Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-01-11


months. and made them the most painful
OF my life? To-day we are man and
wife joined together till death us do
part.
| said DO word as to the result of my
inquiries in Liverpool. | had 10 diff
fic1lIty III persliadng Philippa. who III
some things was as simple and trusting
as n child. that it was necessary, or at
least advisable. she should be married
under the name which her first certlfi-
cate of marriage affected 10 bestoW upon
hcr She signed her name for the last
it may. for aught ] know have also been
the first-timc. as Philippa Ferrand; and
| noticed that she shuddcred as she
| formed the letters.
Although my bride was by birth half
a Spaniard, and although | had by now
| in many ways concerned 10 the Spanish
| mode Of life. we were still English
enough to look upon going away some
| where for q honeymoon as Indispensable.
| 1t would be but a short TRIP, and as my
mother in our absence would be at Sc
! vile alone, or with servants only. we
! did not care to go very far away. 1t so
| happened that, although SO close to
| Cadiz, we had not yet paid that town a
visit, and thought the present a capital
| opportunity for so doing.
To CadiZ We went. and stayed several
| days at the Hotel de Paris. We liked
| the white-walled town. rising and shin
| ing above the dark-bluc sea. like, as L
| have somewhere seen 1t described, a
white pearl in a crown of sapphires; or,
| as the Gaditanos call it, tazita de plata,
silver cap. We liked the rows of tall,
terrace-topped houses. We liked the
| movement and hustle OH the quays and
in port We liked the walks on the
| broad, granite ramDarts, and the lovely
views of the busy bay and country be-
| yond it: but all the same we agreed
/ that Cadiz bore no comparison TO our
| beautiful Seville, and the sooner we re-
| turned to that gay city the better.
Now that / had gained my desire, was
I happy? After all that had passed
could / have been happy during
those early days of our welded
life? AS l look back uDon them, I
| sit and muse. trying i'll vain to an
~sWer the question to my own sat
isfaction. Philippa loved me-she was
my wife; come good, come evil. she was
mine forever. In so much | was happy
thrice happy. Could | have lived but for
the present, my bliss would have known
no alloy
But there was the past! could not
| altogether forget the path which had led
to such happiness as now was mine. !
| could be thankful that | alenc knew all
| the horrors and dangers with which that
path was studded. / alone knew the Sc
cret of that one night. Although / could
keep it forever, would it be always a
| secret!
Yes. and there was the future. Behind
| the happiness which was mine at present
| lurked dread as to what the future had
in store for me-for us 1t was dread
which day by day grew stronger. The
| greater my happiness, the more dreadful
| the thought of its being wrecked. The
| feeling that my house OF joy was built
| upon sand was obtruding on my most
bEssful hours, and not, l knew, without
| good reasons.
| Philippa's very avoidance of speaking
| of her past life lent some justification to
| my gloomy forebOdngS. Not once did
Sir Mervyn Ferrand's name pass between
| my wife and me. Not once did she ask
| me for any further particulars concerning
! the events of that night upon which. in
the height of her short-lived mania, she
reached my cottage. True. that upon be-
coming my wife, and beginning a new
and happier stage of life, it might be but
natural for her to wish to consign to OBJ
| livion the wrong. the shame, the suffering
| wrought by a williams craft; yet | was so
mixed up in the catastrophe that silence
on the subject seemed strange. Her reti-
| cence alarmed me. | fancied it must be
| caused by some vague uneaslness con-
| nected with that night-some doubt which
| she dared not seek and set at rest. 1t is,
| know, not unusual for women. after
| their recovery from that mysterious dis
ease which had for awhile driven my
poor girl distraught. to be able to recall
| and accurately describe the delusions
which had afflicted them during those
wandering hours. [ myself had in one
or two cases noticed this popularity, and
the authorities which | had studied dur
| ing Philippians illness mention it as an in
disputable fact. My great dread was
| that at some moment, perhaps when our
| happiness was rs perfect as 1t could be-,
| some simple chance, some illusion to GER
ACS, = 11crs of
name, might supply the missing link, and
the fearful truth would be revealed to
my wife.
Our return journey to Seville was
made by water. Although the Guadal-
| culver is not very interesting river. we
thought travelling by steamer would be
| q pleasant change from the journeys in
the hot, stuffy. slow trains, full from end
| to end with the odor of garlic and to-
| bacco; SO early one morning we left Ca
| dix. and were soon steaming up the slug
| gish dull. turbid river with the great
| fiat stretches of swampy land on either
| hand.
There were not many passengers on
board the steamer The boat itself was
wretched affair, and before an hour
was over we wished we had chosen the
train as a mode of transit. Mile after
mile of the level, deserted land through
which the river flows passed by, and
| presented no ODJocIS OF interest greater
than herds of cattle or flights of aquatic
birds. Save that Philippa was by my
! side. it was the dullest journey I ever
made.
l. OF course there were English tourists
on board: no spot is complete without
them. Two of them, young men, and
apparently gentlemen. had seated them
selves near us; and, after the usual ad-
miring glances at my beautiful Philippa,
commenced desultory talk with each
other.
From the unrestrained way in which
they spoke. and from the strength of
some of their unfavorable comments on
the scenery. or lack of scenery, it was
clear that they took us for natives. be-
fore whom they could speak without
being understood. Philippa, Of course,
looked Il thorough Spaniard and my own
face had become so tanned by the sun
that | might have been Of any nation
ality.
The young fellows chatted on. quite cb-
liyious to the fact that two of their
neighbors understood every word they