The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1892-09-21

swiftly away, Annot sobbing in hys-
terical fright at the step she had taken.
1t had been understood that they
should proceed Immediately to the house
Of clergyman and be married, but st.
Ives proposed that they should leave
the city for that purpose, and. as 1t was
too late to render 1t probable that they
would easily find a clergyman, postpone
the ceremony till morning dawned.
It was far into the next day before
they stopped at a little country hotel
miles from the city, and Annot, haggard
from sleeplessness and red eyed from
weeping, was conducted within.
st. Ives ordered breakfast and went
out afterward, rs he said. to look for a
minister. Annot waited, still very much
depressed and not feeling at all as she
had supposed people did who were about
to be married. Some one knocked.
Blushing guilHly, she opened the door;
but instead of st. Ives and his expected
companion, woman glided into the
room, and throwing back her veil
showed n face Of SURPRISING beauty,
and fixed upon the shrinking girl q pair
of dark, burning Italian eyes.
"Who are you? What do you wants''
stammered Annot at last, rallying her
self.
The woman's glance softened.
"You are such child" she said--"so
young. / am very sorry for you"
Sorry for met I--don't-understan
| you,r Annot said, wishing that st. Ives
would come, and thinking that this
strange woman must be crazy, and then
with a low cry sprang TO meet st. Ives,
who had Just entered the room, and
stood glaring at the stranger with en-
ragged eyes.
Banging the door to behind him, and
pushing Annot from him almost saw
agely, he spoke to the woman with the
| dark italian eyes.
"Have you told herr he asked.
The woman shook her head.
He laughed bitterly.
"You thought It was too pleasant o
task for me to be deprived Of, eh?s
st. Ives turned sharply toward her.
'"There's no use In dilly-dallying now,
Annot," he said abruptly. 81 couldn't
deceive you any longer II I wanted to.
think you and won't be married this
morning.
Annot dropped trembling and uncom-
prehensive into chair.
"For the very singular reason" he
went on, "that ! have already one wife,
and she's too much for me-"
The strange woman glided to the side
Of the bewildered girl.
II am his wife, DEAR" she said almost
tenderly. Don't mind, 1t might have
been worse, you know
st, Ives seemed touched by the face Of
white despair Annot lifted at the wo-
mans words.
you're only ten miles from Jaynes-
vile, Annot," he said almost remorse.
fully, land there's a stage, believe.
You can go right home and nobody be
the wiser. Here is money to pay your
way"
| Annot rose mechanically, and as she
ala 80 the bills he had upon her knee fell
to the Aoor.
| He picked them up and offered them
to her again, as she was tying ON her
bonnet; but she left the room without
looking at them or him, and went slowly
out Of the hotel, with her veil down, her
head dizzy, and her heart 30 heavy It
could hardly throb.
The stage drove up at that moment,
and while 1t waited she eagerly entered
1t, and took her seat, without glancing
toward the single passenger who was
already there. An exclamation caused
her to lift her eyes.
It was too much, too much, that that
face Of incredulous surprise should be-
long TO Rollin Dracut. But 1t did. He
caught her as she fell fainting.
She walked from that swoon to burn
ing fever and the unconsciousness Of
deliriumI and Rollin. supporting her all
the way till they reached home, gath
cred from her craxed lips tho whole sad
story, or enough Of 1t to wiring his heart
and make his own brain whiri.
She lay III weeks, and he went every
| day to see how low she was. Then,
when she was pronounced out OF danger,
he left Jaynesville without seeing her at
all.
Two years after he came back. He
went to see her as any old friend might,
| and he found her 80 sweetly like the
little Annot who had been his promised
wife once, so gently penitent for the
past, so resigned TO any fate that might
await her In punishment, that he fell
more deeply In love than ever, and asked
her to DO his wife as though nothing had
happened. Annot had long since walked
to consciousness Of his worth, and she
did not say no.---C. @. In New York
News.