The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-01-04

mately pitched upon for her domicile, but
OF one of the newer houses in one OF tbs
more fashionable quarters If Kensington
that be was thinking. But Winfred
declined 10 accept any assist
ance from Claude's purse, and
pened that a house with studio attached was
TO be obtai ed for a sum that was well
within the narrow possibilities of WIni-
fred'S own means, IN consequence of
the death of the occupier; aid
Winifred took the house with
the furniture as it stood. II was in vain
that Claude argued that the furniture was
old and worn, and would barely fetch the
price Of the proverbial old song at the near
est brokers, and that the rooms were ridi-
culously small.
Winifred pointed out that though the
rooms were small the studio was we'll
lighted. AS for the furniture, she added
with a smile, it had one unquestionable rec
ommendaton-it would not strain her re-
sources too severely. And 50 against his
advice the house was taken.
Claude Maclean was troubled in his
mind, but he could not help observing the
wonderful Transformation that Wlnifred
bad effected during the six weeks of her
tenancy. The carpet, which was worn
threadbare, so that its original pattern could
only be guessed at, was all that remained to
tell of the former shabbiness Of the room,
aud even this lost much of its baroness by
the liberal supply of deerskins that covered
it. In other respects the change was COM
plete. The cIairs and couch had been re-
covered tastefully, and tho woodwork
brought to as much luster as Giligent polish
ing could impart- Toe faded wall paoer
hangings, arranged with skill. The
narrow window and the empty fireplace
were filled with towering plants and ferns,
whilst the mantel-board was ornamented
with new border, richly embroidered from
Winifred's own design. The ornaments,
though cheap, were unpreteatious, and their
arrangement harmonized with the general
effect of the room. AS Claude mechanically
surveyed the room he could not refrain from
wondering at the change that industry aud
an exquisite taste, eked out by the expendi-
ture of very few shlllings, had contrived
to bring about to the once sordid looking
apartment aud its mean furniture.
But his mind wandered off TO the scene
that WAS being enacted in the adjoining
studio, and the discovery he had made, that
the woman who bad grown so dear to him
was the wife of Sir Reginald Denison. 1t
did not occur to him to doubt Sir Regi
maids assertion of proprietorship in his
wife. He accepted the statement implicitly
1t explained to him the reason of Wini-
fred's long silence concerning those three
years of her life that had challenged Lady
Falconridge's at ention, and which had led
her to induce her son to delay his intention
to bring matters to an issue; as it explained,
too, Win!fred's own declaration, made a
few minutes before, that their union was
an imp lssibility.
Claude's whole heart went out in COM
passion for the woman who had given his
life new meaning, and his imagination
took fire at the thought Of her suferinRs.
His first thoughts were given not to him.
self, but to her who had grown into his
heart, and without whom he felt that his
life would be d cary and blank. Not for a
moment did he doubt her purity aud inno-
cence His mind instictively grasped the
truth. He saw her alone, friendless, with
out counselor near her, caught in the tolls
that Sir Reginald Denison had laid for her
| feet-a victim of too confiding
trust and youthful inexperience. He
did not wonder that she had fled from the
life that her husba d had prepared for her,
or that she had renowned her husbands
name, aud striyen to bury the unha, by past
| in oblivion. He would have wondered
rather if she had consented to re ain his
wife when once the scales dropped from her
eyes and she learned to read her husbands
character Alright. He shuddered wnen he
thought # the rough process of disillusion-
izing s1e must have passed through. What
burden of misery must have been laid on
her young heart, he thong t, when Denison
appeared before her in his true colors and
what days and nights of horror she must
have experienced before she could bring
herself to separate her life from his.
1t was some time before Cle ude Maclean
understood the fatal blow to his own hopes,
now that he had penetrated Winifred's Sc
cret. His mind was monopolized by the
menace to Winlfred's happiness involved in
the reappea ancs Of Sir Reginald Denison,
and in devising means FIR her protection
against the exercise of marital tyranny.
His own happiness scanned to him but the
lightest dust in the balance weighed against
hers. 1t was only gradually that the whole
truth dawRed on his mind, tn 3. in the light
of his unexpected di covery, Winifred had
passed as completely out of his miad as
though the Angel of Death had suddenly
appeared in the path to claim his victim.
Claude would have been less or more than
human if,in the darkness that overwhelmed
him, on realizing the full consequences of
the altered posijio \, he had escaped the
sophlstries and the temptations that come
to men cast IN a less heroic mold, and
whose reverence for womanhood was in-
ferior to his Own. Just as his love was pure
and true, purged from earthly elements, did
the love that burned Within his soul for the
one woman, who in his eyes stood head and
shoulders above her sex, clanor for its
right to befriend and sarFe the eldearing
object that merited all possibilities OF af-
lection and service.
what is marriage without lovep he
asked. Aud he gave to it name at which
the writer's pen pauses. hesitatlng to repro
duce it here-a name that conveyed bitter
truth to his mind, though virgin modesty,
taat is annually bought and sold In the mat
rimonial market. has never blush to spare
for il. And what can ri add to the
union of two hearts made by one indissolu-
BILE love" he asked again. Love requires
no higher sanctity," he claimed, continuing
his self-communngs and speaking aloud,
than that in itself it shall be pure and
chaste; it is its own law. To think to add
to tna5 Is 'to paint the lilly and gild refined
gold, with a vengeance he was not
aware that he had givel utterance to his
thoughts till he shrank from the sound of
Then something like a blush dyed his chee8s
as he perceived whittier his thoughts we're
tending.
But the demon of sophistry was at his
elbow and gave him no rest. "Why should
it not be?' ne asked himself again. ''What
is she to him or he TO her that he should
stand in the wayi Why should past act
OF folly bar our union and destroy both our
lives" But low voice made Itself heard
in audible breathings over the war Of con-
tending feelings that were fighting for the
mastery within him tfWaufd un, 1a6ta