Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1876-12-06
and this letter was signed Patience

and this letter was signed Patience
Wyndham.
"Fortunately for my curiosity
and the exigencies Of the case, ]
could get away from town Just al
that particular time and there re-
ally seemed no way Of decently
abandoning the trust without be-
traying the dead mans confidence
/ started off at once.
at was romantic little country
place at which I found them, with
mountains all around the half-hun-
dred Of houses, the church, the
store, the tavern that formed the
village I; and near a little waterfall,
that was q waterfall not because
some fellow with an eye for pic
turesque effect had built q dam
across its course, but because there
was an abrupt descent in the rock
at that point, I found Miss Patience
Wyndham's house.
II had fetched her letter with
me, and upon sending 1t in with
my name, l was Immediately adj
mitted to the presence Of a stately
dame, whose attire was copied after
some Quaker ancestress, and whose
very countenance and manner be-
spoke her name-Patience.
"She asked me a great many
questions about Halstead Scot,
which / could not answer with the
meagre, unpleasant truths that
formed my stock of knowledge re-
specting the man, and then it came
her turn to talk. She told me that
years ago, when she was but eigh-
teen, her mother died, leaving her
at the head of her fathers house,
hold. In one year after her father
married again, AMI fifteen months
latter, both he and the new wife
had gone the way Of all flesh, leav-
ing Patience, at twenty, alone in
the world, with an infant three
months old to care for, and an in
come that only, with the strictest
economy, could be made adequate
to their needs.
"Well, for twenty years this wom-
an, pntting her youth and every
thing that is natural to it under
her feet, was mother, sister every
thing to Gabrielle, who grew from
babybood into q lovely girl, doing
only 'her duty with unconscious
heroism, and giving me the record
As If 1t were something scarcely
worth the telling, only that 1t was
necessary to explain.
GAS l said before, the child grew
up to be a lovely girl, fair and
graceful, pure and good, and the
'aithful sister found all recompense
low for what at first must have
been all sacrifice, in this only thing
II blood left in her.
"At length there came young
awyer, one summer time, to fish
md hunt in that wild and qniet
country place. and before Miss
Patience quite came to realize the
LANCER, the heart Of her sisters
,hild was won from her, and the
couple were married.
"To make . long story short,
his young lawyer was Halstead
Scot. Six month be spent happily .
With his young wife, then be went
way, and, although he wrote her I
he forbade her always
O Join him, and so the fair, frail ,
reature faded day by day, until |
he hour when her baby came
into life, and then shut
Ter weary eyes forever on q world
she had learned the Bit
erness Of untitled graves, and
leath that renders not unto dust
md Patience Wyndam was once
more left to fill the mothers Office
o worse than orphaned child.
"Fifteen years passed, and. STIR
ed by a feeling Of remorse, by a
emembrance Of bis old romance
II what not, Scot came once more
O the little village under the noun
aims. He refused to see his daugh-
er, and told Miss Wyndam enough
Il his own career to satisfy her
hat it was wisest so, but the week
ollowing his visit, a pure white
in the form Of broken
,olumu, was erected over his wife's
yrave, and every six months du-
ing the remainder of his life there
,ame regularly a certain sum Of
money to Miss Wyndbam for the