Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-11-12
His Wife'S Confession.
ny MARIAN BRECR.

When Harold Wilton married Edith
Morse he knew very little about her
past life. Indeed, she was 40 young,
30 like flower that had but just fairly
nnfolded, that il was hard TO realize
that she had any past. 1t seemed to
him when he found her sitting OPP
posite to him one morning at the table,
ut summer resort in the mountains,
that she was a new Eve created for
him alone; and AZ they were the only
young folks in the house there was no
one to dispute his claim.
There are people, no doubt, who
would have hesitated to admit that
Edith was beautiful, she was so unlike
the brilliant brunette who sat next to
her, Just AZ there are people who
think an opal not worth looking ut in
comparison with diamond; but young
Wilton, who, without being conscious
OF IL, was poet and an artist, found
an endless charm in tho quick kin
ding of the frank blue eyes, and tho
coming and going of the dimples in
the delicate nunlike face.
Had any one told him that she had
grown up among the sand dunes he
would hardly have believed it, for, with
the grace and sweetness of q wild rose,
she had are finement of voice and man.
ner that told Enthusiastically of gentle
breeding. Yet until the last two years,
her home, from the time she was in
short frocks, had been in the little vii
lage of Hardacre ut the far end of
Long Island, and, il her cousin had
not CHANGED to discover her, she would
surely never have found her way to
this mountain paradise.
This cousin, two degrees removed,
was wealthy widow, who, on finding
that the. girl was an orphan, had ut
once adopted her. She was an elderly
woman, and, having no child of her
own, she had hoped to keep Edith
with her for the rest of her days; but
Cupid, when two young hearts are in
his meshes, has scant consideration for
the hopes aud plans of the old; and
presently Harold, with a becoming
sense of his unworthiness, was beg
ging for Edith's hand, her heart, he
was sure, was his already.
The young lovers never suspected
the pang it cost the new mother To
give her consent TO their marriage,
they were too thoroughly engrossed
with each other. Harold was a fine
fellow, and came of good stock; she
knew all about his antecedents, and
had no fault whatever to find with
him; but it seemed hard that he should
so soon rob her Of this sweet daughter.
1t did not occur to her that there was
any necessity of explaining to him
how she came to adopt her. IL he
truly loved her, it would matter little
tohim how or where she had blossomed
into this perfect flower of woman
hood. And Edith herself was too
happy to dwell on the past. 1t is
chiefly the old who spend time in re-
trospection.
But when, on their return from the
wedding journey, Harold took her to
his city home, she began to be
troubled. 1t was stately old man.
sion, overflowing with rare books and
works of art; and Edith was half be-
side herself. All her life she had
been hungry for things of this sort,
and her intelligent appreciation gave
Harold fresh cause To congratulate
himself, for he knew very well what
his Grandmother Wilton would have
thought of him il he had married
girl not able To discriminate between
q masterpiece and daub.
Edith was especially fascinated by
the family portraits; and Harold, az
they went the rounds Of the gallery,
rshesrsed the traditionary lore con-