River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-04-23

that she would be the chosen mistress
of the stately home where the girls had
spent their lives
Up and down her own room Celia
walked.
He loved Hester, and the girl she hat
ed would have love, wealth, position.
while she would have ten thousand
pounds.
Il would dye nv hands red again,
she cried, before Hester should reign
hers triumphant. After all, my crime
might as well not have been; vet /
could not have trusted him. Had he
| lived, ] cannot tell what trick he would
have played me. :"
Il was to destroy the will, and then
as nearest-of-kin he would inherit all,
and to me he would give one third. But
the fool, to never dream the other plot
in my mind, which his coming would
thwart-a plot that will at least part
Hester and Guy, and then perhaps ]
will win. 1t IS my last hope
Whatever her plot, she played it well,
/ for when, three or four months before
the expiration of the year, Guy asked
Hester to be his wife, she simply an
swered him mo"
She gave no explanation, only turned
coldly away, but had he seen her in the
| seclusion of her own room he would
have known, no matter what had caused
! her refusal, that she loved him.
my love, my Iove!" she cried; though
all unworthy, | cannot tear you from
my heart.
All, what weeks would have been
saved-at least, what weeks of agony -
had Guy known the truth, had he known
of gypsy mother who accused him of
wrecking her child's life, had cursed
him with mothers curse, for the gyp-
sy girl who had stood under the tree,
then fed at Cleta's words, lay in her
grave, and her last words to her moth
er had been the name of her lover, Guy
Singleton.
"My curse around him and around
the woman he weds," she cried in
frenzy.
Was it any wonder, then. that when
Guy Singleton asked Hester to be his
wife, white and trembling she refused,
turning coldly away from his pleading?
1t was then that Cleta played her
cards well, for Guy found a sympathi-
ger in her, and, manhke, Guy found
sweetness in tat least, balm for the
blow Hester had given him.
Then it dawned upon him that this
girl, with her eyes of blue and hair of
gold loved him with a passion he had
never dreamed of.
What man is not fattered by a
womon's love particularly if she is
Young and beautiful-and this girl was
both.
With soft, sweet smiles she won him.
Not that his heart yield to her spell,
but his senses, dazzled by her smiles
and sympathy united, put his better
Judgment to flight, though his heart
was, and always would be, Hester's
One of the girls he must wed, OF
leave them both penniless. All, had he
dreamed Of Hester's pain and hopeless
ness Of heart he might have less quick
w fled for consolation to another.
A few me lths later-almost at the ex-
piration of the year-Guy Singleton
made Cleta his wife. Crime and sin
had conquered.
She was mistress of her uncle's
wealth and wife of the man she adored.
She knew her husband did not love
her, but she had triumphed. In time
he would learn to love her. She must
win his love.
Yes, she had triumphed; but did the
memory of the man she had sent before
his Judge cease to haunt her morning,
noon, or night?
Hester bore her pain IN silence. If
gentle, she was far from weak, and
though her face grew paler; her eye
more dreamy, none dreamed of the
weary days and wakeful nights that
were hers. She had loved Guy with all
the strength of her heart, but he had
proved unworthy.
Did the knowledge-had the knowl-
edge killed ner love? No-a thousand
times mol Love lived, though it lay
bleeding. All, how we'll she loved him
she never knew until he was the hus-
band OF another!
Her life stretched bare and hopeless
before her, death would have been vel
come. or at least she believed it would
have been in the first great desolatlon Of
her soul.
But then in Cleta's triumph-in the
very height of it, the bolt of Gods ven
geance fell, when the end of all things
| came.
One day while out riding, a man
leaped from a grove near where she was
passing.
A wild cry left her lips. Dead or
alive, Vernon Singleton stood before
her. Heavenly Father, what difference
did it make? Dead had he come to
haunt her living to drag her from her
high estate?
A knocking laugh broke from the
mans lips as he caught the reins, and
| then-tnen the horse reared, swerved,
rose on its hind legs, and Cleta lay white
and senseIess on the ground.
Without a look of pity, Vernon
| glanced down on the marble face, and
the pallid lips now fecked with blood,
then turned and left her there till others
found her.
They carried her home, but the doe
tors verdict ended all hope. She must
die.
All, what change comes to our spirit
at the hour of death. Then, indeed, the
eyes see clearly, and a terrible fore
| knowledge that fills the soul with awe
comes to us.
knowing that it was her eathbed,
knowing that all she had sinned for was
going from her now, she sent for Hes
ter and Guy, and told them all. The
story of her marriage with Vernon.
whom her uncle had disinherited short
" after his wild career.
How, when all believed him dead, he
returned; and then the story of her
crime-her crime that had failed for
consciousness had come back to Vernon
when he struck the water, and the
wound was scarcely even dangerous.
Then she turned to Hester.
Hester, [ led that gypsy woman to
believe that Guy was the lover who
wrecked her daughters life, but it was
Vernon"
Her breath came short and labored,
and gray shadow fell over her face.
"GuY-Guy-I-I- All, God
have mercy!"
The next instant she was pleading
before the throne.
One year later Hester and Guy We're
married. and they never speak Cleta' S
name. which, if not forgotten, is not
willingly remembered, save by Hester,
whose gentle heart cannot think but
with pity Of the beautiful. sn-stained
woman who lies in her grave.
| Vernon Singleton never came near
them, but he sent a messenger fol