Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-12-08

only creature on earth who had love for
her, Will not speak. Let us rather study
the conduct of the accused afterward,
ana see II she displayed that revenge
1uI, cruel disposition, which could alone
account for the murder she was after
ward supposed to commit.
dose she thrust her unhappy SER
want from her-dOes she leave her alone,
face to face with the horrors of the fate
TO which she is sentenced? Does she
tell into the many eager ears around
her, the truth about the man who lives
honored and respected with her rival,
up at the house yOnder?
mo! she remains with this poor
Wretch-she soOtheS her in those last
days, SO rapidly approaching their
frIghtful end-She cOnfeSSes that she is
the mother, thereby hoping to divert
10 her own head some OF her servants
gullt-She moves heaven and earth 10
obtain "A reprieve, and. failing that,
remission of the sentence to one Of
penal servitude for life: and when at
length the respite cOmes-a respite de-
layed to the last moment. because the
efforts of Mr. Eyre against it have we'll
nigh succeeded-5he receives tue merci-
full intelligence with her arms clasped
about the unhappy woman vino has
consummated her misery.
Then, when the poor felOn had de-
parted to eXpiate her sin in a living
death more awful than utter extinction,
bereft of her last, her only hope, what
Shall this poor stranger do? She has
but to open her lips, to blare aloud a
few pregnant words, and all will shrink
away from the man whom now they
delight to honor, the young wife's hap
plneSs will be Wlthered, the young
children's opening lives OvershadoWed,
his peace as utterly broken as her hap
piness was by him half dozen years
ago. BY accident she finds herself in
the presence of The wife, but does not
speak, though Lord Lovel (who has
long known the lruth), believing her
about to do so, interpOseS, and takes
upon himself the guilt belonging to her
husband, and III this transparent fiction
the woman before YOU quietly acquieSc-
ed, and stood dumbly by to see her rival
hOnOred, left i'll the possession of hus-
band, home, and children; while she,
poor Outcast, deSpised by man, if not
by God, stood at his gates hungering
for the crumbs of bread that fell from
the rich mans table.
How much native goodness, how
much nobility OF soul, did she not dis
play in thus permitting the happiness
TO continue that she could Wther at a
word! She fingers, and fingers yet;
and why? A beautiful little child, such
a child as hers might have been had he
Hved-the child OF the man she loved
crosses her path; she tremDles, and is
Subjugated; she clasps him to her
bosom, and loves him as we'll as bet
ter woman might have done, as passion
ately as if he had been her own little
wiz az NV Il
her cherished jewels, gifts of the man
who once loved her, that by cOnciliat-
ing his nurse she may enjoy the child's
company. And the little one loved her;
he knew not the wrongs that his father
had committed against her, and for a
little while we may suppose this poor
tortured heart had found peace at last,
and that love had cast out the bitterness
she had been more than human did she
not feel. But long ere this her betrayer
knows her presence, trembleS at her
power, and offers her golden brides to
leave him unmOleSted in his Eden; but
she has no power to move; she is chain
ed to the spot by her love for his child;
her soul is wrapped mp in him, so that
she will see him by stealth, creeping
out of sight like q thing accused when
the wife, in all the panOply of her pride
and happiness, passes by, and SO re-
mains sllent-Silent always to the very
endl 1t is not on her soul that she has
stolen one moment from the five years
of unrivaIed happiness that fell to Mrs.
Eyre,S lot; suspicion never dimmed,
anxiety never bowed for moment that
radiant spirit now departed, which liv-
ed and died happy, though there dwelt
at her very side what could have made
her the most wretched of created beings
by the utteranCe of a few words. Even
her death was happy III its suddenneSs;
how much more happy than the agOniZ-
ing death in life Of that other, who had
gone through every bitter phase of dis
llluSlOnment and heartbreak before she
had reached the browning mi 'ery of her
position III the court that day!
But this death of her happy rival,
how was 1t comprised, by whom car
ried out? Could any one for moment
believe that 1t was conceived and exc
cuted by woman whose scheme from
the first moment, and even in the ago
MES of bereavement that might have
set at defiance all dictates OF policy, had
been that of moderation and forbear-
ancep
Her presence at the Red Hall on the
night of the murder was to be account
ed for on purely natural grounds. By
the nurses own confession, these un-
authorized visits had been connived at,
even purchased, by the boarded Jewels
that one by one the accused had parted
with to secure her favor, and that mid
night call was only one out of hum
dred others in which no especial motive
was likely to Turk.
He would offer his own explanation
OF that nights work, based partly on
n
that, in the common order of things.
would lead to certain results"
1t was here observed that the prison.
er, who had hitherto regarded him rest
lesSly, and much as clairvoyaut, who
speaks but her inmoSt secrets, here
Sprang up and spread out her hands
with gesture as of reputation.
ION that night, then, she had left her
lodging TO take a goodnight kiss of her
darling in his bed, certain that at this
hour Mrs. Eyre would have retired to
rest, and the master of the house be en-
gagged below on those studies that had
lately absorbed him. For she knew, as
no other did, that her idol had for
months past been growing more and
more delicate; that which the mothers
eye had failed to perceive, the poor out
cast saw quickly enough; and SO she
was stealing, in darkness and secrecy,
to know him safe; when, unfortunately,
Lord Loyel, just then leaving the house,
caught sight of her vanishing figure,
and, lmpelled by some instinct of fear,
followed.
He discovered nothing; for, with
that sense of shame at her own position
that nau throughout distinguished her,
she had slipped behind an open door,
and only on the disappearance of her
pursuer into an inner room, noiselessly