Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-05

color, look where like! Am / going mad,
or is it that the DEVILS at work, holding it
before me forever, to get me used to the
sight of it9''
She was a grand-looking woman of five or
six and twenty, with sort of statuesque
beauty of line and contour; but she ap-
peared thin and ill-nourishe5, her COM
plexion had the pallor of semi-starvation,
and her brown eyes had that wolfish glare
in them that one sees in Gagged and under
fed wild creature. She gathered her sticks
together again and walked steadily on the
outskirts of the wood, where the cottage in
which she lived was situated.
Her husband was owe man at the colliery
whose tall chimney and skeleton framework
and pullevs showed dark against the sunset
sky, and this cottage, on the outskirts of the
long, struggling village street, was one of
the perquisites appertaining to his posi-
tion.
The woman lifted the latch and entered,
when. she at once gave an exclamation of
pleased surprise.
"Why, Bill, thought We were at work
today" she said, as she hastenes to the
freside and threw down her burden of
twigs, which were to be presently placed in
the oven TO dry. Unlike most of the pit
mems wives, whose fires never need kind
ling, because fuel was free, and therefore
they were never allowed to die out, Mrs.
FELTON, required wood as well as Goals. She
was of south-country origin, and never
learnt the knack of "happing up and beat
ing down." so as to keep a fire smoldering
from night to morning, as the rest did. The
young fellow who was sitting by the fire
gave her no greeting save an unintelligible
murmur; but he scanned her earnestly from
head to foot, and his eyes rested longest
upon big purple bruise which showed on
the pallor of her temple, just where the rip
pling waves of her dark rec hair ended.
Slowly a flush crept over his own face,
and his fist clinched itself involuntarily.
He jerked out an exclamation of anger and
pity combined, and then turned away with
o sigh.
The woman took low stool from the op-
posite corner and sat down close beside him,
first displacing and driving away with no
gentle hand couple of sleek greyhounds,
These animals retreated growing, and
sought refuge under the big four-post bed
stead which stood against the furthest wall.
"Be of, you brutesP" she said angrily.
"You won't get everything you want when
he's out of the wsyi hate the very sight of
them, Bill, with their glossy skins and
their snaky heads, and their bodies that
swallow decent folks dinners, and never
look bit the better br it''
"Ye're tired, Judith, lass, or We wouldn't
be SO cross" remarked her companion,
quietly. He spoke with the ordinary
Northumbrian burr and drawl, but the ac-
cent Of the woman whom he called Judith
was remarkably pure. She had, in fact,
been lady's maid to Squire Riddles Young
wife, and had been little more than two
years in the North when she fell in love
with the splendid animal, Dick FELTON,, and
married him, spite of every warning she
she received as to his dissolute habits and
brutal temper. There was an element in
the beautiful woman's temper to which
Dicks big, robust physique appealed ir-
resistibly; and for short while after mar
riage she was perfectly satisfied with what
the village folks called her "bad bargain. {"
But before long she awoke to the fact that
she had given herself, body and soul, into
the power of a creature with the licentious-
ness ofa Tiberius and the cruelty of Nero;
tyrant who wanted no wife, no compan.
ioa, but merely a slave whom he could
torture and ill-use at will.
For year and a half she had borne worse
usage than, perhaps, ever fell to a Young
wife's lot before; and her master and tyrant
faDcied that her spirit was subdued and ber
will conquered, and fattered himself that
she was now well broken in. But sui
len, silent rebellion was working and fer
menting within her all the while, and there
was no knowing how soon il might break
forth.
The one CLEAN of comfort in her melan-
choly lot was the quietly persistent kind
ness and sympathy shown 20 her by Bill
FELTON,, the half-brother of her husband
The bOy-who was o couple of years her.