Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-28

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Conemaugh disaster, and when, after
this terrible event, no letter came to
her, she had given up all hope of ever
hearing from Mark Eliot again.
If alive he had ceased to think of her
but that he still lived she never for q
moment dreamed. Among the unknown
thousands who had persisted In the flood
and fire she reckoned her lover, and so
thinking she mourned him in q double
sense-for he had not only been false to
her, but had died in the most awful
manner.
But even when she had convinced her
| self that Mark had been unfalthful she
| found it difficult to drive him from the
inner sanctuary of her fond loving
heart. Thinking him untrue she had
striven to Danish him from her thoughts
had endeavored t. forget how much his
love had been to her.
And then her old admirer had again
entered the field. One evening about
month after the Johnstown flood Walter
| Mayhew had come to her saying that the
| pro Use he had made little while be-
fore had no force to bind him now that
Mark Eliot was dead, or appeared to be
so from his silence.
He had besought her love with an ar
! dour, tenderness that could not fan to
stir her breast with pity, even If 1t awoke
no tiuttering of love. Here, at least, was
one man whose love was lasting, she was
| forced to confess, and although she
again said him "Nay'' she uttered the
negative. tenderly, even rsgretfuliy.
But Mayhem would not take "no' for
final answer. Again and again he re-
turned to the siege of the lone lassie's
heart, and was again and yet again re-
pulsed. But she could not ohide him for
cherishing such an answering and I'M
selfish passion for her poor self.
and the manner of Mayhew's wooing
had now undergone complete change.
Reverentlv, humbly as a noble knight of
the olden time might have wooed a high
born dame, did Walter WOO Nellie now.
His love for her seemed to have ennobled
him in every way, and to win her was
the one great object of his existence
Ever since Mark Eliot's departure
from WarrinGham, Dan Ashton had
zeHlously lent himself to the furtherance
of his ally's suit. In season and out of
it mine host of the Star had urged upon
Nellie the ACCESSIBILITY of discarding the
absent one and accepting the proposal of
Walter Mayhem.
All along Dan had insisted that Marks
in America he had come across some
woman whose dollars had made him for
get the sweetheart he had left behind in
Warringham.
And later, when the Johustown catas-
trophe was In the mouth of everyone, he
had declared, not once, but many times,
that Mark Eliot was among the victims;
that she would never hear from him
again, and he would conclude by saying
that sucn a pretty lass as Nellie was
foolish to trouble herself with thoughts
of a dead man who had been false to her
before he persisted.
Even the large-hearted, loving Nancy
had come to look at things with her hus-
band IS eyes, and believing that Mark
had ceased to care for her foster daugh-
ter, even If he were not dead, Mrs.
Ashton had limited that Nellie might do
much worse than marry MIR. Walter
Mayhem.
And so at last the Borrowing tormented
lassie had given way-had spoken the
words which gave Mark Eliot's rival the |
right TO call her his affianced; and the |
end had been that scene. in the church |
already set down.
CHAPTER XXNIy MAYHEM SHOWS HIS |
HAND.
1t was the evening of Nellie Pember-
ton IS wedding day, and, contrary to ar
raugement, both bride and bridegroom
still remained in Warringham. 1t had |
been purposed that the uewly-wedded
couple should go to a quiet little seaside
village in North Wales for their honey
moon, but the condition of the bride had
prevented this arrangement from being
carried out.
After the marriage ceremony was
ended and an adjournment made to the
yestry for the purpose of signing the
church register, Nellie had tainted; and |
when she had recovered from the swoon
she was so weak and ill--so utterly pros
trated by the ordeal through which she
had lately gone, that even her husband
was compelled TO admit that it would be
dangerous to take her away from home.
So much upset was Nancy by the poor
lassie s condition that she suggested that
it would be advisable TO take her back
with them to The Star for day or two.
But Mayhem would not hear of such
thing. At last Nellie was his-his long
icheming and patient waiting had been
crowned with triumph-and henceforth |
the woman he had won would share his
dwelling place with himself.
And SO the party of four on leaving the
church were driven to the neat little
villa IN the quiet suburbs of the town,
near Balcarres Wood, which Walter
Mayhem had provided as the future home
of himself and his lovely wife.
The wedding breakfas was very fes-
tive ''function. - The bride was still
far from being well, and Nancy was
seriously afraid now that she had lent
herself to a scheme which might wreck
the happiness of her dear girls life.
In little while Dan Ashton and his
uneasy spouse went home, and then,
pleading illness and fatigue, Nellie
sought her room, there to cast herself
on her bed and TO weep as If
her heart was broken.
The full force of the great, the ire
deemable error she had committed was
pressing upon her now. Between her
self and her husband the form OF Mark
Eliot rose like ghost, telling her that
the man whose life she had vowed that
to share was nothing to her.
There, in the solitude of her chamber,
she scourRed herself with bitter thoughts
and self-eccusations. For what had she
bartered away her freedomf What was
this man into whose keeping she had
given herself body aud soul? Why had
she done it, loving, as she did, the
memory of false and dead love better
than the true and living one whose wife
she had become?