St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-13
TEN YEARS LATER.
,.rOor, Pretty Nettie. She Loved Him
SILL,

And pretty Nettie DevereauX trembled
from head to foot as she glanced at his card.
Tell him." said she 10 the servant,
''that will be down in ten minutes-for, -
said Nettie to herself, 81 cannot go down
like this must calm myself down to or
binary GOODNESS"
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 "a
pidly up and down the room number of
times.
Nettie was by no means vain woman,
although she was remarkably pretty one,
and the half-anXious glance she had given
her reflection in the mirror 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 carries its weight, had first Of
all asked herself the very feminine but nat
Ural question:
viii he think me changed?''
The mirror told her, as he did ten min
utes 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 90 down.
Poor, pretty Nettie. She loved him still,
although she had not seen him in all these
years, and he, as well as herself, had mar
ried-another!
Self-control, ever one of her characters
ties, 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 human
resolves, they often melt away before other
instincts more deeply human, And the
pleasant greeting resting 50 firmly on her
lips. and the modified phrase so carefully
planned in his, vanished into thin air VIII en-
they met.
Harry
'Nettiel"
And the two. so long parted. gazed with
happy freedom into each others eyes.
a hundred questions they asked and an
swered. The dead, the married and gone
were all talked over; and old scenes and old
occurrences recalled.
Then thought came to Nettie, bearing
with it a sickenng dread, a miserable.
crushed feeling about her heart.
Harry was, after all, not the Harry of
old, though, heaven help her! she loved
him as tenderly as ever.
The question on his part-'Nettie, will
you now tell me about yourself?"-had
awakened her from the delicious dream. As
III the darling light of a single flash of
lightning innumerable objects can be clearly
discerned so in that one painful instant the
hopeleSsneSs. the unfathomable depth. the
very sinfulneSs OF her love, came before her
The sight Of his dear face chased away every
other feeling, but she could, she would,
crush it now, now ndfOreycr.
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 ''to 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.
i Will be brief. then" she replied, but a
touch of passion trembled on the would-be
tones Of ice. You remember the night we
parted. ten years ago last Juiy-yes? Then.
OF course, you remember the rest--how Won
said unkind words to me. and that stImp
me to the quick. 1 babe you go. and for
ever. L knew not what else to say. or how
else to punish you. But you. taking me at
my word, went, and. oh. Harry, never re-
TUNED! When l said what | did that night
my heart was breaking, and when | saw
your marriage two months later in the pa
pers it laid me at deaths door For MANY.
many weeks my life hung on a thread. and
never since have Tor a single day been INV
old self again"
''Nettie. Nettie," he interrupted. ''you
know tried several times 10 see you and 10
explain, but always missed you"
Yes; l knew, and avoided YOU. How
could you explain. or ] listen and Won mar
ried to another woman?"
but you, too, married, and were happy.
were you not?'
81 married---what else could do? I WAS
unhappy at hOme---you worse than dead Ia
me. But was never happy Arthur Dey-
ereauX loved me dearly, but your Image was
ever before me, haunting my thoughts by
day, my dreams by night Happy she
continued. bitterly. happy when | broke
my husbands heart.---for. Harry. talked
Of you i'll my sleep and so he got to know
my secret. and. as l tell you, it broke his
heart---it killed him!
81 did not know it," she continued. sun
iii he was on his q, ath-bed. Then he told
me how L used to cay In my sleep. and call
hun Harry. An. i would have called him
back to life then. and loved him. too. if il
could have been. but it was toolate,''
And the tears chased each other down her
checks as she spoke.
But" continued she, however much
may have wronged him by thus loving Won.
| have been more than punished for the
crime. The ample fortune he left me was
swept away, and |, the proud Ncttie am
only governess, glad of tie paltrv salary
wherewith to maintain his child and mine
And now you have all that | can tell Won:
except perhaps. that YOUR coming tonight
has made me more wretched than have
ever been before. Harry! Harry! why did
you Gomez"
''Nettie, darling. l have come to ask VOL
to forget and forgive"
And Harry RainscrOft held out his arms
Indignant and hurt. she turned. without
word, to leave the room, but quickly
catching and retaining her hand he muir.
INJURED sadly:
''Nettie. if you could only know how +
too, have sutfered--how l was inveigled into
that Wretched marTiags--yOu would never
turn from me like that"
Il have no doubt you have suffered. >
she returned, and that your married life /,
an unhappy one; but so long as it exists Won
must bear it alone; and. Harry" she added
wildly. ''never--neyer seek me again"
why, do you not knOw?--did YOU moi
hear?" and he looked rather strangely.
Hear what, Harry?" faint dawnina
light creeping over her face.
That she, my wife, died in a madhouse
more than a year ago"
1t was well he was near to catch her in
his strong, loving arms, for she would have
fallen TO the floor in the sudden reaction
from hopeless grief to exquisite Joy.
Bearing her to the sofa, he whispered,
gladly: