Nevada County picayune., 1886-05-05
THE COINER'S WIFE,
BY V. E. REYNOLDs.

ter Miss Braithe had brought her. "You will like Harry, I'm sure; ev, erybody does. l wish he'd settle down. Fve often told him so, and he'd laugh and say he was going to when he found the woman he wanted. The woman who shares Harry Leighton's home will be for. innate, if sho knows how to appre. ciate home ana a true heart" Miss Braithe looked away with a sigh and a shadow deepening in her eyes.
 Harry Leighton came home . few days after his letter. Miss , Braithe coming home from her days drudgery In the little school house, saw a young man sitting in the veranaa..St Ruth's feet, and knew that the nephew of whom she had heard so much had come. 'Harry thls is Miss Braithe." !" { Ruth said, as she came up the steps.
 He rose and gave her his hand with a pleasant ease of manner that rnt aside any constraint or formality. He was a handsome, frank faced man, and commanded her respect at once. It was a very pleasant ever;ns that they passed together. He had read much, and he wis a man who. could talk of what he had seen and read, in d pleasant, entertaining way, Miss Braithe felt that her new friend was rather superior to the average men she knew. That was the beginning of a friendship.
 l think neither of them dreamed, at first, of it's ripcning into any thing more than friendship. But Ruth, with keen eyes, saw that Harry was in love at last, with the quiet faced little teacher, who never told anything of her past life.
 Whatever it had i+ccr, Ruth vt S sure of one thing. it had held some very painful and bitter experiences and their shadow was over her yet, and their memory haunted her like a troubled dream.
 "Don't you know anything about her?" asked Harry one day.
 "Only what l have told you," answered Ruth. "She came here. Said she wanted to get away from the city. Pm sure she's got a good face. It's a pare face, and l have perfect faith in her, if she doesn't choose to take me into her conf dsnce."
 That night Harry told Miss Braith that he ao' ed her.
 "She tried 10 stop him.
 Her face was very pale, and the shadow in her eyos was deeper than ever.
 "You ought not to have told me this," she cried, ''or instead o1 that, I ought not to have listened If l had been frank with your aunt as 1 ought 10 have been when l came here, it would have saved ut this. I have deceived you both ana wife"
 She laid her head down in bel hands, and wept like a child.
 Harry stood there in silent pain and surprise.
 q want to toll you my story briefy,n she said. You have q right te know it. and when you have heard it, you may not think so harshly of me-
 "I was a child-a mere child when 1 was married to Richard Braithe. My father, whose vii had always oeeh my law, forced me into the marriage"
 q was always afraid of the mar whose name I bore. There wa: something sinister and crafty il his face and ways, and he wat cruel to me from the first. don't think he ever cared for me but I had somt money that came to me from my mother and he wanted that, and through some in iluence over my father, he got hin to favor his suit, aud my youtf : was made miserable by the mar fiage that was worse to me thal death."
 ''Richard Braithe was a gambler , and spendthrift, and my fortune was gone in little while.
 "Then he began to go down 1T the world, deeper and deeper il .t