The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-06-27

her mother was taken suddenly i'll. Mar
garct could not refuse the grief-strickcn
girl, who Instantly FASTENED away
Obliged now, to relinguish her visit, and
thinking she would disturb Jeanne,
Margaret passed down to the kitchen to
finish the work which Patty..s sudden de
parturc had left in more than an usual
chaos - ,ss, 4.
IIalf an hour5latcr she went softly up
stairs. and glancing in at: little Nell in
her white bed, was about to descend
again, when her footsteps were arrested
by voices below, and, with blanchcd face
and heart sinking Ikea stone in her
bosom, she looked down upon Jeanne
Camcron-and Ralph--her husband.
They stood under the hall light.
Ralph had just entered, and Jcanic's
white arms had tluttercd up to his neck
and drew his handsome face down to her
| own, while she lavished kisses and loving
words upon him. Then came floating up
to the outraged wife, her husbands voice,
saying tcnderly: ~~sss 81. .,,..
and so, my bonnie Jeanic, We're Ito
have an evening by ourselves! Marga-
ret has gone, of coursc:"
! 'Oh, yes-an hour ago! What bliss
full time we will have, darling, and then
you know
The rest was lost to her by the closing
of the parlor door. And what did she do,
you ask? Wife and motk would you
not have crept down stairs. as she did ~
and crouching down by the. door have
listened to words that drove the blood to
her heart, leaving the face white and cold
as death? When she heard alla.shc tot
cred to her feet and uP to her own room
convulsively clenching her hands to keep
| from crying out with agony. ~ ,.
ooh, could it be, or was she going mad
Did she hear her husband-thc idol that,
she had set up and worshipped as all
that was good and true and noble-did
she hear him planning to fly jwith that
false woman--that fiend with an angels
face-that serpent who had crept into
their Eden to destroy it?''
They were going to Italy. Ralph was
to realize his dream at last, He could re-
vel in the old paintings and all the Won
ders of that land of beauty and art and
poetry. Her money was to give him this
her beauty was to compensate for loss Of
wife and child. Ia 80
"Oh, Ralph! Ralph! my darling, my
darling" she moaned, in her blind love
only blaming, at first, the beautiful siren
who had brought this woe upon her. But
Margaret Wayland was no woman to 90
mad, or take another's life. So, with the
first great horror overcome, she thought
soberly and long upon it, and laid all her
plans. Calmly she met her husband the
next morning. and when Ralph Way]and
kissed his wife goodbye, she knew it was
for the last time-that till the day of he1
death she would never again look in bel
darling's. eye, nor touch the faithlcss
lips" Calmly, then, she turned smil.
ing face towards Jeanne Cameron's fail
dimpled beauty, her blue morning robe
making the white skin still whittier by
contrast-the cheeks like peach-blos.
soms-two or three stray curls dropping
down on the snowy neck, the little hands
lying idly in her lap, and the blue eye!
innocently, raised to Margarets's
"For this doll-facc he would dcscr
herw
That evening. when the train left
Brooktield on its way to New York, the
gray twilight looked in the coach window
upon the quiet, pale face uf woman
holding in her arms sleeping child
and that night; when Raj phi Way1and
came home from the Office, he found
Jeanie alone, and unable to say where
Margaret had gone: "She had come in, ,
Jeanne said, g dressed for travelling, with
the whitest face she had ever seen, and
given her note for him; she did not dare
to ask her question: she looked too stern
it, and see if-if-' and here Jeanne
Cameron fell senseless on the floor while
Ralph Wayland looked down with startled
eyes upon these words: inlay God for
girc you, Ralph! I a,euer can.
M !,
Margaret Wayland found her work
and did it. It was not easy, but it kept
her and her babe Nell from starving,
and what more did she want? It was a
sin to die, so she must work to live. Her
heart was still bitter toward Ralph, and
her only comfort was little Nell's sweet
face; and when at last, she had to lay her
away forever, with the baby eyes shut,
never more to open, she felt as if her final
hope on earth was gone.
Butwhile she mourned and longed for
death, the pillows of war swept over the
land, and Margaret found her way to the
dead and dying. One day, among the
wounded brought in after terrible bat
tie, was the man whom she had once