Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-10-17

known and loved as a small child, CaIista Winsley, was also yachting with those friends of his, and in a flash of intuition, proceeding very likely from my recollection of that most charming and clever child, my heart sank and bled for poor Agatha. She heard nothing of q young lady on board until one day there was an account in the papers of a frightful storm ill which this yacht had gone through several hours of extreme peril, but at length had happily gained one of the southern ports damaged, but in safety.
 Agatha read this, panting and deadly white. Suddenly she looked me in the face, with white set look painful to witness
 "Who is Miss Winsley?" she asked.
 I told her briefly, and she said no more. This was the first time Agatha had shown any reticence, and it was bad sign It was the first sowing of the seed jealousy in the hot soil of her hcegt.
 What had happened I never knew till long after, but must tell it here Ca!ista Winsley was not one of those surprising beauties who slay with glance, but there was charm in her face, voice and manner that would re- main q charm long after paint, powder and dye had been Intellectually resorted to by those beauties i'll their hand to hand struggle with uncourteous old time.
 Pleased, attracted even at first sight before many days Of close companionship, Capt. At4 SoiiS IdI 1utO bLS OeepS Ol a very different sort of love from that inspired by poor Agatha.
 Nothing might have come of it even then, but that tha$ fatal storm revealed the two to one another, as moments of danger will do. l cannot blame the man very greatly. They really thought their last hour had come, and as they were to die together, why not sweeten the bitter hour by tho uplifting joy of ac- knowledging what they had become to one another? Such moments are not premedi- tated; heaven keep OUT sea walls sound be- cause no one knows when the hurricane is at hand Miss Winsley's ignorance of his tie of honor had helped, of course, to undermine his bulwarks. He landed in England, then, bound in honor to one woman, and in heart and word to another, eu uncomfortable plight every one must acknowledge, even in this age of light regard for such matters. He avoided coming to town all that season, and Agatha was dragged through the regula- tion round likc wild animal in leash.
 The owner of that yacht, however, and his wife were i'll town, and from them rumor came that Capt Haringfeld was engaged to Miss Winsley. They thought it a pleasing romantic finish to the stirring episode of tho | storm.
 | As Agatha's whole interest lay in getting l people to talk even in tke remotest fashion | about what concerned Capt. Haringheld and l as she displayed a marvellous deal of what I may call cunning in this pursuit, the report | of this engagement was not long in coming | to her.
 I never saw-l hope may never seq again a creature so wildly distraught, so mad against suffering as she was, when she ran in to me, haggard and death pale, to tell me, and to wrench from mo an assurance that it could not be true.
 Sha o oo1 ait +ol h; for she wrote it at tho dead of night, in spite of my prayers, and posted it herself by day break
 Somehow blamed tho man more for not answering it by return of post than for any, thing else he had done, for whereas the rest was the outcome of the weakness of human nature, this, to me who saw Agatha dying by inches in that suspense, seemed absolute cruelty. And yet no doubt it was the bitter est moment of a lifo above tho average in freedom from stain, when Capt Haringfield finally wrote and dispatched Q missi7e which left brand upon his self esteem forever
 If only-if only it had befallen one of the many girls who can turn from one man tc another, if only she had been strong or shal low, or anything but what she was, a creat ure born to the sad inheritance of un balanced passion, tainted blood, powerless l brain!
 She tainted dead away when she had reaG the letter, then sSe set her will to sullen pur pose put all the money sine had into hel purse, and walking out of the house as thougl to pay call near at hand, got into a cab ant had herself conveyed to Victoria Station She actually found her way to tSe town ii which Capt. HariEgfcld was quartered anC sent from hotel to desire him to come anc see her there.
 A telegram from him was the first thing
 heard of it. He sent It ill her name "Comt to mo at once, entreat."
 It was the best thing he could have don,
 under the circumstances, for it covered tn, fatal step she had taken. sent Tom Q he
 father, and took the next train from Vic toria, arriving somewhere about midnight.
 Capt Haringfeld met mo at the station il
 a distracted condition. He heaped anathe
 mas upon his own head He was no longe
 cynical or sentimental, but just a man over
 whelmed with remorse and self reproach
 with the horrible consciousness that he mus do cruel wrong to one of two women, botl . Of whom loved him devotedly, though afte
 different fashions. It must take an extraor dinary degree of vanity, hope, to reconcil
 a man to such situation.
 It was beyond words; my lips were sealed
 All could say was to give it as my solemn opinion that by some means or other he mus
 leave England.
 When Agatha had ceased raving she wa
 more dead than alive. took her home nex
 day to my house, and her family never kne, |, that she had been anywhere but there. Soo after Tom and took her abroad, and I shal never forget what we went through. Capt. Haringfeld went to join tho troop in South Africa. I did not expect Agath , to recover quickly, but I had seen sue satisfactory recoveries-not but what scal ] arc left behind for life, generally, showin 3 in some new turn of disposition that I was hopeful. I had no idea of tb s concentrative power of a nature like her She brooded day and night. The woun was as fresh at the end of six weeks as the beginning. No change of scene, | s society, made any difference But sE = seemed to have learned to live-at least f I thought until took her back home. N she had not learned to ive-her constitutiQ
 was not one that could endure such wrencl e She became ghastly spectacle of thinne v and pallor. This lasted for two or thrt y months, when Capt. Haringfeld was Sc,