The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1893-06-10
A MYSTERY.

In a cherries apartment on the
sixth floor of a New York tenement
one cold, bleak November night sat
a young woman, whose face bore
evident marks of intelligence and re-
finement.
Two small rooms comprised the
narrow domain to which she gave
the name of home. Their cheerless-
ness was increased by the absence of
everything except the most neces-
sary furniture and by the wailing
wind, which found entrance at a
hundred creviCes, sending icy cur
rents across the wretched garnet.
The young woman, crouching close
to the dying fire of a small stove,
was lost in sad reflections, from
which she reused herself at intervals
to glance at a little crib, wherein lay
an infant, all unconscious of its
mothers anxiety and distress. Her
husband. Robert Desmond, the sec
ond son of an English nobleman,
had fallen in love with Victoria St.
Clair, the pretty and intelligent
American governess of his younger
sister, and married her in opposition
TO the wishes of his family. The
English aristocracy look with much
disfavor on mesalliances of this kind.
Soon after their marriage the reg
lment in which he was a lieutenant
was ordered to India. The young
MAJ resigned his commission, and
unframed as he was in any business
or profession found himself at rs
thrown on the world without a penny
and a young wife to support. His ia
ther, a proud but generous man, had
disinherited him, but offered his son
a sum sufficient, if properly invested,
to maintain him III comfort for life,
saying that all further intercourse
between them must cease.
This money was accepted. The
young couple went to Paris, where
he soon plunged into the most lux
urious life of that gay city. Though
a man Of generous impulses and
loyal and affectionate husband, Rob
ert had an unfortunate passion fol
gambling. His little capital wa:
soon lost at the card table. By thu
|, sale of Victoria's jewels and some
money she had %prudently savet
they were able to accumulate littl,
more than enough to pay their pas
sage to New York.
After weary weeks spent in fulfil
efforts to obtain work, the little fam
lily, which had been increased by tn
birth of a daughter, drifted from
+ moderately comfortable lodgings t
h this cherries tenement house. Thei
little capital was now gone.
For several weeks it had been Rot
ert's regular practice to leave thei
poor quarters at nightfall, withou
d telling his wife where he went Dr. a
what hour he would return, and II
appear in the early morning. Fl
g evaded her questions or only al
) swered in monosyllables.
. Night after night she was keI
~ awake by anxious fears and susp
cions. If she could but know his de,
Is tination, comprehend his work, bl
lie not being able to fathom the my
n terry her imagination pictured til
70 near approach of ever greater mi
at fortunes than those to which 81
is was already accustomed. 1t Wa
&c plain that her husbands work w;
es laborious, for, although he never I
ne ferred to it, he came home ever
u morning completely exhausted. +
60 81 grew daily more taciturn, carewol
no and morbid. Can it be wondere
ID that Victoria suffered all the tortul
that such a condition of affairs ca
d. bring to a sensitive woman?
or The child, turning uneasily in i
Id little crib, began to cry. Victor
of took a tin cup from the stove al
gave its contents to the baby.
was the last drop of milk, the La
TX morsel of food she had. What gri
wrung the mothers heart as 81
tried to soothe and comfort the lit
o.. one, uncertain that she would
" able to procure sufficient food
~ keepit alive!
Toward morning Robert returne
al. evidently very tired, and was 81
m prised to find his wife still awaB
els Throwing himself OF the poor c
is near the wall he was soon fast aslee
For some moments Victoria gazed
him through her tears, mentally as
:. ing if this was the nan who h
charmed her girlish fancy and W,
% her young heart with promises o.
,o- bright future!
ne At length, from sheer eXhaustio
she sank on the dllapidated loun
nd near her baby's crib, and her wea
eyes soon closed. For three hot
she slept soundly. Awakening l
refreshed she was conscious of
sickening feeling of faintness, t
cause of which she knew too we
u and then came the dull misery of
membering that there was no mon
,orr to buy provisions for breakfast.
1t had been Roberts custom
give her a little money every wet
which she had accepted in silen
neither asking for it nor question:
CT its source, but the last supply h
ler been spent the day before, and
was too soon to expect another. S
had tried to exc out their scanty
m Gonna nv SAVING for n clOthiOp m: