The Princeton union., 1891-03-19
were not coming at all, Mrs. Foster. +"

She heard the bitterness in his tone,
but she would not look at him. She
was so utterly wretched, so hopelessly
miserable, so dreadfully afraid of her
own cowardly, rebellious heart, that
she dared not look up. .r..- zEE
Mr.. Newton led them into the ehouse,
and took seat beside her on the
sofa. The contrast between the two
zen was so great-between her hand
,ome young lover, who talked so bril-
liantly, and was the lite of the COM
pany, and'the dull, middle-aged man,
who gazed at him vacantly, and had
nothing to say. Ruth clenched her
hands in pale desperation, and looked
out through the window at the dark
ening river flowing calmly along, and
knew, for the first time, the degree Of
mad wretchedness that drives wom-
en- to hide their misery in such places.
1t is said that the greatest misery OF
lost souls is the knowledge that they
have lost heaven through their own
fault. It was Ruth Fosters greatest
miserynow-her unhappiness had been
her own work from first to last. She
was thinking of this later in the even
ing, as she stood in the moonlit porch,
looking up at the cold November
moon, sailing through the banks OF
ragged, ,'black clouds. She was think
ing it with a bitterness of heart, that
was like the bitterness of death, when
some one stood beside her-some one
whom she had no cause to look at, to
know.
"Ruth," was his reproachful cry"
why did you not wait? You have
made us both miserable for life, but
my misery iisnothing to yours: There
IS despair in your face, now. Oh,
Ruth, Ruth, what have you done?"
"Do you want to drive me mad?"
she cried out in pssionatedesperation.
'sGo, and leave me, Harry! Go, or I
shall die!''
II will not leave you! I cannotleave
you!' he said vehemntly. "Ruth
Ruth! leave this man whom you
abhor, and fly with me, whom youlove.
We may be happy yet, for
But she would not wait for him to
finish. The parlor door was opening,
her husband was coming to take her
her home. With a cry she started,
and fled toward him-hed for more
than life-from herself!
"What's the matter with you?" Mr..
| Foster asked; but Ruth could not tell
| him. She could only cling to his arm.
and cry out to be taken home, until
her stolid liege lord began to think his
wife had lost her senses.
Hugh Foster took his wife home,
and for three long months after she
never left it. The hidden agony she
had suffered-the dark despair, and
the scene of that night, combined
to PROSTATE her, body and mind. She
was raving before morning in the
delirium fever, and while gloomy No.
vember walled itself out and thesnows
OF December and january blew, she
tossed in her darkened room, only
praying that death would end it all.
But death, that flies from the wretch
ed and seeks out the happy, passed
on without a victim, and Ruth took
up the burden of life again with bet
ter prayer in her heart-a prayer for
patience.
| x X x X X
Eight years after, in widows weeds,
Ruth Foster sat at her freside one
night, alone, thinking. She was think
ing Of the past. She could think of it
without self reproach, for she had
been a true and faithful wife to the
man she had never loved, and he had
passed out of life with her hand clasp
ed in his. She had not been happy,
but she had been patient and true; and
to-day her reward had come. A letter
from one she had not seen for eight
years-from one who had been a wan
derer over the earth, and who had
come back to her as faithful to her
memory as she had been to the hus-
band she had never loved!
While she sat, there was a knock at
the door that made her heart bound.
The next instant, a tall, distinguished
looking man stood before her in the
doorway.
forgiven?"
She held out both hands, with a face
full of infinite love.
Dear Harry" she said, eve are to
be happy at last?'
Happy at last! Yes, she had been
faithful and she had found her reward.
|