Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1893-11-04

care TO liver Inc man VINO nad gwen
my life its object was gone. What had
| to wait forY'
"Then you loved him still?" / ex-
claimed.
She gave me strange look. Loved
him still! never loved him. From the
time first heard his name hated him" "
Surely you did love him once, only
too wellw
"Have you thought SO i'll of me as
that?" she replied, smiling moment.
Il might have expected it of the judge
and jury, but supposed your eyes were
keener. If were Il man, would believe
in miracle sooner than in the dishonor
Of the woman / loved. No. you are
wrong. Inever saw Henry Mainwaring
till | met him here"
Then why was he your enemyr' de-
manded in astonishment.
After pause she said: 81 will tell you
little story which will perhaps help
you to understand it. A good many
years ago gentleman who had wife
and little daughter saw another wom-
an who was young and wonderfully
beautiful. A man may love as many
women as he pleases, but he can bring
honor to only one at most. To all the
rest his love means disgrace.
This other woman returned his love,
knowing no harm, and she belonged to
IA people who have no social rights, and
who understand love and hate and joy
and grief, but not the niceties of the
law. After time they, too, had little
daughter. But after year or two the
mother learned that though she was a
mother she was not wife. And she
died, but sent the child to him. BY and
by the mans wife died also, and he was
left with his two daughters. He educated
them both, but he gave the elder prece-
dence over the younger, who, knowing
neither whence she came nor that her
companion was her sister, accepted her
position willingly and joyfully, as was
her nature.
so they grew up together and loved
each other well. But one morning tho
elder took the younger to her room and
threw her arms around her neck G-d
kissed her, and then she showed her
some papers shc had found, which re-
vealed all the secret. 'You are my sis
ter she said, my darling sister, and
whatever any one may say or do You
are my equal, and whatever / have is
yours. No one shall be unjust TO You
while live, and whoever is your enemy
is mine too. You shall have no shame
that will not share, and | will accept
no honor that is not gwen to you as
wellr After that do you need to he told
that loved my sister better than ever
better than myselfY
OF course l had perceived from the
first that the story she was telling was
her own story. Nevertheless the pas
sionate emphasis she gave to the last
sentence startled me. Up to that time
she had spoken with a curious imagina-
tive languor as if she We're following IN
fancy the thread OF a complication IN
which she felt no vital concern, but this
demeanor vanished in moment. She
sat erect and threw her very life into the
words. And then, too, a foregGmpse Of
what was to come flashed upon me, and
felt rather than saw the fatal error
had made.
AT last some one came to court her
an elderly and reserved man, but
wealthy, and she obeyed her father and
married him. She would have taken me
to live with her, but | was needed at
home Her father had begun to realize
that he was mine, too, and to value me.
She wrote me many letters. Her hus-
bands affairs kept him nu.h away from
her Then for time-for some months
she did not write. l knew there was
mischief on foot, and when at last her
letter came l said nothing to any one,
but left home that night and was with
her the next day.
SHE WAS alone-husband and lover
both had abandoned her. She told me
what her life had been. There were two
chapters in it--frst she had been sold for
money; then she had been betrayed for
love. She told me ALL 1t will never be
told again. God knows it, and that is
enough, for he only can understand and
forgive land punish. | comforted her as
much as q broken heart can be com
forted, and another thing that gave her
happiness was that she was i'll and knew
she would not recover. We were sisters
together again. and we used to laugh
and chat sometimes as we did when we
were children. When there is no hope,
peace comes again. At other times she
told me about her love. Oh, my sister!
my darling sister!"
She hid her face upon the cushion of
the couch-where that dead body had
lain d week beforehand wept like a
summer storm.
Her tears ceased as abruptly as they
had come, and she sat erect again, COM
posed and stern, and spoke rapidly and
coldly.
"At the end she gave me the ring and
asked me, il l ever met him, to return it
TO him and give him Il message. Ii was
a loving message; there was no reproach
in it. took the ring and promised.
And | made promise to myself also
which did not tell her OF. Aftcrward
l learned from my father that this Hen-
ry Mainwaring was a relative of ours,
but ,,arhanS he had NOT recOQnlZed nv