Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-04-19


her, and assailed me with reproaches
for having robbed him of the girl who
had promised to be his"
Had you told Agnes this, Lady
Swinton began.
Gay, had done 80, all might have
been well; bat l was smarting under
the belief that both father and daughter
had deliberately deceived me, and / was
too proud to tell one SO tickle how bit.
terly l felt her perfidy!"
"You do not doubt our poor Agnes
now?''
''No; for / was the unseen auditor of
her interview with Cayley."
Lady Swinton started.
"fou were! And yet went not to
her aid ?''
''Hear, before you condemn me. Let
me tell you all the occurrences of that
evening""
81 know already" the lady said, with
bitterness, that you left your wife
without one kind word or caress."
Again he groaned in the anguish of
his self-reproach.
''It is true did so, although my heart
yearned towards her. l had not gone
fifty PAGES from my own dwelling that
night ere met an old friend who was
in want of a paper of importance he had
given into my charge. l knew pre-
cisely where to lay my hands on it, and
turned back with him for that purpose.
The outer portal was open; we could
hear voices within, and turning into
my study, had but to draw aside the
curtain of the sash door leading into my
wife's sitting-room, to see that her COM
panion was Cayley. Engrossed in them
selves, they saw not the faces of those
who looked in upon them !; they dreamed
net that there were auditors to their
conversation; but when 1 would have
rushed into the room to protect my be-
loved one, and defy the intruder who
threatened her, found that the door
was bolted on the other side. Ere
could force il, Caylcy had rushed upon
his fate. and Agnes had fed"
'But you had learned that she was
innocent?"
"Alas! yes, to my unutterable shame
and remorsep was the unhappy hus-
bands reply.
"Ah, me-ah, met" sighed Lady
Swinton, wringing her hands; ''if you
could but have known this sooner; now
you are parted by curse! Even if
Agnes could be restored to you, how
could you take TO your bosom one who,
though in self-defence, hath the death
of a fellow-creature on her soul ?''
"His death be upon MS own head."
exclaimed Mr.. Macfarlane, hotly. "Foul
must be the tongue that would cast any
blame on my heroic love for defending
her honorp'
Scarcely had he spoke, when a sliding
panel in the wainscot moved aside, and
his lost wife stood before him.
In her wild flight she had recollected
that in Lady Swinton's friendship she
could confide, and had made her way to
this kind-hearted woman, who, in pity |
for her fears, hid her i'm a secret cham- |
Der communicating with her own sit
She stayed but to see the husband and |
wife rush into each others arms, and |
then ran away to confess to her own |
liege lord the secret she had kept even |
from his ears, lest he should be tempted |
to divulge it.
When che did return, Agnes-no |
longer coldly avoided, but, with her |
fair head pillowed on Allan Macfar-
lanes shoulder-was just observing, |
with sigh and a shudder, ''There is
now but one cloud to mar our happi-
ness, How can ever forget that these
hands of mine hastened the flight of a
guilty soul to its Maker? Perchance l
was too hasty! But for me, that miser-
able man might have lived to repent"
''He did repent, my Agnes" was the |
reply. "And with his last
breath he craved your forgiveness and
mine. Nay, so far from murmuring at
the deed that stretched him ON a dying |
bed, he learned to feel that it was well |
for him life so given over to evil deeds
was thus brought to an end"
He paused.
''But 1 have yet more to tell you," he
presently added, when Agnes breathed
a thankful ejaculation. "It was not by
your hand this sinful man fell. l was
unarmed, but not so my friend, and in
his righteous Indignation he fired at
Cayley when he sprang forward to seize
you. Your pistol lodged bullet in
the wall above his head: it was the
hand of another that avenged you.
Now is my wee wife content?"
And the burst of joyful tears with
which Agnes first looked at her white
hands, and then twined them about her
neck, answered him.
And so they came to understand each
other, remembering, with increasing
oy. as the years rolled on, the MOURN
ful Christmas-tide which had brought
hem together and evoked out of the
sorrow OF the past the happiness Of the
present and the future.