Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1889-01-11

slippers, not over small. and an odd CANT la
Suede, wHh such an extraordinary number
Of buttons that it almost looked like Tie cas-;
of skin ct brown sua'.e
81 see that your mistress has been having
Company, Ellen, he said, colby
= "Tcs, sir, just few lady friends in "a
cheer her upa bit" answered the woman,
with her abominablo shipper "Poor deer,
She do get that low with Yc. away so much,
and no wonder; and thel u III these money
troubles, and she night 10y night working
hard fer Der living. Often and often have
seen her crying over it alb
"Ab," said he, breaking in upon her clio.
quence, Il suEsoso that the lady frer d,
smoke ciSu:s. We!l, clear away this ines:
and leave me. sop, give iuo a brandy
and soda first. win wait for your mistress
Tho woman stopped talking and did as she
was bid, for there was a look il Mr.. Queste
eye which she did not quite like So, having
placed tho brandy aud soda water before
him, She left him to his own reflections
l. Apparently they were not very pleasant
ones. lie walked round the room, which
was reekiuG OF patchoul o. some such com.
pound well mixed With the odor Of stale
cigar smoke, looking abseutly at the geweaw
ornaments. On the mautelpicco wcge sond
gust, lie saw one Of hillseli Win some.
thing as near an oath rs he ever INDUCED in,
he seized il, and setting fro to it over LID
gas, waited til the Games began to sccrch
his fingers, aud then flung it. 81 - nalninr,
down into the crate. Then he loo.' at Him
self in IL Saas over the mantelriece-
room was fl,l Of mirrors-and laughed biz
terly At tie incongruity Of his gentlemen
like, To neciable and even retired appear
ancc, in IT, vulgar, sauly, Vicious looking
roCrp.
Saddenly he bethought him Of the letter in
his wife, handwriting which he had stclcn
from tha pocket Of lWari Cosseys coat.
He drew it out, and throi'iuS The tea gown
and the iGtcrmirGhlG glove or tho sofa, sat
down and COMMENCED t. read it. II was, "a
he bad expected, love letter, a wildly pas
sionate love letter, breathing language which
in places almost touched the 1eaut = OF poetry,
vows OF uIdying affection that We're through
out redeemed from u!garty and oven from
sillincS, by In-ir utter earucStGess and self
abandonment, Had the letter been one writ
ten under happy circumstances and innocent
of otfeAse against morality, it would have
been Il beautiful letter, for passion at its
highest has always II beauty Of its OWL.
lie read it through, and then carefully
folded it and restored it 10 his pocket. The
woman has a Heart, he said t., himself; mo
one can doubt it, And yet I could never
touch it, though God knows, however much
l wrou8ed her, / loved her-yes, and love her
now. Well, it is good bit of evidence II
ever dare 20 use it. 1t is game OF bluff be-
tween me and her aud expect that in the
end the bol,lest player will VIM
He rose from the sofa--Cho atmosphere of
the place stihed hm--and going to the Win
dow he threw it open and stepped cut on to
the balcony. u was a lovely moonlight
night, though chilly, and for London the
street was a quiet one.
Taking Il chair, he sat down there upon the
balcony and began TO think. His heart was
softened by misery, and his mind fell into q
tender groove. He thought of his long dead
mother whom he had dearly loved, aad Of
how he used 10 say his prayers to her, and Of
how she sung hymns to him on Sunday even
ings. Her death had seemed to chu.c q the
Seauty out of his being NJ II" tia, and vet
now he thanked God taat 81" We. ..aad. And
then he thought of tn accu...t a.Jiaal who
had been bis ruin, aul -. ho' eac blA ell
tered into bis lie AMI 90 vuntej aud dc
stroyed him. Next there r5i. up before him
vision Of Belle, Beil3 ~ Ire hid first seen
her, a maid OF II, the only child Of that
drunken Old village doctor, now also long
since dead, and how the sight Of her had for
awhile stayed the corruption Of his heart be-
cause he grew 10 love her. And then lie
married. Belle by foul means, and the woman
rose up in his path again, and he learned that
his wife hated him with all the energy OF her
passionate heart Then came degradation
after degradation and the abandonment Of
principle ;ttc. principle, replaced only by a