The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-10-14
hands still showed evidence oflabor-
ions toll The heavy silk curtains


ious toll. The heavy silk curtains
of warm red and downy quilt cover.
ed with satin, were in strangest con.
trast with the look of the mistress.
Twenty years Of opulence had never
familiarized her with it. To the las
she looked, as indeed she felt, q
stranger in her own home.
go away, Anna" she said gently
to the faithful peasant-woman who
had grown old in her service
leave US alone"
The husband realized at a glance
what had happened. She had re-
membered something, been remind.
ed of something she wanted to say
to him at the last, and, as will often
happen in the case of the dying. q
brief return of consciousness was &C.
companied by momentary recov-
cry of physical strength-last, bright
evanascent flicker of the flame Of
life.
The servant withdrew, and Mrs
Harden now beckoned the shrinking
conscience-stricken man to her bed
side,
There had hitherto been no leave.
taking between him and the faithful
partner of well nigh forty years
from the beginning of her illness,
greatly to his relief, she had avoid
ed anything approaching to close,
confidential talk-any allusion to
the past or the future as they more
Immediately concerned themselves.
He had taken care that everything
money could do was done for her.
A London physician had been sum.
moned in consultation /; all the con-
Germ that decorum exacted under
the circumstances had been testified
by him; he was constantly in the
sick room. But the solemn conf
dence, the final understanding, the
supreme valediction that might be
looked for from two human beings
who had passed almost a lifetime
together, had never been uttered.
Now it became clear to him that
they were not to be separated thus.
The opportunity for last word had
come, and she clutched at it with
almost frenzied eagerness. The ex-
preston on her face he could not
misread. She was determined to
say what she had to say. She felt
confident that death would afford
her this grace-consent to hold
herself aloof little while.
John" she began, gathering fire
and force with every word, all the
pent up indignation of years poured
forth at the last, II have had some
thing to say to you for years past.
Now | must speak, or not at all >
"You ought not to agitate your
self Bessie" he said, nervously; it
will do you harm"
Harm y she reiterated with a
gesture of contempt. "You speak OF
harm to a dying woman ! But do
not interrupt me; my time is short.
John am not airaid to die. have
never been what is called religious
woman. l was never so tender
hearted to the poor and afflicted as
| see now that l ought to have been.
But I have done my duty. AS a
wife, as a woman, l have acted up
rightly. When the same moment
comes to you, when the door stands
open before you, as it does to me,
between life and death and you know
you must 60 the dark way. can you
say even SO much for yourself?"
She leaned forward, not looking
exactly at him-he could have borne
that better-but peering as ifinto fu-
turity; seeing,s so he seemed to think,
what lay behind the grave and was
yelled from his own and from all
mortal gaze. The meanness. the
horneliness to the woman, vanished
indeed then.
Something more than personal
feeling-the indignation born Of ST.
lently endured wrong-flashed from
her dying eyes, and white, almost
spectral features. 1t was not the
injured wife, the outraged woman so
much that spoke now to John Har-
dams guilty soul as the voice of con-
science itself, Of awful justice, of
awarding doom.
Il have been a bypocrite to yon
all these years. | have never once
opened my lips to you on the sub
ject of your conduct to me-" she
went on in a supernaturally strong.
clear voice. But do you suppose l
was blind or fool? These long
winter evenings ! dragged out as
best l could alone, did | not know
how they were spent by you2 !
was not going to haunt myself be-
fore the world as an insulted wife to
court the neighbors' pity for the
sights put upon me by my husband.
No; l sat alone amid all the show
SO hateful to me, with unspoken
curses in my heart. What right had
you to treat me thus? Was / the
only one of US two to grow old and
wrinkled ? If our marriage was not
blest with children, the misfortune
was mine as well as yours. These
things rest with the Almighty"
For a moment, a moment only,
her voice swayed to real feeling, as
she continued:
There was o time when life was
hard struggle to US and you be-
haved kindly to me, l would have
laid down my life to make you hap
py. And l was ever true wife to
you. John-you can not deny that.
Do you remember when We kept our
little shop, how l used to sit up till
past midnight ironing your shirts
and mending your clothes? And, the
first time you were summoned to ait
on jury, was 30 proud to have
you 60. / never told you that 1
sold my fathers watch-the very
watch he left me-to buy your black
coat and turn you out like q gentle
man. And now"
Yet one tremor more 40 abe goi|
out the rest of the sentence
sand now, had you treated me
with the Confederation due TO a wife
had you cared for me at all, / should
be the first to say to you on my dy- !