Middletown transcript., 1882-03-10

e had used the full measure OF his elo
> quence in expounding to her the neV
, faith.
Small wonder that, coming as he dit
in the newness of her first sorrow, sh
, listened to his subtly worded phrases
listened and believed. Small wonde
that, soothed, flattered, persuaded b!
his oily tongue and mock sympathy, sh'
consented to give up her English home
to go with him.
She thought with the apostle of ole
that in acting under this mans advice
she was doing Gods service" She
found, when bound by irrevocable ties
that she was in the very hothouse Of
corruption that, though in land that
drew up long codes of law against biga-
my, she had been led into community
that recognized no such law, that
claimed the freedom to worship God
according to the dictates of their own
consciences, and yet violated openly and
professedly one of His solemn COM
mandments.
The horror of the dawning truth had
almost maddened her had crushed
from her brain all thought and purpose
save that of escape. This she had at
length accomplished, but time alone
could obliterate the fear, the awful
dread, that, though living under the
much vaunted freedom of the Stripes
and Stars, she could, if retaken, if dis
covered through all her safeguards of
name and distant habitation, be forced
back into the sinful life, into the home
over which three others beside herself
ruled as mistresses in lieu of their mar
riage rights.
Time had gradually obliterated this
haunting truth, time and the CHEEKY
presence of her new friend.
With the sorrow of to-day it had all
come back. With every impulse of
heart and nature she turned to the new
life offered her, only to realize more
cruelty the nature of the tie that held
her back.
For one wild instant an alternative
course flashed DER her mind.
What need to tell all this, to infict
pain on another Why not take the
good the gods had sent her? Surely
the high Power, if there were any
high Power that controlled the world,
had forgotten her. Why not ex-
claim:
evil, be thou my good T''
And so exchange her present lot for one
far happier, far more satisfying
Her early training, the remembrance
of her mother, all her home life and
home lessons forbade such course.
The thought of the easy path to hap
piness for herself and another that lay
through divorce court never darkened
her mind. She believed too implicitly
in human inability to annul the binding
force of the words she had spoken on
her wedding morn.
And so, with mind torn between
duty and inclination, with hands that |
trembled and heart that moaned in
its agony, she finished and folded her
letter.
"Oh, my love-my love, " she sobbed,
as she wrote the familiar name, "canI
give you up ?"
For the next week there was lull as
of the calm that succeeds the tempest.
Gwendoline went about as one in a
dream. Malcolm was not in his accus-
toned place she was spared the sorrow
of seeing his anguish.
Then he came back to her, haggard |
and worn, rebelling against her decree,
claiming his own, bringing all the soph-
istry of the age to bear on her firm reso-
luton.
"Youare not that mans wife, Gwen.
You must acknowledge that. You
are but one of four he has no claim on
you.''
Il was his first wife, - she answered,
striving to keep her brain clear through
this last severe test. " 1 am his wife.
1 cannot live with him. Icannot cleave
TO him in his evil ways-his self-styled
religion but can marry no other"
her lips and voice trembling over the
last words, her eyes flashing one an
swering CLEAN of love at the man she
was thus renOuncing.
A wicked light shone on Malcolm's
excited face as her firm opposition
spurred him on to sharper resistance
to closer argument.
"I will win her yet" he muttered,
as he turned to leave her, watching the
slight figure with its bent head and
hidden face. "She cannot hold out.
Tomorrow size must surely yield. i
But with the coming of the morrow
the young Englishwoman's place was
vacant her handiwork was left for
another's completion. She had again
sought for safety in fight. She had
vanished as she had appeared, leaving
no clew, no trace by which she might |
be followed f.; leaving only in one heart |
the bitter memory of her love and loss
bearing with her only the shame and
pain of her sorrowful ret.-Frank
Leslie's.
Why she wept: g Not heard of Mr..
Sullivan - exclaimed member of the
Cincinnati Ladies' Literary Associa-
tion; "nOt heard of Boston's blue
eyed Boy of Genius ?' The pork pack
er's fair but ignorant daughter bIushed