St. Landry democrat., 1879-06-14

Spanish eyes; indeed, he called himself
a Spaniard, and his speech betrayed
foreign accent.
The dark eyes and the blue ones met,
a few neighborly words exchanged, a
call followed soon. Mrs. Halifont felt q
new emotion creeping into her heart.
She felt pleased and flattered by this
strangers admiration. Then she knew
she was loved, and rejoiced, and SO dis
covered that she herself loved again.
At first she was angry with herself ;
then she wept over her inconsistency,
but at last she yielded utterly. After
all it was the love that made her untrue.
Since she had loved she could never
pride herself on being faithful again,
and 70 she listened to the sweet words
that, despite herself, made her happy
and promised to marry Colonel Hum
phries.
When q widow does marry q second
time she generally cont1ives to make a
fool of herself.
Mrs. Halifont had certainly not done
as foolishly as some widows do. She
had neither chosen a little boy nor 8
titled Italian without money enough to
keep himself in macaroni. Her future
husband was older than herself, and too
rich to be suspected of being fortune
hunter; but, after all, no one knew him.
He came into the neighborhood without
letters of introduction to any one, and
whether he won his fortune by trade or
came to it by inheritance remained a
mystery.
There were those who shrugged their
shoulders and declared that Mrs. Hall
font would regret not having chosen some
one of whom mnre was kuown-some re-
tired merchant, some gentleman of for
tune, whose father had been known to
her friends. Nothing, to be sure, could
be said against this Spaniard or Cuban
with the English name; but who knew
anything in his favor?
However no one said this to Mrs.
Halifont, and it any one had, words
never changed a woman's fancy yet.
Mrs. Halifont believed in Colonel Hum
phries, and meant to marry him.
Indeed the trousseau was prepared and
the wedding day was fixed, all was
ready, and Ida Halitont believed herself
to be very happy woman. she once
more built castles in the air. Her old
sorrow seemed to fade away in the dis
tance. She was girl again. hh last
twenty>four hours lay between her and
her wedding day.
She was busy in her sewing-room ON
this last day, finishing some ruf1es in
lace and ribbon, and singing softly to
herself, when suddenly the house was
filled with cries.
An old man-servant, while cutting the
grass upon the lawn, had wounded him
self seriously. The doctor was sent for
at once, but he was not at home, ano
meantime poor Zebedee was bleeding
death.
Suddenly Ida Halifont remembered
that Mr.. Humph ries had said that
understood wounds as well as though he
had been bred surgeon. Without this
it would have been natural for her to
call on one who was soon to be her pro-
tector in moment of anxiety. She
would call him herself, that there might
be no delay, and seizing her garden~hat,
she ran along little path that led from
her ground to that of Mr.. Humphries,
climbing low fence to save time which
would have been lost in reaching a gaze,
and 80 gained the rear of the dwelling OF
which tomorrow she would be mistress.
She thought herself terrified and dis.
tressed. She felt rather injured that
such an unpleasant thing as the wound
ing of poor Zebedee should have hap.
pened on the eve of her wedding day.
Ten minutes after she thought of herself
at that moment uttefl y at esse-won-
derously happy-for as she reached those
windows and peeped hall timidly through
the curtains, thing happened that
made all she had ever suffered appear as
nothing.
The room, the window OF which she
had approached, was one that opened out
of conservatory She saw Colonel
Humphries busy with some rare plants
he had just set out to the warm sunshine
that fell through the glass. He had
taken off his coat and rolled up his
sleeves Now he lett the conservatory,
and coming forward proceeded to wash
his hands in a basin of water that had
been set ready for him. He was close to
Ida Halifont. He did not see her, but
she could have reached out her hand
and touched him.
Why did she not speak, and call him
by name? Why did she sink down
uron her hands and tremble like an aspen
Leaf? Alas the awful reason was this:
Upon that arm which she was about to
give the right to clasp her in tenderest
embrace she saw terrible mark-a
mark she had seen once before. She
knew its shape and size and color. Her
eyes had been rivited upon it as the
81 1ewy hand, Dc the wrist of which it