The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-11-20

hard struggle to us, and you behaved
| kindly to me, I would have laid down
my life to make you happy. And I
| was ever true wife to you, John, you
cannot deny that. Do you remember
when we kept our little shop, how I
used to sit up till past midnight iron
ing your shirts and mending
your clothes? And the first time
you were summoned to sit ON jury,
I was so proud to have you 60. I
never told you that sold my fathers
watch, the very watch he left me, to
buy your black kcoat, and turn you out
like gentleman. And now"
Yet one tremor more as she got out
the rest of the sentence.
"And now, had you treated me with
consideration due to a wife, had you
cared for me at all, should be the
first to say to you on my dying bed
DO not fret, my dear; marry some
good woman; try to be happy for my
sake"
Then she did indeed look at him,
penetratingly and with a startling
fxedness that seemed to search his
very soul. Clenching her hand as if
between himself and her stood her
deadliest foe, she added:
| "Do not know what will happen as
soon as I am put in my grave? In
spite of your caution, Isee well enough
who is waiting to take my place.
Marry that ungrateful girl we picked
out of the gutter. Ring the Joy bells a
year hence at the birth of son and
heir. No good will come of it. Con-
science will crush you, unclean heart,
perjured tongue! You will tremble
when Death stands near you, beckon-
ing as he now beckons me, and tremble
in vain"
White as the dying woman, the hus-
band leaned forward with a word Of
exculpation, an entreaty for pardon
on his trembling lips. But it was too
late. The force of ebbing life had al
ready spent itself. Mrs. Harden fell
back unconscious on the pillow, and as
he caught her in his arms, hesaw that
the end had come. The faithful Anna
hearing his cry for help, hastened to
| the bedside to find her mistress dead.
III.
| So enticing the warmth of that lux
| urious fur-lined cloak, so soft and easy
the arm chair in which her patron had
settled her, that Constance Emery telt
ready to browse. But her brain was
too busy with the future to indulge in
sleep. She must, would keep awake,
in order to think out the future as it
opened itself to her enlarging gaze.
Perhaps the girl was not deserving of
wholesome condemnation after all.
Vulgarity may indeed be a piece of i'll
fortune, as much as wry nose or mis-
shapen foot; only to the rarely en-
dowed ones is it possible to burst the
chains of custom, bringing up and her.
edity.
In the midst of foolishly bewildering
dreams of silks and trinkets, carriages
and lacqueys, boudoirs and fashion
able receptions, she was aroused by
the abruptest intrusion. Rising to her
feet, for she well knew who the intrud-
er must be, she was fain to clasp his
hand, to whisper an endearing word,
to greet him fondly as she had done
surreptitiously scores of times before.
But at a glance toward her patron,
her heart stood still. Clever she was
not, feminine tact she possessed in a
moderate degree, yet she realized in a
moment, without knowing the cause,
the nature of the transformation that
had come over him. She stood aghast,
not venturing step forward, lacking
courage even so much as to utter his
name.
He came close up to the table by
which she stood, holding in his hand a
strip of paper barred with pink.
Constance" he said in that brief,
hard, unanswerable voice she knew SO
fO,, 4ho
time to her-''Constance I cannot
marry you. shall never marry
again. Here is compensation for a
broken promise"
He turned up the lamp in order that
she might see what he had given her.
There, it was plain enough, nothing
could be palmer, a check for five thous-
and pounds.
The astounded girl was dumb, and
he hardly knew whether as yet she
fully understood the meaning of the
words. Something else he had to say,
however, Enthusiastically clear to the
purpose also.
eft will be better for you not to
stay here any longer. l have ordered
coffee to be ready by six o'clock, and
the brougham at half-past in time to
catch the early express. William will
drive you to the station, and giveyou a
first class ticket. Mind and beready."
Still not word from the scarlet
checked, mortified, trembling girl.
Had any one half an hour before as
sured Constance Emery that she
should thus stand silent and abashed
in the presence of this man, she would
have laughed the representation to
scorn.
But with that quick, unerring in
stinct of the dull, the instinct born of
fear and self she nowrec-
ognized the fact for herself. There
was nothing she could say to soften
him even were she mistress of herself,