The Penn's Grove record., 1889-08-17

~ don't know. But here is a letter
that ma tell u.s."
Even while Edwardes drew out the
letter his questioner had been called
away. Harry would have followed him,
Did all women write alike, or was he
the victim OF some delusion acting on
his overweight brain?
He looked at the letter again. 1t was
the distracted appeal Of a married
woman, tempted, but striving to rests.
temptation. to the honor and chivalry
Of a man she hadsgrown to love.
And the writer was his wife-1sabel
Edwardes.
II have been wrong, terribly
wrong" she wrote. 81 know it now.
These flying visits to London, and the
friendship that has grown up between
us during the past few months, so nat
urally. from your relationship " my
sisters husband, and constant presence
at her house, have all been a mistake.
Your letter proves it. All, Gerald, pity
me and forgive me, il L have given you
pain; | have been so dull, SO unhappy,
for so long that your sympathy. and
your thouehtfulness and kindness made
me forget the dangers of my position.
If you knew the life l lead at home; II
you could tell what it is TO a girl,
brought up in Paris and London,
among surroundings that were bright
and beautiful. to be transplanted I o a
dreary manufacturing town, with q
household of an old man and three
good, narrow-minded old maids, who
have hardly ever been outside their
native town. and who think the bliss Of
being married TO their brother ought to
keep any oma happy. OF course, l
should have protested long ago; but
when | married l was Is and he 80.
lie had been single too long and had
been taught to think of women as of
two kinds only-Irudges or toys. And
as | was neither one nor the 9th: r l was
a failure. And they have obeyed him
so long at home that his manner at
once puts me in the wrong. Besides
all that, Gerald, l loved him. I have
never complained OF him before. You
know it. But my heart has been dying
in me for four years. And any man
who treats me as a woman with q heart
and head has power to raise more ten
derness in me than the thought Of my
husband can ever do again, l am
afraid.
"You have often told me how yeu
honor and reverence me. You must
prove it by keeping away from me now.
You have your work, your life, before
you, Gerald. Lat me go back home
with feelings of gratitude. as we'll as
friendship, toward you. Don't try TO
see me again; for my sake l ask it.
Don't even write. l can hear about
you from my sister. Aud when. later
on, you marry some good woman. as l
hope and pray you may, remember all
l have tod you. and that women and
men are not SO unlike in their natures
as husbands too often think, Good
night am crying so much l can't
see what l write-and goodbye.
Harry Edwardes read this letter twice
through, and then destroyed it.
As soon as he arrived in London he
drove to his si~ster-in-law's house aud
asked for his wife; and when Isabel
Edwardes-pale and fragile looking,
with startled, dark eyes, and a shrink
ing constraint in her manner-made
her appearance, she was lifted in her
husbands arms and embraced With the
tenderness of a man who RECEIVERS what
he has nearly lost.
They live III London now, and the
next time Harry Edwardes goes abroad
Isabel is going with him. He has real
lied at last that a man may have other
duties toward his wife than providing
her with money to spend and a house
to live in. And he has had the aston
ishing discretion to let the past dead
bury its dead, so that Isabel has never
learned how a neglected husband was
taught a lesson in a CHASTITY and never
to-be-forgotten fashion, by Chance or
Fate.