Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-07-29
A NOMAN'S VENGEANCE.

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Allan Davis loved Luella Clark, who
was a nagger He saw evidence of her
temper displayed upon her father. But
he loved her, and that was enough. He
married her.
know this is not pleasant story, and
readers need go no further unless they
are interested in a curious psychological
fact l myself am believer in heredity.
1 am sure that somewhere in the past
| this woman had an ancestor with a
sharp tongue, which she had never tried
to bride If there is sympathy for the
man who inherits a CONSUMING thirst for
drink. why not for the woman who has
had bequeathed 10 her a bad temper,
which she took with her hair and eyes:
Luella had everything to make her hap
py, from the standpoint of any reasona-
bic being, but she never ceased COM
planning, and at last the good nature and
fortitude of her husband deserted him,
| and he turned, not as the worm turns,
but rather like a raging lion, and Luela
| held her peace in sheer astonishment
81 wish you were dumb" be said in Il
| voice of concentrated wrath and sccrn.
Il wish | might never hear the sound Of
your voice again.
Like all evenly balanced natures, when
he oyerstepped boundaries, he went too
far, but there was this in eXtenuation-
his words came from the lips and not
from the heart, they sounded far worse
than they intentioned, and they recoiled
on himself even before he had seized his
hat to leave the house. He turned to see
their effect on Luella and found, to his
horror, that she had tainted.
Then he called himself a brute, sent for
friends and a doctor and hung over his
wife, PROSTATE with grief and remorse,
until she opened her eyes and recognized
him.
He begged her forgiveness, but to all
his entreaties she only shook her head
feebly until at last, when he pleaded for
one word, she made a motion which indi-
Gated a wish TO write, and, with horri-
BILE fear taking possession of him, he
gave her paper and pencil, and this is
what she wrote:
"You have your wish. You will never
hear my voice again. l am stricken
dumb
1t was noised about in the community,
and people talked, old people especially,
of what they called "a visitation of God"
The doctors had another name for it.
They called it acute paralysis and said it
was reflex and would pass off presently,
but they were wrong in their prognosti-
cations. Luella went about her work
again-the light household duties which
devolved upon her-but no word came
from her mute lips. Allan, who was be-
side himself with grief and disapp0int-
ment, urged her to learn the labial Ian
guage-indeed offered to forego speech
for her sake and learn the lessons of ST
lence with her. but she would not listen
to the suggestion. And then began the
martyrdom of Allan Davis.
Luella could hear perfectly, so that her
husband and friends were not constrain-
ed in their speech, but any word she had
to say, any message or answer in their
conversation coming from her, must be
written. She was always provided with
the means of communication, and writ
ing tablets of the daintiest sort were
scattered around the house like some new
bric-a-brac of speech.
The devotion of Allan Davis TO his af-
ficted wife was something marvellous.
He never wearied of loverlike attentions,
and he never demanded the slightest rec
ognition of them. He spent every hour
of his existence not employed in his bust
ness in devising pleasures for Luella, and
on those unfortunate days when a dumb
devil of i'll nature asserted itself he met
her mute reproaches with a self abase
ment that was neither unmanly nor SER
vile, but Christlike. His bonny brown
locks turned gray, his laughing, boyish
face took on the shadows of early age,
but his spirit remained serene and pa
tient, and the love he held in his heart
for this woman grew brighter and more
fervent toward the end. And the end
came before the fire of youth had quite
turned to ashes-the end for Allan Davis.
1t was a simple case of influenza at
first, with no suggestion of danger, until
one day the doctor looked grave, and the
next he said to Luella, Your husband
will die,''
He watched her sharply, but no Quiver
of an eyelid told him what he wanted to
know. She wrote question on her
tablet:
"How soon?'
"At any time-tonight, perhaps" an
swered the doctor, and again he watched
hcl Diu hc SUI PiisC n hdsh VI
joy in her cold eyes, a strange tense
drawing of the lines around her severe
mouth? 1t might have been his imagina-
ton; but, at any rate, he was glad for
Allan Davis.
The end came at night, when Luella
watched with her husband alone. He
had been sleeping and dreamed some
thing that awakened him with a wild
start and made all things look unreal-all
except his wife, who bent over him with
new solicitude in her face. He saw it
and was grateful.
Il am going to leave you, DEAR" he
said in the slow, precise tones of those
who are nearly done with human speech.
'Will you not let me take with me as my
last glad heritage a word of forgiveness
for the great wrong l did?"
Luella looked at him, and an unmis-
taxable CLEAN of triumph shone in her
eyes and expressed itself in her move
ments as she seized her tablet and wrote
something upon it in plain, distinct let
ters. Allan saw the look, and the hope
that had sustained him so many years
seemed now about to be realized, and he
lifted his head eagerly to read for the
last time that beloved handwriting.
But God, more merciful than his crea-
ture, had anointed his eyes with film,
i II, L