Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-05-14
FORGED APART
By W. CLARK RUSSELL
Author of the "Wrechc of the Grosrenor,n .
 "A Sailor's Sweetheart," Etc.

"A Sailo''s Sweetheart," Etc.
 Mr. Strangfeld walked into the parlor I where the table was prepared for dinner he held his face toward the window for a while and then, turning round to his wife. who gazed at him from the doorway, not daring to ask questions, but too eager to hear the result of his quest after Cuthbert to divert him by calling to the servant, he said:
 "Why do you speak of her husbandl Do you knoaU that she is marriedg'
 "Do I know7 It was she who said so. Oh, Michael, why do you look at me so wildlys'
 "You do not ask me where have been." he exclaimed, with a grim, feeting smile. "That is strange in one so curious I will tell thee, Jane-I have been to see Dr. 1 Shaw"
 "Michael, what hath Dr. Shaw to say about his son?"
 "Ask me if he knows that he is married. Then, relenting under the twitch of pain in his wife's mild face, he cried out in quiver- ing voice: "Oh, Jane, this man swears that his son is not married-that neither by word nor look has he given him cause to suspect such thing. And he asked me: Would my son, if your daughter was his wife, leave her myseriously, and without message or req, ont Such words hs said. And he hinted at sin and conscience hurrying the scoundrel from the town!"
 Michael" said his wife in hoarse whis- per, going up to him and putting her hand on his arm, "dost thee mean to say that l that"
 | He looked down upon her with stony eyes; whereupon she half shrieked, "No, mol Michael, Michael, our girl is honest Great | Lord, did the vile schoolmaster charge my | ~l~. | and no denial made him! Michael, didst thee let the foul old man say that of hers Oh, my pretty one! Oh, my Jenny! how can they think it of thee! how they think itp Do you call her pure?-she who, by her own confession, has deceived those who love her?" he exclaimed, in slow, bitter voice. "Since she has confessed to one sin, why shall l not you believe in her deeper guilt, until she shall prove that she hath wronged us by de- | ceitfulness only? It is good reasoning to de- clare that, if this man were her husband, he would not have left her without token of his going, and truthful conclusion to come at, that having wronged her, and dreading my wrath and his fathers. he has fled from the place, and, like Q sneaking coward, left her to bear her sin alone"
 Dunlbfounded, the mother listened; then, pluching up heart, replied, "Why do you doubt that she has spoken the truth? If | she be married, she has not snned as you say; | and yet, though you know not for sure whether she be married or not, you condemn her as if she were @ single woman that had fallen Oh, Michael! thy heart is too hard Though she be not married, yet why do you say that she hath sinned9 Poor little one! must her heart be broken by her father?" "It is her fathers heart that will be broken by her!" he cried "Oh, fe! that you should excuse heri"
 He walked hastily to the door, and, seizing hold of the staircase banister, stopped and looked back.
 "Come with me to her bedroom" he said "Ycu shall bear witness"
 "What to do?" replied Mrs. Strangfeld, not offering to move.
 "To get what truth is to be found in her | letters, if she has any," he exclaimed. q will sift this matter to the bottom" His wife turned her back upon him, and he | went upstairs alone. | A little chest of drawers was soon ran- | sacked and pockets of dresses; and the rose wood desk, forced with jack knife for a lever, was promptly explored, and here was more than he wanted. A pile of letters, in- deed, which no carrier had ever delivered either; some of them illegible almost with stains of wet, which, in good truth, they could hardly fail to contract, seeing that the lovers post box was always the grass under the evergreens hard in the corner of the front garden, and close to the railing for ac feasibility from the roadway. | Drawing from his pocket the wooden case that contained his spectacles, and perching the glasses on his nose, Strangfeld went to the window and began to read the letters No tradesman guards his receipted bills more re- igiously than Jenny had preserved these precious missives Folded most carefully were they, with sweet smelling dry flowers among them, and held together with ribbon, and the dates in such accurate sequence only love (after trade) would have patience to order.
 All these letters, with one exception, bore dates prior to Jenny's visit to Sy denham In them he called her sweetheart and mistress, and the signature was always "Bertie." Many of them were hurriedly scrubbed appeals for interviews. The one letter written after the visit to Sydenham was passionate protesta- tion of love- with tender reference to deep endearments and bit of sly humcr at the end, where pious Aunt Rachel and "the puri- tanical deacon of George street" were spoken of as "peop!e easy to hoodwink, because they imagined themselves so very keen-sighted." {" So from beginning to end of these letters was Jenny Cuthbert's darling, his pretty heart, his sweet girl, and the like; never once did he call her his wife, and there was no mention of marriage. Such are the trumpery acci- dents which produce tragedies.
 MT. Strangfeld flung them upon the floor and went down stairs.
 His wife had finished her dinner and was coming away from the house door, where she had been standing while on the lookout for Jenny, whose absence troubled her, though, for the girls sake, she would not complain. Something like disdain was in her face when she looked at her husband. He could not have been guilty of more humbling meanness in her sight than to ransack his daughters bedroom.
 "The dinner is cold" said she, "and have dined. If"
 q have no appetite" he interrupted. "Let the wench clear the table"
 He went to his armchair and seated him self in sullen, rapt attitude, and never stirred all the while his wife helped the gir
 to remove the cloth. Then the poor woman hardly knowing what she ought to do, wa:
 about to leave him alone and was closing tn. door, when he called to her. She came tt
 the table
 "If you are taking her part" said he, il
 borcb concentrated tones Hand iuStifvint