Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1881-12-29

Ing threats and VOWS, but could not
read them, hurried on.
February 10 do not write much
here nOw-what have | to tell? have
forgotten all the other wrecks Of hui
lnanity in the one that sits beside my
hearth, looking with listless eyes on
all. | cannot rouse her to anything
Life seems at an end for her. The
horror, the amaze, seems to have
turned her to stone, and in this marble
image heart pulses painfully, brain
dazed, yet forever recurring, in terri
BILE monotone, to one experience
throbs on. My God. must do some
thing! | waken each day with a horror
that l shall find her dead by her own
hand! She was so white a thing. Oh,
God, thou knowest that she shudders
at herself.
March 20.-l laid the first snow
drop of the year in her hands this
moroing, and she burst into tears.
She has always loved flowers so much,
my poor little girl. Last year she
gathered them herself and they
crowned her their Queen of May. Oh,
my God! if she could forget!
Why not? | hold the key and can lock
up the past at will. 1t is memory that
is killing her. Then I will kill memo
ry, and she will be my own pure little
girl again-for she is pure. It is only
the good who are tortured by memory
the evil do not suffer. It is only to
paralyze, by electric shock, certain
knot Of nerves, and all this misery will
be wiped off, as with a sponge, from
the tablet Of memory. Thank God,
the power is in my hands. l believe
He has given it to me to save my
child.
"April 1O.-Oh, God in heaven, l
thank Thee. 1t has succeeded beyond
my hopes. She is growing elI-rosy
even-and she has forgotten? l have
found my child again, and she has re-
gained her happiness and innocence
See remembers nothing nothing of
the slow hours CT despair when the
burning plOwshares went over her. |
have tested her, have even mentioned
his name-the accursed one-and she
did not know it! We are going to
America, where no echo of her story
can ever reach her, and we will be
happy once more together"
[ only look at one entry more, which
spoke of Hilda's happy smiles and ten
der love to the father in the strange
land, and the pleasant little home that
she frightened with her presence, and
then there was the end very soon after.
| closed the book. I knew all now, and
wished that I could, like HiIda, forget.
| sat motionless, not needing whether
it was night or day
Hilda my saint with the holy eyes +!
| knew why had seen strange vanish
ings of expressions so hard to interpret
IN those eyes; why there was an mex
phcable sadness about them as Of eyes
accustomed to tears; why her mouth
held such possibilities Of pain. She had
not deceived me, after all. There was
nothing in her past, as she know it, that
could bring a blush to her cheek.
And yet [ knew, and the knowledge
seemed to build up an invisible wall be-
tween us-a gulf that [ could see al
though she could not. How could
betray her childlike trust in me? On
what plea could | break the bond be-
tween us?
Her wedding-dress was made. She
had shown it to me in innocent, girlish
pride, and it was wreathed with white
lilies-of- the-valley = as pure and as
sweet as herself, [ had said. [ would
write to her; [ could not look her in
the face and give her up.
No: it would be dastardly to write,
to give her the stab in the dark, and
not know what she suffered After all,
she had been sinned against, and the
very memory of it was past, her heart
was pure as little child's. So the
reader will guess the sequel. Love
conquered and we were married. Never
more innocent, girlish face beamed
beneath bridal vail, never purer, shy
er eyes were raised to receive a hus-
band's kiss.
| was happy; only now and then a
torturing thought would torment me.
Could that certain tangle of nerves of
which the doctor spoke ever regain its
power? A paralyzed limb sometimes
RECEIVERS a feeble motion. What hor-
ror if the slumbering brain woke and
the terrible past, with all its hideous-
ness, should dawn suddenly upon my
Hildal
I found her as good, as gentle, as I
had dreamed, with tender, loving
heart, and quick, generous impulses.
We did not go to Germany on our we'd
ding journey, although she urged it,
and it was my first negative to her
wishes. [ am afraid-afraid of an echo
from the past.
But we went to Paris, and dazzled
my simple wifes eyes with the pretty
things | bought for her. We went in
and out of the grand old galleries, too,
and she developed q taste for the old
masters, and knowledge Of art that
charmed me. Each day seemed to
bring up from the clear pellucid waters
CT this young life some "pearl of purest
ray serene" that | accepted with new
delight.
One day we had gone back to our
hotel weary of the days work, although
it had been all pleasure. [ did not
notice the unusual crowd at the en-
trance, being somewhat absorbed in
my own thoughts, when [ felt Hilda' s
grasp on my arm.
ooh. poor MANI she cried, che must
be terribly hurt"
Then [ saw that several persons were
supporting a young man, with ghast-
ly death-like face and closed eyes, into
the nearest room.
'Run over" vouchsafed stranger
near = unjust have been blind or
drunk"