Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-09-02

was Already the vile OF anOtner.
shall never forget the effect upon me
of the news that she was no longer
free. The meaning seemed 20 have
been taken out of life, and for me there
was no joy in the present, no hope in
the future.
Two dreary years passed away, and I
came home, having resigned my ap-
pointment in the east, resolved to set
tie down in England, and devote my
self to those literary pursuits for which
1 believed myself to be better suited
than for public service. I had no in
tention of settling in B-n. The
place was too full of sad suggestions
to prove inviting to me. I was COM
PEELED to go down there, however, short
ly after my arrival, to attend to the
disposition of certain family belong
ings, and it was then, for the first time
since that fateful afternoon, that I
again saw Bertha. How changed she
was! Not that she was less beautiful;
but her proud face was, oh! so sad. It
IL
world of sorrow since last saw her.
Her greeting was one almost too pain
full for either of us, and when she said:
1--WE all thought you were drowned;
you are as one risen from the dead"
/ realized that she would never have
been the wife of Royal Phelps but for
the news of my death. What saw and
learned in B-n made me resolve to
stay there, for the present at least.
do not know how / came to suspect it,
but the suspicion grew, and at last be-
came absolute knowledge, that Royal
Phelps was turning the life of the only
woman I had ever loved into misery.
l had always known him to be of a
reckless disposition, but 1 had not
dreamed that he was addicted to gam
bling, drunkenness, and debauchery.
I did not see him often, and 1 scarcely
ever saw Bertha; when I did, her face
was so sad-so silently and uncom-
plainingly sad-that it was all could
do to look at it and remain quiet. As
for Royal, he had grown gross in per-
son and coarse in manner, and scarcely
ever seemed quite sober. And so the
days passed; from a distance watched
my proud, beautiful darling pine and
fade, till / feared that death might
step in to interfere where 1 was pow
erless. Thus things went on, till one
night I was summoned by a message
from Bertha's mother: "Come quick
ly, we are in great trouble"
Invent, and found the doctor there be-
fore me, and learned that an hour be-
fore Royal had come home drunk, and
upon meeting his wife had first abused
her, and then struck her cruel blow,
which had left her senseless at his feet.
He had then sailed forth again, leav-
ing his wife, for all he knew, dead.
There was little I could do but creep
back to my solitary misery and spend
the night in agonizing reflections upon
the past. But, when the day at length
broke, had resolved that the man who
had robbed me of my darling, only to
maltreat and make her miserable, must
answer for his brutality to me.
There is, however, a higher power
than any we can WELD, which often in
tervenes in the affairs of man when
least expected; and, before I ever saw
Royal Phelps again that power had
placed him forever beyond the reach OF
earthly retribution. While still half
wild with drink, he had mounted to
follow the hounds, and few hours
afterwards was carried home-dead.
We never speak of those dreadful
days, now long passed. In the old home
Ito which Bertha clings with tenacious
effection-we are living life as nearly
perfect in happiness as ever falls to
mortal lot. The old light has come
back to my darling's eyes, the old-time
buoyancy to her step. AS write these
lines, upon lifting my eyes see her and
a smaller Bertha laughing and playing
upon the lawn together, and I know
that if the news of my death was the
beginning of misery for her, she is, at
least, happy foreyer.-St. Paul.