The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-02-01

answered sneeringly. "You can go
where you please, but not with me-"
The blood left her lips, her arm fell
off his shoulders and her heart almost
stopped its beating, as she exclaimed in
a voice of agonized surprise:
You cannot mean to desert me, Har-
old? You surely cannot mean that?
o, husband say you do not mean it, un-
less you wish to break my hearth"
"But do mean i'll" said he, irritated
to savageness by her piteous exclama-
ton. Oh it, if stay here I'll go
to the devil; but if / 90 away and let
you go the devil, may be able to make
man of myself"
Then, as he saw her stagger from him
as though stunned by his words, he went
on with a sudden change to a harsher
and more bitter tone of voice:
"But for you l would never have been
where / am. l never intended to marry
you, but you coaxed and threatened me
into it. l curse the hour when / first
saw your pretty face. My parents served
me as any such fool as | was ought to
have been served; i don't blame them.
l was too big fool to see that | would
disgrace my parents more by marrying
you than by not 1t would be called a
youthful indiscretion, such as is liable to
happen to any young man, and l could
have taken trip away from home for
while, until the affair had blown over.
But, like the fool that was, | did not
think of that then. married you and
saved you and the child from disgrace,
but at what an expensel My own dis
grace and ruin. The child is dead now,
and there is nothing to hold us together,
so | am going to leave you; you hare
supported yourself, so you can do it
again. You thought that by entrapping
me into marriage you would at once Sc
cure for yourself high position in So
ciety, and"
"Stopw
She was standing before HIM, erect and
naughty, and, with her bosom heaving
and her face almost livid with indignant
passion, she had uttered the word. The
command was spoken in such fierce and
unnatural tone of voice, that he was in
stantly checked in his insulting and bru-
tai taunts, and, looking up, he quailed
before the scorning fire in her eyes.
"Not one word more" she said.
Dare but add another cowardly lie to
those you have uttered, and you shall
feel the rage of wronged and insulted
woman. All the love have felt for you,
and heaven knows how much that is,
you have killed now for ever, but new
ertheless you shall not desert me as you
intend Far rather would / have had
you play the part of the decent william
and never have married me, after ruin
ing me by false oaths, than to have you
leave me in this way,-I would not have
had the contempt for you that / now
have, though might have hated. am
your lawful wife and have a right to
your protection and support if not your
love. | cannot make you give me the
last, but the first you shall give me; you
shall not cast me of as you would a mis-
tress."
81 shall not, hey?" said he, mock
ingly, "and who will prevent me from
doing as / please?"
"Dare to attempt it," said she with
emphasis, "and you will be
likely to pass the rest of your life in
prison."
Ho, hop he cried, "what nonsense
you are talking. Men are not impris-
oned for getting tired of their wives and
leaving"
But they are for arson!"
He recoiled as though he had received
an electric shock, and said hoarsely ard
nervously, as he glanced fearfully
around the room in way peculiar to
criminals.
carson! what do you know about
that"
81 know" she said in threatening
whisper, "who it was that burned the
factory out of revenge because he had |
been discharged for drunkenness.
Everyone thought and thinks yet that
the fire caught in some way from the
furnaces; but know who, as he passed |
along the street late at night, threw into
a broken window pane burning ball of
cotton saturated with alcohol or turpen-
tine"
AS he listened, his momentary terror
passed away, and a mad rage took its
place. When she finished, he sprang at
her, exclaimidg:
Course you, woman! you know too
much. You threaten me with that, do
your
And as he spoke, he had her by the
throat, and she seeing murder in his |
eyes, struggled for her life. In an in
slant she was thrown upon the floor, and
in his blind rage he was choking her to
death, when, with last effort, she threw
him off and sprang for the door with a
shrek for help. Ere she could open the
door, however, he had snatched piece
of oak board lying on the floor, and
struck her terrible blow upon the head
"Ohp
She uttered the word in a reproachful
moan, staggered like dizzy person, and
sank in heap upon the floor.
AS he saw her fall, his passion instant
ly cooled, and his features softened lit
only a little-as he said-as
though half regretting the cowardly
blow, and excusing it to himself:
"Confound her! why couldn't she
have been sensible. She ought to see as
we'll as do that, though married, we are
not properly mated. At any rate, she
ought to have known me long enough to
know better than to threaten. A threat
always did madden me-" His counte-