Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-08-29

frain from such talk in the presence
of q visitor, and that visitor a young
girl
Never had his wife seen hin SO
reused before. 1t confirmed her jeal-
GUS suspicious, and the baleful light
in her eyes flashed up stronger every
instant.
II know how you cherish the young
girl-you need not tell me-" she cried.
Il was as young as she when you
married ME for my money; and now
YOU tell ne to Bear my wrongs in 81
lence, because the shameless creature
who IS Turing my husband from me
happens to be young"
She laughed ringing, scornful
laugh, and poor Lefty, still watching
her like one fascinated, shivered.
"You are planning to marry her for
love, l suppose, when you have buried
me quietly" she continued; 'tbut | will
live to curse you yeti will live to
curse you"
I She rose up in the tempest Of pas
+ sion. her eyes cleaning, her cheeks
burning. A beautiful fiend she looked.
With a sharp cry, Lefty turned from
the room and from the house, flying
with swift feet down the road and
over the sands to her own home, never
stopping to get her hat, but going off
i just as she was, her dark curls tOsSin 2
! about by the wind, and her ears still
ringing with that vengeful cry.
! o,,l ho
! girlish figure in it's headlong flight,
and when she could see it no longer
she sunk back on her seat and began
to cry quietly. y new fear of her
! husband stirred in her.
| II might have watched them and
thwa1-ted Them she was thinking as
she sat there; 'but | should not have
spoken out. Oh, dear! l wish I had
kept quiet!'
DR.. Leonard stood still, his hand
resting OH the bookcase, his eyes
scanning the volumes within it, and
no one could have told from his grave
still face the thousand bitter cries
that rose up liz his soul; cries for
peace, for love, for sympathy. help
everything he had not, aor might Dope
to have.
Presently he crossed over TO where
arm. She raised her eyes to his face
with a start, and kept them there
awed into quietness by the fixed look
it wore.
AS soon as M. Sharp can draw III
the necessary documents" said re
every farthing of your money, which
you know as we'll as | do has never
been touched by me, as it is, shall be
legally settled upon yourself, so that
| never can touch it. Let that con-
tent you. You have SINK lower in my
esteem than [ thought any woman,
much less my own wife, ever could
sink. In the future let there be an
other scene like the one of this morn
ing, and we two shall be parted as
| wholly as the law can let us. Remem-
Der this, Mrs. Lennard, and know
that / never break my word"
He was gone with those cruelty
steady eyes, that cruelty firm face,
and as the door closed upon him, his
wife fell to the floor in a faint. SO
Judith found her when she came in to
take away the breakfast things. and
her tending was none of the gentiest,
her muttered words none of the kind
est, as She set about restoring her to
consciousness.
! The doctor kept his word; every
| farthing of his wifes fortune was
! settled upon her before the month
was out.
In the early days of spring a weakly,
ailing little son was born, but meet
ing no mother welcome, the little
stranger soon faded away, and tiny
grave in the churchyard was the only
visible token of his brief stay on earth.
In the fathers heart a yearning void
was left, and a tender memory of the
baby fingers that had thrilled his palm
death, and passed away from him
| forever.
Perhaps if the child had lived the
! mother might have own a better,
!
! haps, She might not; for she seemed
TO have no love for the wee bloss ON,
no care for it, even willie it was hers
TO cherish, and that brief turn of
motherhood passed, and left her still
the same cankered, cvil-hearted, dis
contended woman she had been be-
fore. Something in her husbands
manner kept her from any open rail-
ing. She felt she dare not try him
now as she hal tried him in those
early days before the love in his heart
had dried up. She practiced instead
a serious of petty contradictions AS
contemplate as they were spiteful,
and yet not without their sting.
Urged by some Maynard fancy of
her own, Mrs. Leonard suddenly took
upon her to be repentant for the in
suit offered TO Lefty Leigh She
walked over to the lonely little cot
tage one day while her husband was
away, and told her how sorry she was
for her rash. senseless words: and the
simple girl, kindly and true herself,
/ believed her, and freely forgave them,
perhaps an the reader that she was
conscious Of a little secret and harm
less admiration for the grave, hand
some doctor, that had grown up, IN
, known to herself.
! 1t was nothing to bring a blush to
the pureSt face. No true wife, know