Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-09-25
BETRAYED;
A DARK MARRIAGE
MORN.
A Romance of LoUe, Intrigue and
Crime.
BY MRS. ALICE p. CHARLESTON.
CHAPTER xxu-fContInued.l


He admired her like a rare plant, q
beautiful object, an exquisite work, in
which nature had combined physical and
moral grace with perfect proportion and
harmony. his department as slave near
her was not long a performance.
Our fair readers have, doubtless, re-
marked an odd fact, which is, that where
reciprocal sent .ment of two feeble hu-
man beings has reached o certain point
OF maturity, chance never fails to furnish
fatal occasion which betrays the secret
OF the two hearts, and suddenly launches
the thunderbolt which has been gradually
gathering in the clouds.
This is the crisis of all love.
This occasion presented itself to Clara
Denton and Warren Leland in the form
OF an unpoetic incident, with which the
rag picker and his little grandchildren
were intimately connected.
1t was the end of the month. Leland
had gone out after dinner to take a ride
in the neighborhood. Night had already
fallen, clear and cool; but as he could
not see Mrs. Denton that evening, he be-
gan to think only of being near her, and
felt that unwillingness to work common
to lovers, striving to kill time, which
hung heavy on his hands.
He hoped also that violent exercise
might calm his spirit, which had never
been more profoundly agitated. Still
young and Impractical in his pitiless sys-
tenn, he was troubled at the thought of q
victim SO pure as Clara Denton. To
trample on the life, the repose, and the
heart of such woman, as the horse
tramples on the grass of the road, with as
little care or pity, was hard for o novice
q
OF marrying her had occurred to him.
Then he said to himself that this weak
ness was in direct contradiction to his
principles, and that she would cause him
to lose forever the mastery over himself,
and throw him back into the nothingness
of his psst life. Yet, with the corrupt
inspirations of his depraved soul, he fore
saw that the moment he touched her
hands with the lips of lover, new
sentiment would spring up in her soul.
AS he abandoned himself to these pas
sionate imaginings, the recollection of
Amy Brownell came back suddenly to his
memory.
He grew pale in the darkness.
At this moment he was passing by the
edge of piece of woods o portion of
which had been cleared.
It was not chance alone that had di-
rected him to this point. Clara Denton
loved this spot and had frequently taken
him there, and on the preceding evening.
accompanied by her daughter and Mil
dred Lester, had visited it with him.
The site was peculiar one. Although
not far from houses, the woods were very
wild, as though thousand miles distant
from any other place.
You would have said it was a virgin
forest, untouched by the ak of the pio-
neer. Enormous stumps without bark,
trunks of gigantic trees, covered pell-
NELL the declivity of the hill, and barri-
caded here and there, in picturesque
manner. the current of the brook which
ran into thu valley.
little higher up the dense wood of
tufted trees contributed to diffuse that
religious light half over the rocks, the
brushwood. and the fertile soil, and on
the limpid water. which is the charm and
horror of old, neglected woods.
In this solitude, and on quite space
of cleared ground, rose poor cottage.
This was Jennie's home, and here her
children and her father lived with her.
The old rag-picker interested Clara
Denton greatly, probably because, like
Leland, he had bad reputation. She
loved the children, too, who, though
dirty, were beautiful as angels, and she
pitied their mother.
The little ones had been quite ill.
Clara had helped to nurse them, and ap-
parently they had recovered; indeed, only
the evening before, Leland and the party
with him had met them wandering in the
woods, careless and happy as children
ought to be.
Leland slowly walked his horse over
the rocky and winding path on the slope
OF the hillock. This was the moment
when the ghost of Amy Brownell had, as
it were, risen before him, and he believed
he could almost hear her cry.
All at once this Illusion gave place to a
strange reality. The voice of woman
plainly called him by name, in accents of
distress:
"Mr. Leland, Mr.. Leland"
Stopping his horse on the instant, he
felt an icy shudder pass through his
frame.