St. Landry democrat., 1883-09-08


Somehow she felt strange nearness to
him, as if he were coming then, Were
almost there. She heard the rain beat
ing against the windows, and she glanced
to see that the fire in the CRATE was
bright when he came in. She gazed be.
yond the house gates down the road in
the gathering gloom, almost, almost ex-
pecting to see him approach, as she
used to see him in the days gone by.
She had been wretchedly lonely so long
now. and she wanted to hear his foot.
step in the hall, to feel his caressing
hand on her sunny hair, and to hear his
bright words, 'Good evening, Emma,
my dear!'' It did not seem strange to
her that this should happen, or that she
was expecting it, though she had never
once had this feeling through all these
separated years. Tt did not seem mar
velous that he should come thus from
beyond seas without notice. Had he
opened the door and stood there by her
side she would not have felt startled Or
surprised, or at all wondered at it. The
bewilderment wrought by long-contin-
ued sorrow has stolen over her senses.
But Humphrey did not come. Only,
instead, the postman came in at the
gate, and knocked at the door. Me-
Chemically she wondered why he was SO
late this evening. She heard the SER
want who answered the knock say the
same to the man.
Eyes, it's late,'' he answered. IA
mail from the war is in, you see; and it
brought good many letters.
The woman came in with a thick let
ter and the lights. Her mistress took
it with nervous haste. A thick letter.
and from her husband! until now his
letters had been of the thinnest and
slightest. The writing-was it Hum
phrey's? Why, yes, it was his; but
what could make it look so shaky? She
opened it carefully, and some Enclosures
fell out. A fond letter or two of hers
written to him after their marriage, dur
ing a temporary separation; a curl OF
her sunny hair; plain gold ring which
he had worn ever since his wedding
day; and little folded note with q few
trembling lines in it.
Il am dying, Emma. Fell to-day il
battle. God forgive us our folly, my
precious wife! | believe we loved one
another all the while. There is another
Life, my dear one. / shall be waiting
for you there. Humphrey"
faint. She lay back in low, large
chair, her meek hands clasped in sup
plication, praying to be pardoned for
all her hard wickedness to her dead
husband, feebly beseeching God, in His
mercy, to take her to that better life.
The next day the papers published
a list of the fallen. Fifteen soldiers
and two officers, one of the latter being
Captain Humphrey Carbonel.
So it was all over Death had parted
them, They had taken their marriage
vows to love and to cherish one another
until death did them part land To-!
now it had stepped in to dc its work.
All! but something else had stepped
in previously: angry passions INDUCED
in, malice not suppressed. But for
that. Humphrey Carbonel had never
gone out to the fatal plain where death
was Unfortunately putting in his
sickle. Emma Carbonel would have
given now her own life to recall the
past.
Experience must be bought; some.
times all too dearly. She saw how
worse than foolish it is, taking it at the
best, to render our short existence here
one of marring anger. Evil temper
bears us up at the moment, but time
must bring the reaction, and the re-
pentance. a little forbearance on both
sides, especially on hers, few sooth-
ing words, instead of spiteful retorts,
and this bitter retribution had not been
hers; or his, in dying. ga soft answer
turneth away WRATH If they had but
obeyed the words of holy writ!
And now what was left to thenns
Death had claimed him, and all was
over To her, lifelong time of
anguished remorse, a vain longing to
undo what could never be undone in
this world. Could not some of lis, hot
and hasty in our dealings, learn a
lesson from it?
But something better was in store for
Emma Carbonel. Humphrey did not
die. Within a week the news came to
her that the injuries, which had in
duced death-like swoon, mistaken az
the time for death, had not yet beer,
fatal, He was removed to the hospital,
was being treated there by skilful sur
geons, and the issue was as yet un-
certain.
The issue was not for death, but life.
Some months later he came home, 4,
manned soldier, bearing about him
marks which time would never efface.
just at the dusk of evening, as She
had pictured it in her fond dream, he
came. When the fly drove up to the
door with him, she was surprised, for
he was not expected until the next day
He came in slowly, limping. The hustle
over, the servants shaken hands with.
he lay back, fatigued, in the easy chair.
Emma kneeling before him, clinging to
him in passionate emotion, tears