The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-21

thought from him as pass life in thought with
out the hollow heavens above, without sunshine,
without stars, without the familiar field, and
earth, and river. All at once she found her
husband false to her-she thought she found
HIM false to her, mean And the earth moved
under her feet The shock of the discovery, and
the apparent certainty were more than she was
able to withstand She had lost her own pose,
There was nothing for her to take hold of while
things whirled by. She could not realize that
this was herself. And her husband, who had
seemed to her a spirit of light and purity, had
become to her apprehension, base and grovel-
ing being. He had been the soul of truth and
honor; he had become the body of deceit and
shame. 1t COMPOUNDED and confused the uni
verse; 1t he was wrong, nothing then was right
She would look at him for long moments to-
gether, without a word-look him through and
through, as if to make out the guilty spot in
him, or seek some one remnant of the old nobll-
1ty to lay hands on. He endured the gaze, the
long, sad, broken-hearted gaze, in his innocence
hoping all would right itself; to this wretched
woman the world was in disorder and her brain
was in disorder with it Then her husband at
last took active means to Indeceive her. to BRING
the fact before her. But everything he did, her
burning suspicious were able to torture into sup
port of her idee fXee, that idea with which Aer
brain was pierced as with one of the nails of the
cross. No matter how tender he was with her,
she shuddered, believing him to be assuming the
tenderness; no matter how patient he was she
watched lynx-eyed, believing him to be
only biding his time. l suppose she
really went mad and going mad,
she was conscious in the gong
that either he was false or she was mad, and
offered no resistance, willing thrice willing, to
be mad instead. She felt herself entangled in a
network, blind and lame. She slipped from his
arms in the night, and walked the long upper
hail. wringing her hands and wailing aloud.
And by-and-by he wearied of it. Let him do
what he would, he could not convince her that
he loved her Once he had loved her. indeed,
now he loved another, was the invariable sense
that opposed him. She was the heiress of i'm
mense wealth; she said to herself that he would
keep the peace between them for the sake of
that wealth. She knew he had great pride of
name; she said to herself that he pretended to
love her STILL lest the world should get hint of
shame, or lest breath Of scandal should smear
the repute of that other woman, the e he loved
in that sweet secrecy.
ut was impossible for him to make her be-
lieve he loved her, or loved her for herself. And
so, by-and-by, as l say, he wearied of it; he no
longer felt patient under her doubt, her scrutiny;
to care whether she thought him
pure or base, true or false. He,
too, passed through his phase of agony, and he
simply ceased to love her. And the last state of
that woman was worse than the first. Then she
realized that she herself, by her doubts and sus-
picions, had been the destroyer of her own peace;
that the spark which might have been trodden
out in the beginning had been famed by jealous
fears till it had consumed all the joy of her life.
But Alan Sangrefeld had himself no more of
joy in life. Life was absolutely empty for him,
and his wife saving him dying before her eyes,
powerless to prevent it. Like flash, perhaps,
she saw in it all only the revelation of her own
guilty doubt and one day she disappeared
From that day to this no one knows what be-
came of her, nor of the old Sangrefeld jewels
that disappeared with her." Miss SangreheId
paused a moment, and watched Katharine meas
uring Adrian with her furtive glance, before she
went on again: After awhile Alan Sangreheld
plueked up courage, took heart, took new
lease of life, too, and married He mar
ried, as it CHANGED, in all innocence, the
very woman on account of whom
his wife had broken her heart. 1t was
the night of the wedding that Sarah Sangrefeld
began to walk that upper hall. The bride in
her bridal chamber heard that waihng She
covered a moment. Perhaps she was guilty, if
Alan was not. And then she turned to her hus-
band. His face was white and agonized. 1t is
ner voice, he cried. And with the cry the iron
entered that wonans soul
After all, he loved the first wife best the
new one said. 1t was idle for him again to as
sure her that all love for that mad woman had
died before she had died herself; the new wife
had only to remember that look, that cry; she
did not believe him: he loved the first wife still;
he wanted her back he longed and wearied and
wept for her; he had married the second time
not knowing what he wanted. Sarah SaDgre-
fields doubt had proved Infectious. 1t is catch
wife never recovered from that nights blow.
Doubt and suspicion had hold of her Righteous
judgment, it may be- but deadly hold. And when
she died she cried out that Sarah Sangrefeld, in
herlong white shroud, but blazingunder the veil of
her midnight hair in all the old Sangrefeld
Jewels like thing of fire, her eyes like CLEANS
of sapphire fire themselves just as she saw her
in the doorway of the bridal chamber, was wait
ing to take her by the hand and lead her she
knew not whittier. But into worse misery
AC |
have seen Sarah Sangrefield in her shroud and
her Jewels the wind of her swift motion blow
ing out her cloud of hair as she went by wiring
ing her hands; but it is only to those whose
lives are likely to be ruined by doubt or by sus-
picion does she come All may hear her sorrow,
but few may see the beautiful horror of her
face"
And then they all held their breath and
listened to the sound that was neither wall, nor
windy whistle nor music but all three; and
Adrian saw Katharine draw back into the
shadow, with a look upon her countenance,
when the flame flared up and fell full upon her,
as if Sarah Sangrefeld in her shroud and her
Jewels wringlng her hands and wailing as she
walked were not far away.
They all startled as if they had been struck
when the great bell of the hall tolled eleven,
and then they rose and made ready to part
ment in bidding her good-by and bent his head
over her hand, IF the hand were
not too heavy with jewels for man to lift"
And what question there was in the eyes he
rasedl
THAT does not hinder the Prince Pilaty,"
murmured old Miss Sangrefed at his elbow
''Confound the Prince Piaty" said Adrian;
still under his breath; and then the door had
slammed behind him.
That night, having dismissed the maid Kath-
arine sat in her own room before the dressing
glass, not purposely, but happening to delay
there thinking. Il am twentyfour years DID,"
was the way in which her involuntary thoughts
were running, land 1 am the mistress of
princely fortune, and have two princely lovers
one prince among men, and one man
among princes" And then, she knew not by
twisted riviere of diamonds into something
like the shape of coronet and was
holding it over her brow as she scanned
~, @ba Ao for tha bap