Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-05-25
HER ONB ERROR.
OR
TIE FISHERMAN'S BRIDE.
CHAPTER, LII-CoNTINUED.

ed With her lie. She prlZed III 1Or Une
sake of a husband she'd lost years
past, and that she still wore black for,
her and her little girl. But you're
struck, sir! You seem moved; you
knew the ring! Mercy! if you should
be the husband she thought dead! [
always told her | believed he would
come back"
&" The woman had hurriedly spoken
these words in a breath, never pausing,
but, with inquiring eagerness, gazing
the while at the stranger, who, on his
part, seemed petrified with amaze
inent.@>
=. acknowledgement for me?" he
echoed
A few hurried words ensued. The
man could throw no light upon how
the Jewel had come into his possession.
The tradesman who held the business
before him had, he said brought down
many things from London, where he
had traded. He was now dead; no
traces could be pursued in that
direction.
Eagerly, and despite the exhorbi-
tant sum demanded, the. stranger be-
came the purchaser of the ring, and
then he quilted the shop with the
woman, who hao readily acceded to
his entreaty that she would acquaint
him with all she knew of it's previous
owner.
Then, through much questioning,
by dint of explanation, and calling
up Of dates and times, and by COM
parison of such and such occurrences
and incidents, much of the painful
history of the poor wanderers was
made known to him whom it most
concerned; and ere the two, SO
strangely met, had parted, Aaron
Franklen had learned the falsehoods
of his cruel enemy, and that his wife,
if not absolutely faithful to his
memory, had erred in grievous error,
and had lived to repent it in bitter
ness, and to mourn for him.
III never knew that she had an
other husband the woman said when
she had wept at the very fullness of
her Joy over the revelation he could
not Withhold, that he was indeed the
dead alive-the lost one restored.
HGod Knows" she went on, "she
grieved for you with all her heart and
soul, and all that ever she suffered
she seemed to think hard enough,
for some fault she blamed herself
for.'
She went on to tell him of the con-
sternation and subsequent suffering
Nelly had undergone, on the occasion
of his imaginary apparition; her
nearer shook his head sadly, and re-
curing to some tablets he carried,
queried of the woman her impression
as to the date Of that occurrence.
eyes, yes, it was them" he sighed;
"tah, fl had but seen her!-if [ had
but known" if
He gathered too at what period she
had been thrown, with her child, up
on her own resources, and thus clear
ly proved that the tale of her death,
as given by the wretched Saul, could
not have been true
"But since then, since then--Who
knows what may have happened?
Good God who can say? Shemay be
dead. OF want, of trouble, sickness
who knows!"
''tIt has often been trouble to me
that | should have left them as did;
she was the best friend had, and her
dear child too, sweet little Ida, bless
her!" the woman said; "but was in
sore grief at the time myself and it
made me selfish, expect, and came
away all OF a sudden; and when years
after Twas in London again, | could
get no tidings of them; they had left
the place where they had lived, and
no one knew anything at all about
them. But God bless her, wherever
she is, and | pray heaven you may
find her; and if can help you in any
way, will with all my heart"
. He thanked her, but in words OF
which he himself never gathered the
import. He was in maze of Devil
derment and trouble. A new life had
been poured in upon hislif He, who
had been an hour ago impatient to
quit his country for ever, had sudden
Iy found tie to knit him to her; a
call all impera lively claimed him, stir
red him to new hopes SO dashed with
fear, to expectancy so mixed with
doubt, that it was torture.
Pending decision, he paced hur- |
riedly to and fro the chamber where
they had been sitting, and Yainly en-
deavored to attain degree Of calm
ness as he recalled the faces he had
Just ascertained.
Those past years-a small lifetime
how had they been wasted! He, a
hopeless, ruined wanderer, scathed,
broken, despairing- doubling all, even
Divine Justice or mercy-curs ng al
most at times her, the author of his
misery, while she, affair off, worked out
the dreary penance of her life IN an
guish and bitterness, accepting pa
tiently, from the hand OF the One
Judge, the dole of her atonement.
AS slowly and painfully, from out
the confused mass, these convictions
presented themselves; as he became
aware of all that had been told him
her weary, yet accomplishing labor,
her watchfuI guardianship ofthe child,
her pious resignation, her devotion
to his memory-the intermediate was
o'er-leaped, and she was again the
Nelly he had wooed and won amid the
rocks and glens of lovely Sandcombe.
Tears-the first that ever had moist