Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-06-26
CHAPTER Lat LOUVAIN,

Not many English tourists go out of
their way to visit LOuvain, even though
1t has a Hotel de VILE surprising even
that of Brussels itself, and though one
can get there N an hour from that city of
youth and pleasure. And there are no
English residents at all in the place-at
least, none in evidence, though perhaps
there may be some who have gone there
for the same reasons which led Mr.. Will
lam Linville and his wife to choose this
spot-in order to be private and secluded.
There are many more people than we
know of who desire, above all things, Sc
cluslOn and retirement, and dread nothing
so much as chance meeting with an old
friend
Mr. William Linville took small house,
furnished. like the cottage at Passy, and,
also like that little villa standing in it's
own garden. Here, with q cook aud a
maid, Iris set up her modest n,endge. To
ask whether she was happy would be All
Surd. AL no Jlme since ner marriage had
she been happy: to live under the condi-
ton of perpetual cOncealment is not in it.
self likely to make woman any the hap
pier Fortunately she had no time to eX-
perience the full bitterness of the plan
proposed by her husband
Consider. Had their scheme actually
been carried out quite successfully, this
pair, still young. would have found them
selves condemned to transportation for
life. That was the first thing Next, they
could never make any friends among their
own cOuntrymen or countrywomen for
fear of discovery. Iris could never again
speak to an English lady If they had
children the risk would appear ten times
more terrible, the consequences ten times
more awful. The cAiidren themselves
would have to grow up without family
and without friends. The husband. cut
off from intercourse with other men.
would be thrown back upon himself
Husband and wife, with this horrible load
laid upon them, would inevitab DIV grow to
loathe and hate the sight of each other.
The man would almost certainly take to
drink: the WOman-buJ we must not fol-
low this line any further. The situation
lasted only so long as to give the wife a
glimpse of what 1t might become in the
future.
They took their house, and sat down in
it. They were very silent. Lord Harry,
his great coup successfully carried so far,
sat taciturn aud GUM. He stayed indoors
all day, only venturing out after dark.
For a man whose whole idea of life was
motion, society and action, this promised
i'll.
The monotony was first broken by the
arrival of Hugh'S letter which was sent
in with other documents from Passy. Iris
read it; she read it again, trying TO under
stand exactly what it meant. Then she
tore it up. IF he only knew" she sad.
''he would not have taken the trouble
even to write this letter. There is no an
swer, Hugh. There can be none-now.
Act by your advice? Henceforth, must
act by order. | am conspirator."
Two days afterwards came letter from
the doctor He did not think it necessary
to say anything about FHuny's appearance
or her journey to Berne. Everything"
he wrote, has so far gone well. The
world knows, through the papers, that
Lord Harry is dead There viii be now
only the business of claiming the money.
For this purpose, as his widow is the sole
heiress and eXecutriX, it will be necessary
for her TO place the will and the policies
of insurance in the hands of her husband s