The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-02-27

oohONl
He says ho has known it for several years, and
that he had her several times under his treat
ment for IT. Its q lie, but my father believed
~, and even II 1t were true I'd marry her and
trust 70 love afterward to cure her Of the habit,
If she had itn
1 could nothelp approving this, though my
neart misgave, because l knew that Master
Mcnards whole life was absorbed in his love,
ana tnat without her his life would be o waste
OF INIT Two or three times after this / saw
that my Day was excited and almost wild with
suppressed anger, but he did not speak, until
one evening some weeks after the last CONVEX
satlon, when he said to me:
bod, 1 am gong to put a stop TO this infa-
nous Islander. | have ordered q carriage to
Dc mere at o'clock, and in the meantime you
must pack my trunks, and hold Yourself ready
70 go with Lie. l shall marry Miss Sylvester
tonight, and tomorrow / shall depart for Eu-
rope. l have written to my father, and he can
forgive me or not az he pleases, but / am not
afraid of the final result"
had nothing to do but to obey orders, and
at o'clock, when the carriage came, we were
ready. Mr.. Stratton was out he generally
was at that hour-at his club, and Master
Richard laid the letter for him on the library
table, and we drove way to a hotel, where he
saw his trunks deposited in elegant rooms
which he was as careful in selecting as though
ne and his bride were to inhabit them forever,
instead of for q single day.
L we drove to Miss Sylvester's residence.
her trent was her mother, a scheming,
fashlC-. 2 woman, who, of course, favored
the match, but whom Master Richard did not
like, and had several times said to me hat
when he married he intended to keep his wife
as much away from her mother as possible.
II two ladies were expecting us and were
prepared. In 10 minutes we were all on our way
to the clergyman's. Miss Sylvester, her mother,
MaAtpT- Richard and l,a hri1acYnai1 Mamie a
Swiss girl, very pretty, but, | must say, l did
not like her, though / can say without vanity
that she bad made plenty Of advances to me-.
/ was on the box with the driver.
How supremely beautiful did Miss Sylvester
appear that evening in her plain travelling
dress, as she stood mp before the minister to be
made Mrs. Richard Strattol 1t was all over
in q few minutes, and then she was a wife.
Her mother tried to cry a little, but it was a
failure, as was also Nannie's attempt. 1t was
l that ought to have cried, and l would have
had | been able to see a little into the future.
The marriage over, we drove back to the
brides mothers house, where we left thatlady
and took on board Mrs. Richard Stratten's
trunks and returned to the hotel There was
no shadow upon that marriage, and 1t seemed
as though they were as happy a couple as
could be found anywhere; for though Master
Richard had married against his fathers con-
sent he had not to depend on Mr.. Stratton sfor
money. He had a very fine income of his own,
left him perfectly uncontrolled by his mother,
and the bride also had property of her own,
left by her father. Besides that, ] lad savings
Of about e60G, which i drew from bank and
took with me in case of emergency,
81 gave the Governor a chance to come and
see me or send for me this morning, Bob said
Master Richard, when we got on board the
steamer for southampton, 'but he's mad and
won't come. Well, ] can't help il" and Master
Richard laughed lightly.
We had a delightful trip, and ! am sure moth
ing could haye.been so absurd as anr suspicion
that the story DR.. Willsey told had any truth
in il. To be sure, she was lively, but not any
more SO than any young bride ought to be who
has a young, handsome and rich husband whom
she loves aud who is devoted to her. 1t was
net until we had arrived in London and been
there two weeks, that / saw anything that
looked wrong, and then it was one day when
Master Richard had gone out TO dine with some
American friends, and sent me back always
went everywhere with him-to get some letters
that he wanted.
/ found Mrs. Richard, whom he had left an
hour before perfectly right, under an influence
of either morphine or wine, that was plainly
~perceptible. Mamie was frightened and began
to beg me not to tell Master Richard, and to
declare that she could not help il. ] promised
to say nothing and to detain Master Richard as
long as / could, and charged her to do all she
could to make her mistress sober. But why
dwell on this terrible episode III my lifey We
went to Paris, to Madrid, to Rome, to Naples,
to Vienna, to Berlin, and then back to Paris to
stay. Every day and every place made it more
apparent that DR.. Willsey had been right, and
that all Master Richard could do was useless.
Get the terrible drug or stimulant, she would
I'm some way. / ~yentured one day to suggest
te Master Richard that he shorld place her In
some asylum. but / never hunted 1t again, for
7. - Iw1n Eel n1xla naak1
he said, rather than that. Then | spoke plain
ly about Mamie as pandering to her mistress's
appetite and suggested her discharge, but this
I saw was folly. 1t would be outo of the frying
pan into the fire.
Isaw ITS terrible effect on my mistress, but
more on Master Richard. He gave up all So
ciety, and watchad her like q child. He was
haggard and nervous and no longer like him
seE. Then came a new phase OF the terror.
Denied the deadly poison at home, she, with
the cunning of q maniac, as she w&s, would
steal away from her watchers and remain away
at first. for hours, then for all day, then all
night, and be brought homs by the police.
draggled and without reason. Then, at last,
whsn Master Richard had almost concluded to
place her in ar asylum, with what seemed TO
be an instinct Of the intention, she disappeared
altogether, and every effort of the police and
detectives failed to obtain any trace OF her,
Notwithstanding the large reward
Master Richard was crazed, and so was / al
most The police cody declared that she
would never be seen again alive; that the
strongest probability was that the Some would
eventually give her up. The only theory to
combat this was that Mrs. Richard had worn a
fortune in diamonds when she went away,
something she had never done before, and
which seemed to show she had prepared her
self to stay away.
A month elasped, and one morning Master
Richard was notified by the police that the
body OF his wife lay at the morgue. We went
there instantly, and in spite of the fact that the
bodT had been so long IN the water, jndenti-
fedit She was dressed in plain black silk,
trimmed with lace when she went away, but
the lace was all gone; she was shoeless and
bonnetless and had not a shred of jewelry; ey-
en- her rings were gone, AL her earrings had
been torn from her ears, The police said that
il was q case of robbery, perhaps murder,
and the poor, mutilated, disfignred body found
its r~esting-place in pere Ia Chaise. Mamie,
with more money thad she had ever possessed
before in her life, was sent to her Swiss home,
and Master Richard and / bent our steps to-