The Washington critic., 1885-08-15
TEN YEARS LATER.
$50 he has come again!n

And pretty Nettie DevereauX, trem-
bled from head to foot as she glanced at
his card.
"Tell him." said she to the servant,
THAT | will be down in ten minutes
for" said Nettie to herself, 81 cannot
go down like this--I must calm myself
down to ordinary cooluess."
''Woman:like, she first went to the
mirror, and, In spite Of her agitation,
noticed that she looked unusually well.
Then, with her hands clasped tightly
before her, paced rapidly up and down
the room number Of times.
Nettie was by no means vain wo.
man, although she was a remarkably
pretty one, and the halt anxious glance
she had given her reflection In the mir
ror was rather Of inquiry than vanity
1t was ten years, at least since she
had met the gentleman now awaiting
her below, and at that time he was her
accepted lover; so Nettie, with all a
wOman's consciousness that beauty car
RIGS its weight, had first of all asked her
self the very feminine but natural ques-
cion:
"Will he think me changed"
The mirror told her, as he did, ten
minutes later, that she had not. So
there was but one thing to be done, and
that was to still the tumultuous beating
of her foolish little heart, and go down.
Poor, pretty Nettie She loved him
still, although she had not seen him In
all these years, and he, as well as her.
self, had married--another
Self-control, ever one Of her charac.
teristics, soon came back, and in less
than the prescribed ten minutes her
face was steadily set into an expression
of friendship, and she was descending
the stairs.
But, alas for human efforts and hui
man resolves, they often melt away be-
fore other instincts more deeply human!
And the pleasant greeting resting 30
firmly on her lips, and the modified
phrase 50 carefully planned on his, van .
ished into thin air when they met.
"Harry !"
"Nettie !"
And the two, so long parted, gazed
with happy freedom into each others
eyes.
A hundred questions they asked and
answered. The dead, the married and
gone were all talked over, and old
scenes and old occurrences recalled.
Then thought came to Nettie, bear.
ing with it sickening dread, miscra-
bic, crushed ling about her heart
Harry was, after all, not the Harry
Of old, though, heaven help her! she
loved him as tenderly us ever.
The question on his part-"Nettic,
will you now tell me about yourself?"-
had awakened her from the delicious
dream. AS in the dartng light of u
single flash of lightning innumcrable
objects can be clearly discerned, so in
that one painful instant the hopeless
ness, the unfathomablc depth, the very
sinfulness of her love came before her.
The sight OF his dear face had chased
away every other feeling, but she
could, she would, crush it now, now and
forever.
Her face grew shade paler, and the
curves Of her delicate mouth grew stern
as she answered the man who had been
the one love of her life, and who she
knew had seen that she loved him still.
"You ask me. Harry" said she, ito
tell you about myself. Shall | begin
where we left off ten years ago."
"If you WILL he answered, in a
troubled voice, and avoiding her eye.
81 will be brief, then," she replied,
but touch of passion trembled on the
would-be tones OF ice. "You remem.
Der the night we parted, ten years ago
last July-yes? Then, of course, you
remember the rest-how you said I'm.
kind words to me, and that stuDg me
to the quick. babe you go, and for
| Fever. | knew not what else to say, or
how else to punish you. But you, tax
ing me ut my word went, and, oh,
Harry, never returned When | said
what | did that night, my heart was
breaking, and when l saw your mar
riage two months later in the papers it
laid me ut deaths door For many,
many weeks my life hunE on Il thread,
and never since have | for single day
been my old selfsagain."
"Nettio, Nettie," he Interrupted,
''you know | tried several ii es to see
you and to explain, but always missed
you"
"Yes, | knew, and avoided YOU.
How could you explain, or listen, and
you married to another woman?"
"But you, too, married, and were
happy, We're you not?"
~ married-what else could | do:
| was unhappy at homc--you worse
than dead to me. But | was ncvc,
happy. Arthur DevereauX loved me
dearly, but your image was ever before
me, haunting my thoughts by day, my
dreams by night. Happy" she con.
tinucd bitterly, "happy when broke
my husbands hcar!--for, Harry,
talked of you in my sleep, and so he
got to know my secret, and, rs | tell
you, it broke his hcart--it killed himp
~ did not know it," she continued
"until he was ON his dcath-bcd. Then
he told me how | used to cry in my
sleep and call him Harry. All | would
have called him back to life then, and
loved him, too, ii it could have been,
but IT. was too late !"
And the tears chased each other down
her cheeks rs she spoke.
"But,n continued she, "hOwcver
much may have wrongcd him by thus
! loving YOU, have been more than
puui-hed for the crime. The ample
fortune he left me was swept away, and
|, the proud Nettie, am Only a COVER.
ness, glad of the paltry salary where
with to maintain his child and mine
And now you have all that can tel
| a.