The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-24

4 SnCuIQ Wr1I0 again. NHen hOr DQSDdDQ came
into her room with flaming eyes, and with that
letter of the others in his hand, it no more
crossed her mind that he could doubt her. with
all her absorption, all her devotion. than that
the sky would fall She was stunned. And
then angry pride sealed her lips,
and dropped her eyes; and when,
her senses having gathered, she would
have answered him. she had nothing to show
| him to make him disbeeve the evidence of that
! fatal letter, nothing but blotter, of which she
never thought; the blotter that / have to-day;
| that have held to the glass and read more
times than ene My kind Friend: 1t touches
me-the picture you draw of what love may be
to you some day. wish you all that happiness,
and sweet wife to divide it with you. I wish it
| that yon may know if it possible for any other
on earth to know some portion of the bliss that
is my daily and hourly happiness with my dear
husband, who is all in all to me-"
Did she write that" cried the stranger
springng to his feet.
"That and more to the same purpose"
II do not believe it, he returned, sinking
| again into his seat and his words falling like
drops of molten metal.
''You can see it. Seeing is believing, Mar
! gerry says. Then there was silence in the
house for little while-the calm that comes
before the full force of the tempest; and all
at once thunder-clap. The wife had lost her
wedding ring. She was sitting before this fire,
as you sit there. can see her now. How do
know this storya Parts of it my nurse Margery
has told me, and parts Of it-perhaps was born
with the knowledge of them! She had on her
| cold do hutth of tha darnAS
overlap the pale straw-tint of the lustrous dress
and jewels till she seemed thing of fame her
| SELF She had been pining since the day her hus-
band came in with that letter: possibly her hand
was thinner than it had been. A coal of fire
snapped out from the great logs burning and
roaring before her and touched her draperies
She bent to gather up the garment with a quick
| fling of the white hand, and then the ring was
| gone.
''Now, what madness possesses the man."
cried Jasper in a fury, coming in at the mo-
ment Of the cutlery that she had lost the ring,
to answer with sheer, Impossible! There was
no ring to lose. There was no ring upon your
hand The ring you gave your lover could not
be on your hand to lose Nor do rings leave
hands so summarily as thatr If there is strength
in any mortal woe to work still further woe,
the eyes that were raised to mis- should have
| haunted HIM
"And SO they did! And so they did" came the
piercing cry again.
"'You forget she said, that you are speak
ing to your wife, and she moved past him with
such a grace as that with which a queen might
ascend a scaffold. And presently they came
and brushed the hearth, and they came and
scattered the fire, and moved the logs and
sifted the ashes, searching for that ring But no
ring was found"
| ''No ring was found!"
| "Then Jasper went to his wife's room You
have been in the core of my heart he said.
| You have been my heart itself, my life's blood,
| my life! But tear you out! l cast you by!
| fling you to the winds, though l fling heart and
soul and life with it, until you give me back that
ring gave you that ring with which l be-
/ trothed you, with which welded you when
| thought you pure and true as know you base
and falser She looked at him again moment,
hestating, doubtful, and then she flung herself
upon him with tears, and kisses, and tender
| cries. And he-with curse he wrenched him
self free he threw her from him as if she had
been an iron gyve. Her maid Margery was
| lnere TO see. one lei, Aer ueAu A1tIlAS ZIG
heavy fender
| ''She fell" said the stranger hoarsely.
| ''She fell and lay there moment The man
was not brute-only an infuriated husband"
| HE was not brute"
| "He turned. crying out, MY God, she is dead!
She is goner She struggled up on one hand
| No. she said looking at him steadily, I am not
gone. shall never go till give you back that
ring! And then she tainted in Margery's arms;
| and he strobe from the room, and out of the
| door, and God knows where-his wife never
knew! L was born,' cried Jasper, his voice
rising like sough of the gale, mo great while
| afterward' name this child Jasper for his
father, she sighed. oh, Margery,' she cried,
hanging on my nurses neck. do not let me die!
Do not let me die! 1 said that l would not
| leave this earth till I had that ring cannot;
! oh. swear by Heaven will not diev And how
was that, Margery, dearf murmured Jasper
his shrill voice falling into tone of strange in
decision, did she grow fainter? Did she kiss her
babe and close her eyesa Did she def Was it
you or that other Margery who cried in sobs:
1.-The best mistress, the best wife earth; this
time she has gone indeed and she promised she
would never go till she gave him back that ringF'
| Whichever woman it was 1t was all mistake
She had not gone. She has never gone. She is
here still. She is here to night"
"Tonightw
'sYou may see her. cried Jasper, vehemently
Sin her flame colored robe. sitting there beside
the FIRE. the fan in the white hand shielding the
face from the glow; you may see her sweep
her draperies aside when the coal
has snapped as some great nail in the
old timbers snaps you may see her wildly search
the place about for that ring; and then the logs,
/ the embers. the GOALS the ashes scatter this way
and that as if a shell exploded in the blaze, and
all is still again. Or you May see her in the
room above; sometimes all night there the scene
repeats itself; you hear her sobs. her cries, her