Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1900-01-04
hnt midway ne pauses. An awfu sanor

snraads over his features, he filings out
his left arm to clutch anything near, ana
falls down unconscious And so they ind
him when the day is nearly spent.
.sEnnisford has had a stroke!
The news of this goes far and wide,
and few, remembering him in the glory
of his manhood, utter regret; but the
many. with an expression of surprise, put
him out of their memory; and ne IS pet
ter and able to be moved to HlghcllHe
when the tidings reach his wife IN an out
of-the-way villa in which she has buried
herself in one Of the northern shlres.
It has been a dreadful wrench to her TO
leave Highcliffe, to take her last look ana
saw her last prayer at Chcster,s grave.
But when she found that her HUSBAND
had really left her and was living with
the woman who had bewitched him she
felt that she could no longer live under
a roof that belonged to him.
Twilight tinges the western blue, as
woman. closely cioaked and yelled, ana
with child's hand in her own, stea's
through the familiar grounds at high
ciiffe. and then up the stone steps at the
back of the house. A light shines out
| on the piazza from Lord Ennlsford
| the window, she looks IN.
He is alone-alone with visions Of
| day that is dead.
Visions Of a girl wife, whom ne hao
| certainly loved in the first halcyon days;
| he wonders now how he had had it IN Ills
heart to be harsh and selfish, and even
| brutal to one who had loved him so much
| that his highest look had been her law.
Presently his head droops forward and
! there ia such utter desolation in his attl-
| tude. such utter, utter loneliness in the
room, that Lady Ennisford feels she can
bear no more. With shaking fingers she
| quietly unlatches the easement and
pushes the wondering child, hiding her
/ self behind the clustering leaves OF
magnolia.
Stealing round the back of his low
! chair she suddenly clasps her fat, dim
| pled little hands over his eyes, and cries,
shrilly:
"Bo-beep?'
| Then she dances round and faces him.
/ "Great heavens"'
He grows deathly pale to the lips and
trembles all over, as If palsy and not
paralysis had seized him.
He recognizes the features of his pet
the child of his heart. The child does
not come nearer, and, alas! he cannot go
| to her.
my precious" he cries, and for the
first time since he left his wife a real
ring of happiness sounds in his voice.
Mammal
He starts little, and a tinge Of color
sweeps acress his thin cheek.
Mamma! Where is she? Ask mamma
| to come to me-" he whispers in Mays
ear. in q tremulOus tone.
800 go to her!'' May ordains, dictate
rally.
Il can't, my child!'
He says il so wistfully, and she who
listens to every word with bated breath
and strainiIg ears, stretches out her arms
| toward him in the darkness.
All, how abe loves him, in spite of his
sin and shame loves him as much as If
he were good man, and righteous, and
as she ga2es, with her whole soul in her
eyes, she gees him rise slowly and with
difficulty, and in another moment May
clngs to her dress, and beside her stands
a man, smitten with premature age, lean
ing on a crutch.
His curling yellow hair is streaked with
gray, and his face is worn and lined with
suffering. He was dazzling as a god, in
the untouched splendor of his manhood,
but she was already wan and weary with
her womanhood.
Now it is she who has the advantage.
These months, though months of sorrow,
have ripened not withered her, and the
pure light which irradiates her sweet,
brown eyes, and suffuses her delicate soft
features, kindling them into absolute
loneliness.
Il love you! I shall always love you,
Frances" says voice that six years
ago TRANSPORTED the earth into heaven
for her with these same words.
''And l love you; have never ceased
to love you," she whispers back.
81 know! I do not deserve it, for
| have been such Thoroughbred brute to
you, Frances"
'.No matter, it is all over now. And
after all, Ennisford, to err is human"
she says, womanlike, making excuses for
him.
'.And to forgive, divine! but you were
always an angel he cries, fervently, and
meaning it.
: That little Lady Ennisford has actu-
ally taken her husband back" says Mrs.
| Nalsingham, Struggling her shoulders.
Women are such fools! How long does
she expect to keep him?'
Long enough to repent at leisure what
/ she has done in haste" Mrs. Temple an
| swers. "He is not fit for a married man."
But he !s.
He has had a surfeit of beauty. and is
content with the helpmate God has given
! him. He goes to see Bella, too, for, in
his newborn happiness, he can forgive
| even her evil work.
And Bella meets him with a smiling,
sinking face, and introduces herself to
him as Lady Ennisford," when she re-
ceives him in her room in private asy-
! lum which she calls "Highcliffe."
Quite incurable, and often very dan
gerous," the mad doctor whispers, as he
| hurries Lord Ennisford away.
CThe end.)