Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-08-01

offend again. will 90 your bid.
ding"
1T needs not, If you are unwilling"
she answered proudly. Il sue no
mans favor if he wishes 10 retain
it,"
And with no other words she LEFT
him.
lie went out into the quiet street,
and the morning air struck chill and
cold on his flushed and fevered face.
1.-The first time q woman has ever
refused me anything" he said TO him
self. land, strange TO say, the novelty
of the sensation is not unpleasant. l
wish | was not going away so soon;
this girl interests me. With such a
scoundrel OF a father, | wonder where
she has derived her notions of honesty
and purity. What is this Frenchman
to her, | wonder? There can be but
one tie possible between one o? her
youth and beauty and man of his
years; she said he was young"
Thus he unused. going homeward
through the quiet city. He was a man
of wide power, OF great wealth, of
boundless self-indulgence. In all his
life he had but to ask and to have, yet
he had calm wisdom that kept even
his worst passions in restraint end
made them ministers TO his pleasure,
not masters of his life.
when civilization has laid thou
sand conquests at my feet why should
| waste a second thought on the beau;i-
full barbarian" he asked himself i'm
patiently. But he could not answer
the question, nor could he withhold
the thought.
Meanwhile, Niuette went up to her
room, her face sill burning with its
scorch of shame and Indignation, her
heart beating with the quick agoniled
thoughts of mingled pain and anger.
"How dare hep" she said TO herself
again and again. 1.-The lips that he
once kissed no other shall ever touch
while have life and will to prevent
| it,"
And she threw herself down and
wept the hot scorching tears
of utter despair and pas
sionate longing, wondering whether
any mortal power could ever cut
asunder the messes OF the net that
bound her now.
"IIe will never know, 'she sobbed,
love, il you could but have trusted me
once, it would have been we'll with us
now!'
She lay face down on the floor, deal
and blind to all but the sense OF her
own misery-the terror of her own
despair. TO think that he, her hus-
band, was SO near 10 her, breathing
the same air, yet far removed from all
speech or sight OF her yearning voice
or her longing eyes-this indeed was
a misery that she scarce had strength
to endure.
She tried to think calmly, dispas-
sionately, but she could not. OF one
thing only was she conscious, that her
own sin, her own weakness had
brought this i'll upon him-that he
lived on now a prisoner at the mercy
OF his foes, subject 10 all the priva-
tions, enduring all suferings-alone,
broken-hearted, espairing-and she
had given him this fate to bear. The
gray chill shadows wrapped her pros
trate form, the first sun-rays stole
through the dim and desolate cham
Der. She rose and shivered and gazcd
around, her eyes dull and blind with a
mist OF pain, and the slow sicken-
ing stabs Of memory piercing
her heart afresh. All she had pre-
viously endured seemed as nothing 20
what she suffered now. Nov, when
she had gazed upon his face once
more, and read there the tale of her
own sufferings, and the scorn of her
imputed sins. what could he believe OF
her but the worst? Had he not seen
her with all the evidences of wealth
and fashion, throned and surrounded
with luxury while he had dragged his
weary limbs past her, Il prison
err in the power OF those among
whom she dwelt in splendor and in
safety?
''No power on earth could make him
believe in me now" so she told herself
|
wondered how long her life would
drag itself on, seeing that life meant
nothing for her now but keen sense
of suffering that memory never dead
ened, and regret could never kill.
Slowly and YEARLY she rose and went
to the little window. and stood there
gazing with throbbipg, aching eyes al
the splendor of the sunrise as it swept
the gray hues of the dawn from the
face of the smiling sky and flooded all
the earth with light and glory. "Only
TO look at that would have made me
happy once" she thought, ''but now
The thought ended in q sob. One
great grief and one great passion had
absorbed all power of Joy in any gift
OF nature, in any phase of life. Ii
seemed that one thing alone could sci
her free-death!
TO BE CONTINUED.