Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-23

De glad TO know II he should walt upon
her.
Permission was joyfully granted, and
within two hours her lover stood before
her, more thoughtful man, but in all
essential respects the same, generous, mod
est to diffidence and sincere. The reserve
which womanly decornm threw over her
manner was obviously artificial, and when
he said, ''The ways of Providence are
and added after a moment, "and
merciful likewise" she could not conceal
her agitation, and burst into tears upon
his neck.
"'But this is too soon,' she said, starting
back.
"But no. You are eleven months gone
in widowhood, and it is not as if John had
been good husband"
His visits grew pretty frequent now, and
IN month or two he began to urge an
early union. But she counseled longer
delay.
why? Surely I have wsited long
Life is short; we are getting older every
day and | am the last of the threen
Eyes" said the lady, "and that is why
would not have you hasten. Our mar
rage may seem so strange to everybody
after my unlucky remark on that occasion
we know so well, and which so many
Others know likewise, thanks to tale
bearers"
On this representation he conceded a
little space. But the destined day of their
marriage at last arrived, and it was gay
time for the villagers. Thus at last she
was united to the man who had loved her
the most tenderly of them all, who, but
for his reticence, might, perhaps, have
been the first to win her. Often did he
say to himself: GLOW wondrous that her
words should have been fulfilled! Many
truth hath been spoken in Jest, but never
a more remarkable one" The noble lady
herself preferred not to dwell upon the
coincidence.
But people will have their say, sensitive
souls or none, and their sayings on this
third occasion took singular shape.
"Surely," they whispered, "there is some
thing more than chance in this
The death Of the first was possibly natural;
but what of the death of the second, who
ill-used ner, and whom, loving the third
so desperately, she must have wished out
of the wayw
Then they pieced together sundry triv-
ial incidents of Sir Johns illness, and
dwelt upon the truth that he had grown
worse after her lovers visit, till sinister
theory was built as to the hand she may
have had in Sir Johns demise. But moth
ing of this openly, for she was lady of
noble birth, and what people suspected
they feared to express.
The mansion that she occupied had been
left to her for so long time as she should
choose to reside in it. and, having regard
for the spot, she had coaxed Sir William
to remain there. But one day, when he
was walking among the willows near the
gardens, he overheard conversation
between some basket-makers. In this
fatal dialogue the suspicious of the towns
folk were revealed to him. On his return
home he seemed to have aged years. But
he said nothing; and from that day an es-
arrangement began. She could not under
stand it, One day he said, 81 must go
abroad"
"But why? William, have 1 offended
your"
"No."
She could coax little more out of him,
and in itself there was nothing unnatural
III Bdi luic iOl HC lldu DteIl Il WdIl-
derer from youth. In few days he start
ed of, apparently another man than he
who had rushed to her side so devotedly.
1t is not known when, or how, the ru-
mors which were thick in the atmosphere
around her, reached Penelope's ears. Then
reason for her husbands departure oc-
Cured to her appalled, mind, and loss OF
health came. She dwindled, and the veins
in her temples could be distinctly traced
An inner fire was whitening her. Her
rings fell off her fingers, and her arms
hing like fails, though they had till lately
been so round and so beautiful. She wrote
to her husband begging him to return; but
he, being wretched, knowing nothing OF
her ill-health, and never suspecting that
the rumors had reached her, deemed abb
sence best.
At length Lady Penelope having given
birth to still-born child, her mother, the
Countess, addressed letter to Sir Will
lam to come back If he wished to see her
alive; since his mother-in-law knew moth
ing Of the secret Sir William fastened
home. and stood beside the bed of his
dying wife.
"Believe me, William" she said, II am
nnocent-innocent? ?"
"Of what? Heaven forbid that accuse
you of anythingw
"But you do accuse me-silently !" she
gasped. 81 could not write thereon. 1t
was too degrading. But would that had
been less proud They suspect me Of
poisoning him, William! But / am inno-
cent He died naturally. | loved you
too soon; that was all p
Nothing availed to save her. The worm
had gnawed too far into her heart and in a
few weeks she breathed her last. After
her death the people spoke louder, and
her conduct became subject of public
discussion. A little later on the physician
who had attended Sir John heard the ru-
NOR, and came down with the purpose of
calling upon Sir William Hervey.
He stated that, at the request of rela-
tive of Sir Johns, who wished to be as
sured on the matter by reason of its sud-
denness, he had, with the assistance Of a
surgeon, made private examination of
Sir Johns body Immediately after his de-
cease, and found that it had resulted from
purely natural causes. Nobody at this
time had breathed suspicion of foul
play, and therefore nothing was said
which might since have established her
innocence.
1t being thus placed beyond doubt
that this beautiful lady had been done to
death by wicked scandal, her husband
was stung with dreadful remorse and left
the country this time never to return
alive. He survived her few years, and
his body was brought home and buried be-
side his wife's. Until lately there was
good portrait of her in weeds for her first
husband, with cross in her hand, at the
ancestral seat of her family, where she
was much pitied, as she deserved to be.
Yet there were some severe enough to say
and these are not unjust persons in other
respects-that, though PROFESSIONALLY in
nocent of the crime imputed to her, she
had shown an unseemly wantonness in
contracting three marriages In such rapid
succession, and that the untrue suspicion
might have been ordered by Providence as
8 punishment for her self-lndulgence.-
Longman's Magazine.
What is Model Wife?
A model wife is the woman in whom the
heart of her husband doth safely trust
She is the woman who looks after his
household, and makes her hospitality a
da1iobt fo him and not a burden