Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1879-08-21

uScN A6O VI COueO1dGlOuG i was 0OC
sorrow.stricken. Finally she took me
Familiarity by the hand and said in low
voice that she was obliged to confide to
me secret and that she counted on my
honor as a nobleman not to abuse it.
She had given my wife to keep for her a
package of letters that she could not
keep herself, and she begged of me to
give them back to her. While she was
speaking l felt several times that I
shivered from head to foot. With ap-
parent GOODNESS I questioned her on the
contents of these letters. At this ques-
tion the lady started and replied with
indignation.
"Sir, your wife was more generous
than you. When she took charge of
these letters she did not ask me their
contents. She even gave me her word
never to look at them, and I am con-
WINGED that she never even glanced at
them. Hers was a noble soul, and she
would have disdained to break in secret
her given word"
"'It is WE'LL replied. tHow shall
l recognize the package?'
GO 1t was tried by pink ribbon with
a silver edge
"'I will go and search for it,
II took my wife's keys and began to
search for the packet; although knew
where it was, l pretended to have some
difficulty in finding it,
/" Is it this2' I said, handing it to the
countess.
"Yes, yesl See, the knot made is
still there. She never touched it,
II did not dare to lift my eyes to her.
I feared lest she should read in them
that had undone it, and that had un-
done something else besides. I took
leave of her hastily; she got into her
carriage and drove of. Poor woman,
she had her excuse. Her husband was
brutal and dissipated. If 1 had been
like him I should have deserved wife
like her. OIL but my wife! Her heart
was innocent, her soul angelic! She
loved her husband even in the moment
when her husband killed her. I do not
know what I did during the first hours
that followed. When 1 came back to
the consciousness of the horrible reality
was in the vault, beside the coffin.
saw the lid slowly raised and the dead
woman within rose noiselessly before me.
l was stretched stiff and stark, beside the
coffin, one hand on its edge and the
other beneath her head. The lips of the
corpse were white; one drop of blood
hung from them. She bent slowly TO-
wards me, opened her eyes as when
murdered her and kissed my right hand
The drop of blood fell again on my flesh
her eyes shut once more, she fell back
on her cold pillow and the coffin CLOSED
over her dead body.
"A short time after l was awakened
by a pain as that produced by s
scorpion's sting. I rushed into the oper
air. 1t was early morn. No one saw
me. The drop of blood had disappeared
there was no outward sign of the pain
and yet the spot where the blood hat
fallen burned as though being eater
away by a corroding poison. The pal,
to hour. | could sleep sometimes, bu
even then l never lost consciousness 0
my suffering. There was no one to whom
l could make complaint, and for tina
matter there was no one who would hav
believed my story. You have been wit
ness to the intensity of my suffering an,
you know how much your operation
relieved me. But as soon as the woun'
heals the pain comes back. It has com
now for the third time, and have n
longer the strength to stand it. In al
hour l shall be dead. One thought cor
soles meas she has avenged herself o.
me in this world she will, perhaps, 70,
give me in the next. 1 thank you 70
your good Offices. May God reward 20
for theml"
A few days after the newspapers o
ST. recorded that one of our riches
landed proprietors had blown out hi
brains. Some attributed the suicide t.
grief at his wife's death; others, VIII
were better informed, to an incurabl
wound. Those who knew best said
was monomaniac, and his wounc
which could not be cured, existed on]
in his IMAGINATION.