The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1889-11-14

ev en1nR, when we ueuDerately barred out
everything and everybody, determined to
devote this time at least to our college
days.
Ellen very nearly filed the great easy
chair, but her slippered feet upon the fem
der still slender and dainty, suddenly re-
called to me that evening when we sat in
that same fashion, by the fire in the Lad
les Dormitory' of c. College, and talk
ed about supernatural manifestations. I
laughed quietly to myself as inquired
ELLEN, do you remember the "Strange
Experienced"
Ellen smiled ever so slightly and then
looked sober.
at is the one thing in my life that can
not understand" she said. ibid you ever
hear the sequell"
THE sequel9 No, indeed. Is there Sc
quelm l asked incredulously.
Eyes, there is a sequel, and q very re-
markablc one. You may call it a coinci-
dence, if you Nike, but must confess to
have felt sort of creeping sensation when
heard it. About two years ago l met a
lady at dinner party whose face seemed
strangely familiar but whose identity was
completely lost She was dressed plainly
in black and her hair was quite white al
though her face was not old. I was so
tormented by the half knowledge of her
face that asked our hostess to present me
to her.
"'Ah, you noticed her. She certainly has
a remarkable face. and her history CORE
spends to it. This is the first time she has
come out since her husbands death
"'Her face seems familiar, think must
have met her before
''By this time we had reached her. She
was the center of brilliant and animated
group and appeared to be the leader in the
conversation. Her face was a study. 1t
made me think of battle field where the
cannon were half hidden by the spring
flowers, and the graves were seen Only as
green undulations. At the first available
opportunity my friend presented her as
Mrs. Kimball Instantly knew where I
had seen her. We talked a little as people
do at such places and then parted, with the
determination on my part to know her bet
ter.
my friend had certainly described her
face in calling it remarkable You know
we used to think her very plain, almost
ugly. In fact the strange experience hing
ed upon our simultaneous thought in that
very particular" Ellen laughed a little
and then went on.
"She did not seem to me nearly as plain
as had remembered her. Her gray hair
softened the effect Of her face, think, and
that alert, suspicious glance that used to so
amuse US was quite gone. She had the
chastened look of one who had come up
through great tribulation. found her
quite accessible, indeed, glad to make new
friends in a strange city, and when she
found that l had spent four years in c.
she treated me like an old, familiar friend.
She was usually quite reserved, but she
gave me her confidence with at least no con-
scious effort on my part to gain it. Natur
ally, felt interested in her, particularly as
we girls used to speculate so much about
her and her husband, and supposed ! may
as well confess to little curiosity at the
bottom; but as soon as had learned to know
her. loved her too we'll to wish to pry into
her secrets. Little by little, however, she
told me about herself. will condense the
story for you"
"You needn't" answered. It is as in
teresting to me as to- be- continued-i in our
next"
Ellen gave her shoulders that little de-
precating shrug that used to be so charm
ing when she weighed a hundred pounds or
SO, and went on with her story.
'She was an orphan and an heiress. She
had been educated on rather a severe plan,
and her education instead of softening her
irregularities of face and disposition, had in
tensified them. All the latent nobility of
her nature was smothered in the oppres
sive moral atmosphere in which she had
been reared. An ill-dispositioned relative
had impressed upon her mind from her earli-
est youth that no man would ever marry a
person of her facial and mental obliquities
except for her money, and she was exhorted
to be thankful that providence had not alto
gether forgotten to provide her with an at
traction. Naturally under such assurance
she avoided society and hated men, and
looked with suspicion upon any friendly ad-
vances. Sometimes she hated her money
and laid plans for founding some great
charity with it and then retiring into OBJ
security. Sometimes she glorled in it be-
cause it gave her power-the only power
she was ever likely to know-and once she
forgot it."
Ellen contemplated her last sentence
with the complete understanding of wo-
man whose married life had been much
more than the fulfllment of the hopes of
her betrothal.
Eyes, she forgot it, and herself. She for
got that she was plain and angular and I'M
lovely. She knew only that she loved and
was beloved. One man had penetration
enough to see through the reserves with
which she had hedged herself about, and to
| discover sensitive, loving, noble nature
behind this environment They were mar
| ried Unfortunately, her husband was
poor and handsome, but they lived whole
| year in Paradise, and then the serpent in
troduced himself.
lone day she overheard pretty little
woman exclaim, Heavens, how could so
handsome man marry so ugly woman?'
Her husband heard it, too, and turned to
her with some laughing remark upon his
| lips, but he did not utter it. No doubt
looked ugly enough at that moment to have
| justified any comparison,' she said. She
became morbidly unhappy. She insisted
| upon their leaving home and seeking new
associations. Then they came to c..
| Her husband cared for her with the most
| tender affection, thinking this sudden
| change must be due to some arrangement
| of the nervous system. He consulted physi.
clans. Those who were shrewd enough to
discover the truth, dared not tell him their
conclusions. The demon of jealousy was
aroused and all the peace offerings made
but added fuel to the angry flames. She
had given all. 1t was the one daring ven
ture of her life and she deemed that it had
failed. She told me that it was simply tor.
ture for her to cross the college grounds
with her husband, for all the girlish faces
they met so constantly confessed an invol-
untary admiration of her husband, and a
surprise at the contrast with herself. How
well remember, when she told me that
how the girls used to rave as we said in
those days about the handsome, dark
browed man who never even glanced al
any of u.s. and whose mind was evidently
far enough away from his own PROJECTIONS
or the admiration of a lot of silly girls. :.
"What her life was at that time l suppose
only strong, passionate nature like hel
own can possibly comprehend. | hope