Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-10-04


warmest friend in past years, and-we
have renewed the old times most pleas
antly. If Ella is like her mother She is
a pure, sweet, unseifish woman"
And Ella was like her mother. and
was soon taken into Aunt James closest
intimacy.
Still smarting under the past pain,
Gilbert was merely attentive to his
aunt's young friend, and not yet real
izing that reality filling his old ideal
was near him.
And while these old residents of Fern
Nook were quietly gathering up broken
threads of life, to weave more perfect
web of content, Myra Gorham was eat
ing out her heart iii bitterness. Insteah
of an old, indulgent husband, ready to
humot every whim, to give her idola-
trous devotion, she found herself tied
to querrrelous invalid, who had been
accustomed to the unquestioning ODE
dience and devotion of his daughter
and grandson, and who exacted a sini-
lar care from his reluctant WIFE In
place OF balls, co .certs and opera, the
gay life Of the metropolis, Mrs.
Gorham found herself shut up in a
country house, certainly sufficiently
handsome and well appointed to meet
the most fastiduous taste but lonely
! beyond endurance to the woman miles
away from her own friends, and coldly
| ignored by the friends of the Go-hams,
lully aware her mercenary treachery.
Yet she endured as patiently as posi-
BILE, till the old man, pining for Jane and
Gilbert, sickened and failed visibly.
1t was when all hope was gone, that
the young wife cautiously, but very
plainly, urged the necessity of making
a VIII. 1t seemed to her as if all the
misery of life concentrated in the. peev-
ish reply:
Il have nothing to will. All the pro
perty belongs to Jane! only hold a
life lease in my late wife's estate.
janet gasped Myra, RENE nbering
the insulting terms i'll which she had in
timate1 to that spinster that she prefer
red to reign alone at Fern Nook.
Certainly! If Gilbert's father had
lived he would have shared in the pro-
perry, but it all reverts TO Gilbert if Jane
dies unmarried"
All Gilbert's And might have been
all hers. Myra felt too stunned and mis-
e.able even TO cry. To think that all
her base scheming, her feigned devotion
had led her to this, the beggard widow
OF an old man.
But after the funeral was over, Mrs.
Gorham made few discoveries. First,
all the deep black of her dress, with the
fine white line of her widows cap, the
sombre Grape and soft snowy tarletan
were most becoming to her brilliant
blonde beauty. She studied her dress
to its minutest detail, and when it was
perfect, formed her new plans. In her
| late husbands desk she found five thou
sand dollars which she appropriated,
! leaving Miss Jane and Gilbert, who came
to the funeral, to defray all expenses.
| She accepted Miss GOrham' s offer of the
use of the house for year, and when
! she was left in possession INSCRIPTIONS
ly sold many small but valuable articles
there.
When the year was over, and Miss
Jane GOrham once more opened her
house TO her friends, she was mute with
CONSERVATION when one day carriage,
heavily laden with baggage, drove up to
her door, from which alighted her faith
ers widow, who threw herself into her
arms, sobbing,-
Do not send me away. am dying
in the gloomy seclusion OF my husbands
home. Let me stay with you"
She stayed, of course. Miss James
old-fashioned notions OF hospitality were
too strong to turn guest away, even il
unlimited and unwelcome. But she
smiled grimly to see how Giloerts face
fell at the announcement of the visitor
"She is my fathers widow" the spin
ster said, gravely. $50 l suppose we
must endure her for time"
She was most fascinating widow
when she appeared at the late dinner,
in thin, black dress, all jet and trim
ming, with some knots Of black ribbon
in the Drofusion OF her golden curls
Her color was softly tinted as ever, beT
blue eyes as babyish and w.nsome; yet,
when the first evening was over she
knew she had gained nothing in her ef-
fort to recapUure the heart she had
thrown aside.
But she did not despair. She sang
the old songs that Gilbert once heard
with rapture. She varied her dress with
laces, ribbons and jewelry, till its pre-
tense Of mourning was mere mockery
She put herself in Gilbert's way with
every dainty device of feminine needle
work. She entreated permission to pre-
pare his favorite dishes with her own
white hands. And, as if to try his con-
stancy, Miss Jane aided and abetted this
schemer for her nephew's fortune, and
spoke but little of Ella, never inviting
her now tO The house so that Gilbert
was forced TO seek her more and more
in her own home, and found her ever
more lovely and winsome from the con-
trast with the idol he had proved to be
clay. 1t was six months after the arr,
val OF Mrs Gorham in her stepdaugh-
ter's house, when Gilert, returning from
a drive with Ella, met his aunt in the
hall, and clasping her in close en-.
brace, whispered very softly
ELLA is mine. Wish me JOY"
From my heart" she whispered
back.
Radiant with joy and hope Gilbert
after changing his driving-dress, hurried
to the sitting-room, to tell Aunt Jane
about it," He had absolutely forgot
ten their guess, and il gave him an un,
pleasant shock wnen he found her, seat.
ed in low chair, busted with some WOO
work, that showed to great advantage
her tiny white hands, glittering with
iieweled rings.
She rose to greet him. and then, to his
embarrassed surprise, she clasped hel
jeweled hands, and bursting into tears
sobbed,-
ooh. Gilbert do not look at me sc