Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-08-28

1 uOn KNOW. DUC mere Is n l6tLor
that may tell us.
Even while Edwardes drew out the
letter his questioner bad been called
when his eyes fell on the handwrit-
ing.
Did all women write alike, or was he
the victim of some delusion acting on
his Over-wrought brain.
He looked at the letter again. 1t was
the distracted appeal of married wo-
man, tempted, but striving to resist
temptation, to the honor and chivalry
of man she had grown to love.
And the writer was his wife-Isabel
Edwardes.
II have been wrong, terribly wrong"
she wrote. [ know it now. These fly-
ing visits to London, and the friendship
that has grown up between us during
the past few months. SO naturally, from
your relationship to my sisters hus-
band, and constant presence at her
house, have all been mistake. Your
letter proves it. All; Gerald, pity me
and forgive me. If [ have given YOU
pain; have been so dull, so unhappy
for so long, that your sympathy, and
your thoughtfulness and kindness made
me forget the dangers of my position
If you knew the life | lead at home; if
you could tell what it is to girl, brought
up in Paris and London, among sur
roundines that were bright and beauti-
full to be transplanted to dreary manu-
featuring town, with household of an
old man and threc-good. mario w~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 woman hap
ply. Of course | should have protested
long ago; but when | married [ was Is
aud he 80. He had been single too long,
and had been taught to think of women
And as [ was neither one nor the other
was failure. And they have obeyed
him so long at home that his manner at
once puts me in the wrong. Besides all
that, Gerald, loved him. I have new
er complained Of him before. You
know it. But my heart has been
dying within me for four years. And
any man who treats me as a woman
with a heart and head has power to
raise more tenderness in me than the
thought of my husband can ever do
again. am afraid.
"1ou have often told me how you
honor and reverence me. You must
prove it by keeping away from me now.
You have your work, your life before
you, Gerald. Let 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 I ask it.
Don't even write. l can hear about
you from my sister. And when, later
on, you marry some good woman, as /
hope and pray you may, remember
| have told you, and that women and
men are not so unlike in their naturel
as husbands too often think. Good
night am crying SO much ] can't see
what | write-and good-bye."
Harry Edwardes read this letter twice
through and then destroyed it.
AS soon as he arrived in London he
drove to his sister.in-law's house and
asked for his wife, and when Isabel
Edwardes = pale and fragile-looking,
with startled, dark eyes and 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 in London now, and the
next time Harry Edwardes goes abroad
Isabel is going with him. He has real
lied at last that man may have other
duties toward his wife than providing
her with money to spend and house
to live in. And he has had the aston
ishing discretion to let the dead past
bury its dead, SO that Isabel has never
yet learned how a neglectfui husband
was taught lesson in CHASTITY and
never-to-be-forgotten fashion, by chance
or fate.