The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-01-12
HIS WIFE'S MISTAKE.
For Thirty-Five Years Her Pride
Was Sufficient, and Then

chester county, \. y, not far from the
settlement which the Iluguenots of the
French Rochelle had founded
1t was chill and still and o'ershad-
owed by lush foliage and the growth Of
tall trees much untrimmed Mrs. skin
ner dwclt in large white house,
pilastered IN front, set back from the
road and screened from the eve Of
casual passers by a grove of elms-
Once every day coach, an anti
quated coachman, pair of fat, sleek,
mild horses drew up before the gate at
the end of the narrow path. tagged
with white square stones leading 10 the
door OF the house.
And from that door came a tall
feminine figure, erect, clad in robes Of
deep black.
ON Sundays likewise did Mrs. Skin
ner appear with a majesty Of gait old
age and solitude had been powerless to
impair, walking up the aisle Of the
Episcopal church TO the very front pew,
whence, raising her eyes from the
preachers face. she might see in the
left transept the memorial tablets Of
three Slinncrs, now passed on TO the
silent majority.
On the first Sunday in June the WIN
dows were thrown open, the day mild
with the June balminess of sh-blOwn
leaf and flower, and the sunshine would
creep in and lie IN a golden shaft over
the richest and oldest tablet Of the
three not put there by herself, the one
sacred to the memory Of Egbert
Thomas Hamilton Skinner
That shaft of yellow sunlight lay so
to-day, disturbed only as the checlcred
shadow Of a brcczc-stirred bourh shift
ed and decomposed its luminous bar,
and Mrs. skinner, mayhap Ethel Mary
dc Kay, wife Of the Egbert Thomas
Hamilton skinner of long years ago
forgot the cicr-yman's text and neg
lected TO follow his discourse. Back
into the past must her fancy have
strayea, for when in its pcroratiou the
surpliced figure lifted up its hand and
the congregation rustled TO its feet or
bent decorous heads upon its hands Mrs
Skinner, in her black robes. sat i'm
movable, and only stirred and seemed
10 wake TO consciousness Of external
things when the organ pcaied forth
and the people slowly. with the re-
ieved joyousness born of sense Of the
rapture Of all nature without and the
satisfaction of a duty fulfilled issued
through the vaulted portal 10 the south
wind, the restless singing Of birds the
sun shining in white glare on The
gravel walk
The house with tine white columns
was dusk and cool and filed with a
Sabbatarian stiffness. Somewhere the
green blinds had been opened 10y some
new, impetuous hand, unframed as yet
10 the strict usages that prevailed with
the servants of this household.
Mrs Skinner ordered the light shut
out
Alone she sat in the darkened din
ing-room at her midday meal an old
servant softly moved IN ana out. Pie
tures-family portraits of Sllinners and
De kays-looled with the fiat surfaces
and wooden poses that characterize
such American art of the early years of
the century from tarnished frames on
the walls.
Like more than one De Kay was this
old woman's naughty head, with the
high, clear profile.
beautiful had she been, the Ethel de
Kay Of ali those years ago. Well had
she known II, too. Yet what had her
beauty availed? would she have asked,
curviug in bitter contempt those still
fine, fun lips.
After She had passed into the draw
ing-room the old servant who had
dressed her mistress hair and hung up
her black dresses these forty years
noiselessly entered.
''Shau l pack, ma'am?"
Mrs. Skinner was moment in reply
ing.
"A few things in a valise-yes. We
shall only be gone two or three days"
The next day mistress and maid were
he h.a oil
house IN Tenth street. 1t had been
carefully closed since the departure OF
the last tenant. Though the afternoon
was warm the breath Of the empty
rooms struck against Mrs. Skinner's
cheek with a dull chill
shall ! let in the sun, ma'am?" said
Hannah.
Mrs. Skinner did not seem to hear.
80 they want the top floor, zoo,
these new tenants?'' she said
Yes, Ina'am," said Hannah, who was
in some wise manager of her mistress
affairs Is well.
Then everything must be moved
out"
IF i could do anything"
Nothing was the answer.
And Mrs Skinner slowly ascended
the stairs, while Hannah in silence sat
and kept watch at the foot.
Back INTO the past again walked the
stately old woman in black Slowly
did she unlock the door and move into
the large, old, Uttered room.
For the first time in thirty-five years
she lookel upon the objects there. Her
eyes, in the dim light, IN the musty
silence which at her entrance ha0
broken into a succession of small, low,
strange sounds, glanced from one to
the other-for the first time; Tor the
first time since the day when the trag-
edy Of her life had come 10 her.
The bones Of the past were stirred,
indeed. now And she had hated them;
she had shut them away; she had tried
to forget them. 10 let them lie in their
graves, A wrongcd woman such as she
was-what else could she do?
Suddenly she started up.
Her eyes. accustomed pow to the OBJ
security Of the room. saw them both
the two portraits she had placed side
10y side before she locked the door, with
her own hand, never except by her own
hand TO be opened, thirty-iive years be-
fore. There they were as she had
placed them the do.y she had left the
house, the house OF her husband who
had wrongel her.
Egbert Hamilton Skinner, the hand
soonest of all his family, there he was.
blue ewes. his smooth face, his
laughing, treaeherous, deoonalr mouth
Tho widow looked at them ali.
And then the face OF Martha ms
cousin. An, yes, she had been fair, too
Martha. with her innocent face ana her
lirs that were like ripe roses, and all
her golden curls that fell upon her
...l.i.n neck And As lreacherous. as