Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-09-06


her generous desire to save Herbert the
expense of separate establishment.
Jessie affected to believe Herbert the
head of the house; Margaret mere de-
pendent, and as for me, no insult was
too keen, no sneer too broad, to meet
my poverty and intirmities. Not that
she disliked me particularly, but it was
one way of giving pain to Margaret.
and Jessie never missed the smallest
one.
1t would take volumes to recount the
petty insults she offered Margaret, One
day, Mr.. Dunwood's portrait was re-
moved from the nail in the drawing
room and a vine-wreathed Bacchante
put in the space. Margaret hung the
portrait in her own room, but l think
her rcproachful eyes might IA ( haunt
ed Bert. Twice the 10th Cf jun war
the occasion of large party, Lnt Mar
garet did not appear.
And Bert, giving way at first, be-
cause, in his infatuated eyes, Jessie
could do no wrong, yielded after tie
glamour was over, from sheer Incidence
and inability to curb the obstinate will
opposed to his.
Before the third year of the marriage
was over, and in the month of roses,
Bert died. \ violent cold, contracted
in the winter, clung to him and ended
in hasty consumption. Again Mar
garet was nearly insane with grief, and
l was only anxious to have Jessie leave
US.
But Bert's income, but Lalf of his IA
theirs wealth, reverted to Margaret if
he died childless, with only Il jointure
to his widow, if he left one.
And Jessie had no idea of leaving the
luxurious home, where she had reigned
three years, to live on the modest in
come from her jointure. She knew Mar
garet would not thrust her out, and yet
l wonder my sister did not go even to
that length.
For, morbidly anxious TO honor the
dead herself, my sisters whole soul
must have revolted at the utterly heart
less conduct of the young widow Her
mourning was display of the last Paris
fashions in jet, bugles and Grape, and
the "becoming" was studied far more
than the appropriate.
In six months she was flirting with
any mse creature in reach, and the
climax of her enormities was reached
when she dashed into our sitting-room
one morning pirouetted before the mir
Tor and said:
I've done with all this black! I'm
r0ipr IN l,a rnorripdi"
Margaret was too miserable and
stunned to answer, but l asked:
'Who is your victim?"
Harold Ogden"
"Jessie!" l cried, ";here is no love
lost between us, but for your own sake
pause before you trust your happiness
with a man who, at 30, has record of
vice and dissipation that is notorious."
lie has $5OO,000, and is not stingy!"
with look of venom at poor Margaret.
"You need not trouble yourself about
me! | suppose you won't grudge me a
wedding on the 9TH of next month";
The anniversary of her husbands
deathl ! looked at Jessie amazed.
Well as | knew her, l did not believe her
audacity and heartlessness would go to
that length But Margaret was reused
at last.
'Alrs. Dunwood," she said, with dig
nifty, "if YOU wish to insult y,ur hus-
bands memory by filling his placa on
the very anniversary of his death. Won
must do ii elsewhere. Twill not give Won
a wedding on the Tth of June. Oh. NV
son. nv son! Only one wear dead,"
Then Mrs. Dunwood left the honsc.
and her ,mpathiZinr friends we're en-
tertained with the most outrageous de-
scriution of her motber-in-law's tvron-
ny and final inhospitality.
And upon the 7tb of Trne tha ,aor.
tiful little demon tool, be, husband orI
her retribution Uor busl,,nd ,,.os =
fhorouohIv had mar. and ofter a brief
haneymonn of da,ot,or rroyod - 40
mes;ic tvrant of the hardest tvne- ieaI-
ous exacting fanlt. .fndinn ~ s+;nm,,
To a Terrible degree