The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-07-01

a
and L"
He SMILED IN her hoEifed eyes.
ooh, Hugh-no! no / cannot take ad-
vantage of you-I dare not be so cruelty
selfish"
II understand, dear-fully. But yon
seem to forget how it will take the last
sting from my dying pillow, how it will
tighten the way clear to the Beyond, if 1
know my wife weeps for me-"
Her beautiful face as his, her eyes
glowed like dusky stars, her voice was
clear, intense.
''Will it do that for you, my friend?
Knowing all you know, will it please and
comfort you2"
sit viii make me welcome death to call
you my wife one little hour"
"Then, Hugh, whenever you are ready,
| am ready"
And so, half-hour later, the family
clergyman stood at the bedside, and in
the presence of the dying mans mother
and sister and the gray haired physician,
Lola, was made Hugh's wife.
Nor, except for the mortal palIor of her
face aud the deathly GOODNESS of her hand,
did the man who loved her know of the
terrible agony that was in her mind.
And then the minister went away and
Clara Fenton kissed the dear, peaceful,
radiant face on the pillow, and threw her
arms around Lola's neck and sobbed out
her anguish and her gratitude, and the
dear, quiyeung Tipped old mother blessed
her boys wife, and DR.. Sanford shook
her hand warmly.
81 only wish | might have seen this
under other circumstances, Mrs Fenton,
he said, and nobody but the man who
loved her saw the uncomfortable shudder
that surged over Lola at the sound of the
new name.
An hour or so later the family lawyer
was closeted with Hugh Fenton, and
when Lola was called in afterwards, her
husbands face was exquisitely peaceful
and satisfied that it almost startled her.
CDR. Sandford tells me there is only
an hour or so more, in all probability
everything is done, my wife. 1 am at
peace with the world, my concience, and
heaven. Sit here with me, dear, until
the last. | want your sweet face to be
the last [ see this side"
SO there they were-she cold, pale,
strung to n nervous tension that was
agony to endure, and he-perceptibly
growing further and further away until,
like a baby on its mothers breast, he
closed his eyes.
All through the night they watched
and waited for the breath to flutter away
forever, and just when the dawn began
to break DIR. Sandford took his fingers
off the wrist, and turned with choked,
solemn voice
Thanks be to Godl Hugh will live!
The crisis has passed and his pulse has
been strengthening steadily for fifteen
And the next second Lola lay in a dead
faint on the floor beside her husbands
bed.
Her husband! And he would live!
And she-did not love him. Heaven be
Such fearful days followed-and yet
nobody but they two understood anything
about it, and even they did not wholly
each other.
Such awful deys, when Lola prayed
that at heart she might not be a murder
ess, that heaven would give her strength
10 endure the life forced upon her; when
Hugh cursed the fate that spared him be-
cause she was SO cruelty punished by the
mistake of it all.
Days and weeks and months passed,
finding Lola always at her post, always
where a fond loving wife would be; fnd-
ing her growing more and more patient,
and even more sweetly gentle than ever,
if that were possible, while Hugh grew
restless and impatient, and the one great
dread of his hfe-the dread lest she
should after while hate him, instead of
being simply indifferent as she was now,
grew on him like nightmare.
Until one day he announced his inten-
ton of going abroad-to gain strength
he told Lola-to rid her of him she knew
SO well he meant.
And alone, Hugh?"
"Alone-certainly he said, almost
harshly in his bitterness.
For who was there in all the world to
go with hinl
So he made his preparations with
heart as heavy as lead, heart that suf-
fered untold agony as he saw the glad
light that was daily coming in his wife's
eyes-joy at the speedy prospect OF being
separated from him, if only for while.
And then he said good bye and went
his way by easy stages and frequent stops
until he reached the lovely summer,and
of Italy, TO Florence, the city of flowers
"A heartsick, heartsore man, who would
rather have laid down his life than to live
longer the solitary, loveless existence
that fate had apportioned him.
And yet-despite all his bitterness, his
soul sickness, his brain and heart were
all athrob in expectation of the letter
from his wife which he knew would be
there.
Only-it was not there.
And he went slowly. despairingly to
the rooms engaged by telegraph, won
dering why ali of life. and hope, and JOY,
and love, such as glorifed other mems
lives, were denied him, wondering-
And opening the door to see Lola, all
her passionate soul in her eyes, all her
sweet, yeaining nature in the low cry