Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-06-03

She grew frightened at my hesitation.
"Do not say that it is gone" she cried,
rising quickly, and grasping my arm.
"Oh, God would not so affiict me! Look,
look, everywhere for it, beg, pray you. "
Her hands shook so on my arm that l
could feel the quivering of her thin fingers.
tried to think to whom I sold the cab
met that day; then it flashed on me that
there had not been one in the catalogue.
Had I made mistake and sent it West
with the bric-a-brac lot? If so it could
be recovered. I felt glad for my error, but
the poor little woman mistook my silence
and broke down completely, sobbing so
pitifully that I knew then that some great
cause was hidden beneath her desire to re-
claim the old cabinet.
"It is more to me than life or DEATH" she
cried out passionately, looking straight
before her. 1t means my children's hon.
or. Listen and you will be influenced by
my great need to find this cabinet for me.
1 believe it contains the certificate of my
marriage and children's baptism, without
which I cannot lay claim to my husbands
estate in France. 1t is not the money 1
want" she added, with proud spirit-"I
cannot bear to touch that; but my children
shall not be robbed of the right to their
fathers name."
She paused to look at me. I felt as if a
severe tension upon her nerves had given
way at last, and. crushed by her fear of the
cabinet being lost to her, her silence and
reserve had broken down, and that she ap-
pealed to me unconsciously in her need.
The shadowy pageant passed to and fro
across the mirror, and as she went on pas
sionately with her story it seemed to me l
saw the whole sad episode pass in review
on the dim surface.
"Fifteen years ago my husband deserted
me. Evil influences led him astray, and,
while for my children's sake would have
pardoned him, never saw him again or
heard one word of him until learned
through the papers that he wasdead, and had
left an estate to his wife and children.
"I could not grieve, except that he died
in his sin; unforgiven by me. was poor,
for he left me only the household furniture,
and have toiled all these years to main
tain my children. So, for their sakes, I ap-
piled to lawyer to obtain possession of the
estate.
"Oh, the shame, the despair, of finding
another claimant in France to my children's
name and honor.
"I must prove our claim as wife and chill
dren,' said the careful French lawyer, by
the production of the marriage and baptis-
NAL certificates!'
"And knew not where they were ~
"The minister was dead, the witnesses
gone I knew not where.
II felt as if my carelessness had dishonor-
ed my children, and for days could get no
relief from my horrible anxiety, until by a
flash, as if from heaven, remembered that
I had placed the certificate with other pa
pers in the old cabinet that had parted
with to Clutchem& & Keep. Iwent to them !;
they had sent it here for sale, and now
you"
She broke down with a moan of despair.
1t was more than I could stand. That cry
and the pitiful story forced me into action
at once.
"You shall have back the cabinet, mad
am," said, solemnly, as if devoting my
life to its search.
"Oh, sir! you will do noble deed if you
but find it for me-" she cried, gratefully,
looking at me with beaming eyes.
Her face looked at me as if halo came
over it, and dimly felt why I had
stood bareheaded before her. Truly 1 had
stood in deaths presence-the death of hope
and love in this poor woman's life-the re-
QUEEN of gladness and impulse.
She left me with hopeful smile, taking
my hand with a pretty grace, and I watch
ed her, in the mirror, 60 down the shadowy
room into the sunlight of the street, and
the shadows seemed to fall from her forever.
1 telegraphed the Western firm. They
had the cabinet, and returned it at once; so
that before many days the little nervous
fingers were searching, in the presence of
the lawyer and myself, for the precious pa
pers.
She found them! I shall never forget
her face when she held them up. The halo
was there, as she said, so softly:
"Thank God!"
And it seems to cling to me still, and to
make me think how much misery our evil
passions can work through selfishness and
thoughtlessness.