Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-02-02
Galts arro Skettbts.
.:.srRAsGERs YEr.,
(Conrlnuca from Yesterday

0ES U6S SlFuRKlcu 6nu U4lkIcu Will Tic
weakness, but it has conquered her at last
and brought her down in the chill, ghost
Il dawn with faint. sick feeling at her
heart which thumps and throbs as she en-
tiers the silent study.
1t is not dark here. The steady glare
of the gas is brighter than the struggling
daylight without. Jasper Gascoigne is in
the same chair still. He has fallen asleep
his head bowed down on his hands. The
weary, detected attitude is pitiful enough.
Milly. with sudden love and yearning
in her eyes. comes forward and stands be-
side him.
"Jasperr'
his name as it falls from her lips now
when he cannot hear it.
..Jasper i"--the word little tremulous
now.
He is 80 still, so quiet. with the light
falling on his hair. MilIy's fingers rest
lightly on the bowed head.
"Jasper!'' she says again, and shudders
at the awful silence that follows.
There Is no response, though her hand
rests with unwonted tenderness on his hair.
so still, so awful is the utter quiet of this
sleep, Her hand passes from his head To
the tightly-laced fingers. They are cold
as ice, and she knows her husband is dead.
Next day all the world knows that Jas
per Gascoigne is no more.
II il Sunday; and when those who have
known him pray to ne delivered from sud-
den death, the familiar words. grown so
common from constant use. come with
terrific force, and for few moments they
realize how awfully solemn is that sudden
death which they pray Heaven to keep
from them. They think of the widow too,
the saddest. most pitiful being in all the
earth. and coming out Of church they say
one TO another: Poor Mr.. Gascoigne !!
How sad it $50 terribly sudden Sud-
den ! As if any heightened preparation
can make the separation less bitter
When the busy world begins again on
Monday morning there is more to talk of
than the mere sad circumstances of Jasper
Gascoigne's sudden death. The world
knows now that he died ruined man, and
whispers say that anxiety killed him /; that
all the keeping up Of appearances. all the
outward display OF wealth, broke the poor
heart at last that, with all the show of
riches and prosperity, Jasper Gascoigne
was not worth penny.
ut ClTClt Ill Which, ne HuoNcu Has suD-
ject for conversation when the routine of
of another week commences, and it is
found that one out OF their number has
dropped so suddenly out Of their ranks.
Ruin-uttcr, hopeless r,in-and the
knowledge of it have killed him. the
weary. knawing uncertainty locked in his
own heart for m' nths, kept from his wife.
kept above all from the busy. prying
world uithnut Tho strain had trivan
way at last, leaving him cold and dead,
with meekly folded hands and the lines on
the weary brow smoothed out for ever
more.
So he lies. his wife seated beside him
with wild, fearless eyes ever fixed on the
pale, immovable features. He is dead;
she will never hear his voice again
The newly made widow repeats these
sad. weary words again and again to her
own heart, but no tears come to her re-
lief. 1t is hardly like griet. this strange.
unnatural calm no wild. passionate weep
ing has lessened the agony of the pain
the sight of the still. white face brings no
rush Of binding tears. She sits beside
him as still as poor Jasper Gascoignc him
self, lying in the awful quiet of death.
Only his face is peaceful in its deep re-
PVSS tH" viz hiNtt HiSHt VI u
makes strangers weep while they whisper
words of pity that she heeds not
In one hand she holds her own photo
graph. She found it herself lying under
her husbands folded arms. Her face was
the last his troubled eyes had rested on.
Had she, his wife, been his last thought
Oh, the dread. awful mystery of his death
Milly thinks il all over and over again,
with fhnnrvtt srrau-inrr in FIJI int.
sity with every throb of her pulses each
beat of her sorely-stricken heart: and re-
morse-not grief.-breaks into sobbing
signs that yet bring no tears.
And then they take him away from her
She lays her lips on his; but makes no
moan-only whispers his name low under
her breath rs she takes her last long look
at the face she has been so cold. so indit-
ferent to in life. fearless and white. she
stands in her widows weeds aud locks
into her guardians face with an express
sion that fills his ewes with sudden rush
of tears.
The funeral is over. Solemnly and
slowly it wendell its way through the
streets. People wept as they stood by the
open grave. but no tears moistened the
dark haggard eyes of the dead mans wife
Dust to dust. ashes to ashes-liie WAS over
tor one of those two, and they were
strangers yet"
She is dry-eyed still, as she stands in
the freshness of her Grape and sable gar
ments. and hears Mr.. Jarvis tell her. in Il
voice scarcely audible, that Jasper Gas
coigne's death has left her utterly unpro-
yided for. that when he died he was ruired.
that during all that long night of agony
before he bent his head and died he knew
he was a ruined man, that the crash had
come at last.
Mrs. Gascoigne hears him out, and when
he pauses, lifts her face to meet his gsze
"But my fortune" she says slowly
''he could not touch that"
At her words Mr.. Jarvis shrinks and
starts as if from a sudden blow and bends
his head low to avoid the eyes fixed upon
his face. For some minutes there is ST.
lence between them. then he speaks in a
voice so low and broken that Milly has to
bend forward to catch the words.
You have no fortune" he says. Mil
". bear with me; l alone am to blame. :"
A little surprise comes into her face at
his agitation; he is shaking from head to
foot.
mo fortune. Mr.. Jarvis. l do not UNI