The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-05-31


back by your love, and into our after para
disc of home should come this serpent
Shame, to writhe about me, neither thou
nor | could escape its sting" She heard
and knew his resolve was taken. Her lips
grew cold and tremulous, and lay still and
unresponsive beneath his kiss. Carl
she whispered, presently, when do you
leave me.'' Tomorrow he said.
To -morrowi'' She echoed his words as
if they measured the whole span of re-
naming life.
All through that summer night they sat
together hand in hand Seldom they spoke,
and then but Of the trifles of the minute; Of
the midnight stiffness or the morning chill.
They kept such vigil as wife and husband
might keep beside the coffined form Of a
first born child. Something new had come
into life rather than something gone out Of
it. Their cup was fuller by one bitter drop,
and all the draught was sadder and sweetcr
for the fulness.
At dawn they parted, and for ever. There
came u time when letters ceased, when
days and weeks of anxious waiting would
have rendered any news acceptable. But
Carl disappeared utterly and left no trace.
For long she lived on the hope that he
might come back when the prisons
| opened their doors. The war ended,
life began to flow back into the old
long dried channels, but word of Carl
there was none. A slow and subtle
change began to be wrought in Kate, by
disappointment She who had loved all
things, came to hate with bitter hate the
very name Of the South. That name was to
her the name of the mnrderess who had
slain her love. The turbulence of an un-
! quiet spirit made the olden divine whis-
| perings less and less audible. God seemed
| remote; prayer, the useless wall Of neg
| lccted child. So passed nearly fifteen
years. Aunt Ruth died and Kate lived on
alone with the old servant whose connec-
tion with the household antedated her earli-
est recollection. II was toward the close Of
this period that Kate Wilton became
attracted to Spiritism. A stranger had be-
come resident in the village and with all the
zeal Of a propagandist she had sown the
seeds Of her ISM in every promising
SOIL To Kate the possibility of hearing a
voice from beyond, above all his voice,
was enough to stir her nature to its depths.
! She became an easy convert, and was the
! first member of the growing circle that
held its weekly gatherings at the houses Of
those who befriended the new doctrine and
| its disciples. Many messages came to her,
| and, in time, these left her altogether in.
| different to the loss Of the Quieter voices
| she had been won't to hear and heed. She
| experienced strange extremes of feeling.
| Now she would be in ecstasy at the thought
| OF Carls nearness; again the nearness
would seem as mocking, as unreal, as intan-
| gible, as the matcrialized form she some
| times gazed on. But an idea was slowly
| taking form in her mind. She had
SO longed to stand by his grave, to be able
to raise some memorial BETTING her love.
Here was something real and definite to
seek and work for. Why might not these
spirit powers guide her in . quest for his
resting place. The burden Of all her ques-
tions of the oracle grew to be: Tell me
where they have lain him. At last, an
answer seemed to come back which, with
out being definite, as she desired, gave her
assurance that, when she stood by her
lovers grave, she should grow conscious
of the nearness of the precious dust whose
in her thirty fourth year, she turned her
| face to the land Of the people she
loathed and went on pilgrimage to seek the
scpulcher of the man she loved. At the
| first a strange excitement filled her She
| felt as if she was going to keep an appointed
| tryst with her lover. But, in time, her ex.
citement Wore away: her step grew heavier
and her frame more languid, in those long
months of pilgrimage. Many an eye fol
lowed her furtively, as she walked among
the graves that rolled like sea pillows
about her. Many sympathetic wish hov
cred, unrecognized. above her, as she
stopped to lay handful of flowers on some
unnamed grave. From place to place she
journeyed seeking the sign that never
came. She grew nervous; sleep and appe
tite failed her, but not her courage. She
was in Virginia now, and took the train al
length to come to fredericksburg The
spring was here: the air was full Of it.
She vaguely wondered if it was this
that gave her such feeling of languor and
made her so drowsy. Occasionally, as she
lifted her heavy lids, she became conscious
of the watchful gaze Of pair Of keen
dark eyes, She wondered vaguely if an,
thing was amiss in her attire to attract at
tention, and lapsed again into drowsiness
the flush of fever deepening on her cheek
Presently tho conductor passed through
the car, and the owner of the dark eyes
who was also the owner of an empty sleeve
touched his arm and engaged him in q
whispered conversation, which, from theil
glances, concerned the sleeping lady. IL
a moment or two the conductor took the
vacant seat at her side. and, after address
ing her twice without response, shook hel
her arm gently, with the result only
Of causing her to open, for q moment, eye:
that seemed already too dull for seeing
Another whispered conversation with the
dark eyed gentleman. whom the conductor
courteously addressed as Colonel, and u lit
tie later, when the train stopped at Holl,
Springs, Colonel and conductor together
half led and half lifted tho fevered trav
eler from the train, into waiting carriage
which presently rolled away into the dusk
And that was the end Of Kate Wilton.
pilgrimage. 1t was mid April when sh,
opened her eyes languidly upon the room