Montgomery County sentinel., 1890-08-15
Executed with noatness and dispatch.

i She grew morose and melancholy
strange Ia her manner, and more aud
more inclined for solitude. Her appe-
tite failed, and her beauty failed before
my very eyes. One day | came into her
boudoir suddenly. She was sitting with
a mahogany brass bound box open on
the table before her When she saw me
she closed the box and locked it with
key which she wore upon her watch
chain.
"My curiosity was aroused. What
on earth have you got in that box,
Blanche 2 | said She laid her hand
upon it jealously aud with an angry look
in her magnificent eyes--which, though
we were not married year, had already
grown dull and lacked lustfe said,
4 hate impertinent curiosity in man,
Bargemonh This little box IL where |
keep my secrcts-the secrets | prize best
in all this world she added.
"And you won't let me see the con-
tents said
81 was angry at her want of conf
dence, and | am ashamed TO add, | was
jealous. too.
I'D rather die first, said my wife.
IL turned on my heel and loft the
room, for could not trust myself.
From that day we quarrelled.
disdained TO seek further explanation
from n woman who denied me her con-
fdence.
"Several months went by. aud Lady
Bargemont's conduct became mme aud
more eccentric. 1t attracted the atten-
ton of the noighbors aud the servants.
The neighbors said that Lord Barge
mont's wife was going melancholy mad.
'One day my wife's maid rushed into
my room, her eyes nearly starting from
her head with horror My Lordr she
cried, Il cant get into Lady Barge
mont's room, she doesn't answer me.
| don't know what TO think.
al and the maid hurried to my wife's
room We hammered at the door for
admission.
'Thcre was no answer.
"Then | burst the door opon, and
dreadful sight mot our eyes,
There lay my wife, fully dressed,
upon the bed ; her eyes were closed, as
though in sleep; but when looked
into her face aud saw what saw there,
| knew that she was dead Her hand
still grasped u strange looking instru-
ment of bamboo, mounted in silver, on
one end of which was curious disk of
porous clay. Upon the table at the bed
side lay the brass-bound box wide open,
a portable spirit lamp which was still
burning, and what appeared to be IL
travelling inkstand open. fhe room was
filled with u heavy, strange aud sckly
odor, which almost overpowered me-
"My wife, Hetty, was an opium
smoker, she learned the habit from
friend as cure for neuralgia, to which
she was subject. Those little BRASS
bound boxes, with the dainty apparatus
for carrying out tho hideous eastern
vice, are still sold and advertised with
impunty hero in London. Hundreds Of
men and women, even now, are deliber-
atcly smoking themselves from this world
into the next Those who know of the
hidcous thing say nothing, and when the
victims die by running their constitu-
tions, or. as in my wretched wiie's 8 case,
by an overdose of the accursed thing,
there 10 an inquest and YER
lict of death by misadventure, as in her
case.
MEN and women with morbid tastes,
Al i0hiu1 for forUoffninaaa ~, .uLa..,.
oys, or stimulated by the glowing de-
lcriptions of the great writer who flew
20 this awful vice Us u refuge from ply
'ical pain, try it-and take to it.
And now you know all about it,
Hetty, and why it was that, when you
married me, you found INC miserable
nan. There's nothing morbid about
you, little woman, anyhow And then
he door was flung wide open, aud
,lue-eyed boy, some three years of age,
'ushed into the room. The child was Il
picture of health and strength aud hap
)iness.
"And there's nothing morbid about
iim," added Lord Bargemont "He
locsn't look much like tho last of his
inc, does he, Hetty p
And then Lord Bargemont submitted
% the common fate of fathers and danced
he child upon his knee toward the
haven Of Banbury cross, and as he did
10 he forgot, for the time, all about the
irst Lady Bargemont and the BRASS
,ound box.-&. Janses Budget.