Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1897-08-26

iiidhsiOH coulu well spare SulteS oil
rooms for the young couple, and the
family would meet only at the table.
But Margaret soon had reason to regret
her generous desire to save Herbert the
expense of a 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 sheer too broad, to meet
my poverty and infirmities. 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 yine-wreathed Bacchante
put in the space. Margaret hung the
portrait in her own room, but | think
her reproachful eyes might have haunt
ed Bert. Twice the 10th of June was
the occasion of large party, but Mar
garet did not appear.
And Bert. giving way at first, be-
cause, in his infatuated eyes, Jessie
could do no wrong, yielded after the
glamour was over, from sheer Incidence
and inability 70 curb the obstinate will
opposed 10 his.
Before the third year Of the marriage
was over, and in the month of roses,
Bert died. 4 violent cold, contracted
in the winter, clung to him and ended
in hasty consumption. Again Mar
garet was nearly insane with grief, and
/ was only anxious to have Jessie leave
us.
But Berts income, but half Of his ia
theirs wealth, reverted to Margaret if
he died childless, with only jointure
TO his widow, if sc 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 iointure. She knew Mar
garet would not thrust her out, and yet
/ 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 a 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 male creature in reach, and the
climax of her enormities was reached
when she dashed into our sitting-room
one morning pirouetted before the mir
nor and said:
1--WE done with all this black! I'm
going to be married."
Margaret was too miserable and
stunned to answer, but asked:
''Who is your victim?"
Harold Ogden"
"Jessie!" 1 cried, "there is no love
| lost between us, but for your own sake
pause before you trust your happiness
with a man who, at 90, has a record of
vice and dissipation that is notorious.
lie has S5OO,O0O, and is not stingy!"
| with a look of venom at poor Margaret.
you need not trouble yourself about
/ me! / suppose you won't grudge me
wedding on the eth of next month";"
The anniversary of her husbands
death! / looked at Jessie amazed.
/ Well as knew her, did not believe her
audacity and heartlessness would go TO
/ that length. But Margaret was reused
at last.
Mrs. Dunwood." she said, with dig
nifty. III you wish to insult your hus-
bands memory 10y filling his place on
the very anniversary of his death, You
must do il elsewhere. l will not give you
wedding on the 9TH of June. Oh my.
son. my son. Only one year dead"
Then Mrs. Dunw0od left the house,
and her sy mpathizing friends we're en-
tertaiued with the most outrageous de-
scriprion of her mother-in-law's tyran-
ny and final inhospitality.
And upon the 18th OF June the beau
tiful little demon took her husband and
her retribution. Her husband was
| thoroughly bad man, and, after brief
| honeymoon of devotion, proved do
nestle tvrant of the hardest type-jeai-
Gus, exacting, fault-finding and stingy
to a terrible degree.
jessie : entire tINioig VI NNANA--'N
proved vain. Her coaXing was made Il
| lest. her tears were laughed to scorn,
her pouting met a sneer, and her rage
actual brutal force. She grew white
and thin, and would come to me, actual
~ to me, TO beg money for the little
| luxuries that had been her daily food.
I would console her for the time, but
after few months n shuddering dread
came upon me. The weak, shallow ma
ture could not endure the daily persecu-
ton aud torture of life, and Jessie's
plaint was becoming an appalling fact.
| Her husbands cruelty was driving her
mad! Margaret saw it, and forgot all
her own injuries.
And that broad, generous heart
opened to the woman who had so tor
tured her. and soothed all her sorrows.
Every DAY the wreck of the beautiful
blond came to us for such comfort as
we could give. childishly pleased al