon faded away. Long, tender and
passionate was the letter written in re-
ply; she fondly fixed the time when she
proposed to leave England and rejOin
him, if he sent her the necessary remit
tances; but mail after mail came in
without any tiding from Sidney, and
she felt all the unspeakable misery of
watching the postman for letters that
never came
Yet she never ceased to write, entreat-
ing him for answers, and assuring him
of answering affection.
Slowly, heavily and imperceptibly a
year passed away-a whole year-tO her
now a black eternity of time.
Gould Sidney be dead ?" she esked
herself with terror; but she knew that
his family (whO were all unaware of her
existence) had never been in mourning,
as they must infalHbly have been in the
event of such a calamity and in her
simplicity she never thought of apply
ing TO the Horse Guards for informa-
ton thar she might quite have cared to
lean.
Her old thoughts concerning Miss
Eastwood took a strange hold of her
imagination now; a hundred tritles
light as air" came back most gallingly
to her memory and took coherent and
tangible shapes; but stray number of
the Il dian Mail informed her of the
marriage of Miss Dashwood- bete
R0ire-to a Major Milton, and also that
the regiment to which Sidney belonged
"was moving up country, phrase to
her perplexing and vague.
Her funds were gODe-her friends
were fez and poor. Her iewels-his
treasured presents-were first tlrned
into cash then the furniture of her
pretty villa, and next the villa itself,
with its sweet rose garden, had to be
exchanged for humber apartments in 2
meaner street, and, ere long, Constance
W0r5en found that if she was to live,
it must be by her own unalded efforts,
and for five years she maintained
desperate struggle for existence-hve
years
A lady going to India wanted a
young person as a governess and a COM
pauiOn."
To India On her knees Constance
prayed that her application might prove
successful and her prayer was heard,
for out of some hundred letters-frOm
few which were selected-the tenor of
hers suited best the taste of the lady in
question. She said nothing of her mar
rage or of her apparent desertion but
as her wedding-ring, which, with fond
superstition of her heart, she never
drew from her finger, told a tale, she
had to pass for widow.
So in the fullness of time she found
herself far away from England, and
duly installed with an Apg!o-Indian
f mily in one of the stately villas of the
European quarter of Calcutta VERT
able palace in the city of palaces, over
looking the esplaI ade before Fort Will
ham-in charge of one sickly but gentle
little pale faced girl
She had been a month there when
her employers family proposed to visit
some relatives at Meerut, where she
heard that Sidney's regiment was can
toned To her it seemed as If the hand
of fate was in all this. Oh, the Joy of
such tidings Some one there must be
obla tO 1Inraval the horrible mystery in