West-Jersey pioneer., 1883-04-19
AFTER MANY YEARS.

THUS, you see, my own Hortense,
that must leave you. l shall provide
an income of hundred louis for your
expenses. Look forward constantly to
my return, and when fortune again
smiles upon me, shall come back, never
again to be separated until DEATH"
The weeping wife could not be COM
forted. 1t was hard that, so soon after
when the world seemed so
bright and gay, and when wealth and
fortune smiled so serenely upon her, all
should be swept away, and she left, like
a lone widow, to protect herself The
husband was almost distracted with the
thought of leaving her. His heart had
been bound up in his beautiful Hortense.
She had been his idol from boyhood,
the bright dream of his existence; and
when he had attained the distinction of
one of the merchant princes of Montreal,
he married her and placed her in the
very heart of luxury.
Misfortune came on swift wings to
the happy pair. One by one his posses
sions left him, and worse than that,
others were involved in his affairs who
were less able to lose than himself. He
could not look upon the ruin of those
around him: for he had kind heart
and would not wrong any one for the
world They that lost by his i'll fortune
admitted that NJ Valentin was strictly
honest man; and that is great praise
from those who are injured by a mans
ill luck. People are but too apt to call
it dishonesty.
There was but a single bright spot
before M. Valentin. Australia cleaned
up warm and golden, and with des-
peration born of love to his wife and
Justice to his creditors, he secretly en-
barked for the land of promise. There
was nine days wonder as to where
he had gone and to what purpose; and
then he died out of the thoughts of the
community as thoroughly as if he had
been dead and buried.
The weeping Hortense removed to
another locality; the fashionables who
had strained every nerve to get invited
to the house of the rich merchant, never
paused to ask after his wife, and lonely
and miserable, without friends or rela-
tives, Hortense dropped and pined, un-
til the beauty which her husband SO
praised was changed into dimness. She
never heard from NJ. Valentin. No sin
gle word had ever cheered her solitude
since he left her. AS month after month
dragged its slow weight along and no
tidings reached her, her heart utterly
sank within her, and she believed him
dead. What indeed could she think!
1t was better to think so than to believe
him unmindful of her, and day after
day she watered his memory with tears
of genuine sorrow, as one sorrows for
the beloved dead.
She put on the deepest mourning,
kept her room for months, and when
she finally went out again, and that
only to church, her sorrow was written
plainly in the face, which, if it had lost
some of it's beauty, was yet most deeply
interesting. So at leest thought the
young Eugene Stanbury, an English
man of unblemished character and pros
porous business. He saw her at church
devised some ingenious expedient to be
introduced, and begged the privilege O.
waiting upon her. The lady pleaded
her inability to entertain company, the
improperly of her receiving gentlemen
and thousand reasons why he shonlC
not visit her.
He overruled them all, besought he1
to waive all ceremony with him, to con
slider him deeply attached friend,
brother, anything in short, if he nigh
be permitted to see her sometimes; ant
Hortense, weary of her monotonous aIlt
dreary life, at last consented.
Once having renewed the deliciou
consciousness of protecting presence
she found it hard to give it up for tn
mere punctilious fear of what the worl
would say of her. Indeed she had lon
J since shaken hands with the world an
parted from it. She owed it no favor
1t had no right to criticise her conduc1
Thus she reasoned while listening
Eugene's impassioned entreaties ths
, she would lay aside her sorrow for tn
dead and become his wife.
Still she hesitated. She truly believe
in her husbands death; for would
2 not have written had he been living
! OF the many letters she had written hin
. the many inquiries she had instituted
no answer could be obtained. No on
knew anything of NJ. Valentin.
In an hour of more than usual lionel
ness and trouble she whispered to he
! self that should Eugene press his su
Y anew she would consent to marry hin
She liked him. She was weary of h,
;. own life, Gagged and cribbed as she wa
she longed forfreedom from the RESTRAIN
q q that poverty and widowhood were CO
stantly imposing upon her; and allth
combined operated wonderfully in E
d genes favor. The marriage was strict
q, private; and half of Mr.. Stanbury