The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-01-29

veins, and, Fastening away, secured the
services of noted physician, and sent him
to her, pleading with him very touchingly
to save her, if possible, from a single addi-
tional pang. He could not return himself,
he was not calm enough; his blood was on
fire, he was choking, and he felt as if his
brain would burst it's limits. He walked
the streets, trying to think of some way to
prove the accused girl innocent, for he
knew she was innocent; he had not doubt
in his heart about her.
In this state of fearful misery he had
almost made up his mind to 60 to Anna
Reynolds, the accuser, and demand of her
to withdraw the charge of theft, when, on
looking up from his reverie, he found him
self again before Burt & Bonds establish
ment. He felt an irresistible inclination to
again enter, and he did. One of the pro-
pretors met him, and said
eve are sorry, Mr.. Halford, but we
shall have to refuse to be further annoyed
in the matter of the missing ring"
"Show me the box of fur riding gloves
which Miss Reynolds made her purchase
FROM he demanded, sternly.
Why, Mr.. Halford, it is useless to look
among them again. We have tumbled
every glove out Of the box several times
already in our search"
"Show them to me in an instant" thun-
dered Guy, in tone that occasioned the
proprietor to spring behind counter for
safety. He, nevertheless, produced the box
of gloves.
Guy turned them over mechanically,
pressing them one by one closely between
his hands, while the proprietor looked on.
Suddenly he seemed to discover that in the
finger of one Of them was some foreign OBJ
ject. His face grew radiant with wild
hope, but his hands trembled so in his ex-
element that he could scarce extricate the
object from the place in which it had been
held fast. At last he secured it; he pulled
ring Anna Reynolds had lost. Was it
strange that Guy Halford greeted it's recov-
cry with a wild shout of joy?
The mystery of the missing ring was
clear to ali now. Anna Reynolds had not
removed it from her finger, as she imagined,
in trying on the gloves. In removing this
glove from her hand the ring had come off
and remained wedged in the glove finger.
Guy almost flew over the ground in his
excited strides until he reached Allie Lin
toms home. Alas. the evidence of her in
nocence came too late to preserve her from
more suffering. She was in a high fever,
and unconscious to surrounding objects,
but was constantly ravng about the miss
ing ring, and imagining herself the inmate
of prison.
1t is very uncertain if we can bring
her through alive" the doctor said, with
very serious countenance. Had she been
locked up to night as a criminal, she would
have been dead by morning"
The sight of that lovely, innocent girl,
raving, tearing at the air, fighting imagin-
ed foes, and protesting her innocence in
the most impassioned manner, was too
dreadful for Guy to look upon then. He
fled the house and fastened on to Anna
Reynolds home. When he was ushered
in, she received him with look of triumph,
because she had said her influence over
him was so great that he could not remain
away, and she looked upon his coming as
proving it. But a second glance into his
face, firmly set and threatening, frightened
her.
80, Guy! what is the matter ?" she ex-
claimed, grasping his arm.
He flung off her touch and, holding out
the recovered ring, told her in a few cold,
compressed words of the manner of its re-
covery. She took it, saying:
60 am sorry for all the trouble it has oc-
casioned; but even you, Guy, must acknowl-
edge that l had very excellent reasons for
suspecting that girl of it's theft"
"And is that all the reparaticn you can
offer her ." he said, with scornful smile.
"Would you expect me to humble my
self before that shop girl >" she cried, in
dignantly.
81 would expect justice to be done,
though it were necessary to walk on ones
hands and knees from this place to her hum,
BILE home." His face was grand in its in
tensity of feeling
"Guy, you are insulting"
"Perhaps l am; it comes from my anti
quated notions of honor and uprightness.
Miss Reynolds, twelve hours ago l believed
loved you SO we'll that nothing you might
do could ALLEVIATE that love. judged from
my months of experience in submitting
patiently to your many whims, your petty
tyrannies and domineerings, thinking they
were excrescences merely on kind and
noble heart; though, in my creed, the ut
most grace one may hope to attain to in
this world is the grace of consideration for
others feelings. This days events have
unveiled your inner character to me in such
repulsive form as to shake my love to its
foundations; and now, coming, as | do,
from the bedside of the victim of your
false accusations, and remembering how
she is lying there in the wild rawlings of
fever brought on by your cruelty, from
which she may never arise, | relinquish
your friendship, but with the wish that you
may never require the charity you have
withheld from another"
He turned sternly on his heel and strobe
out of the room and into the street, and
with him fled all for which Anna Reynolds
had striven and once gained-the hope and
ambition of her life. She essayed to call
him back, that she might sue for his for
giveness; but the words stuck in her throat,
and, hearing his proud tread on the pave
ment outside, she swooned and fell to the
| floor.
Years have passed since that day, and
Anna Reynolds, now the discontinued,
shrewish wife of miserable husband,
often meets in society gatherings the lovely
and admired wife of Guy Halford, once
Allie Linton, the shop girl. Anna hus-
band has reason to look forward to such
occasions with dread, for it is an era of