Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1903-03-04

his wooing. since he had reached an
age when man must needs make
haste IL he expects to shake OF the
thralldom OF bachelorhood and take
upon himself the vows and duties of
benedict since the older he grows tho
more difficult 1t becomes to assume
new obligations.
When Overton read In the Times that
The wedding was to occur on the next
Thursday evening at a fashionable
church he seemed turned into stone
for a time He became moody, almost
sullen. He avoided those friends who
had been of late such comfort to him
Mazette CHANGED to meet him on the
street, perhaps the use of that word
can hardly be allowed, since she pur-
posely went out Of her way to pass
near his lodgings in the hope OF seeing
him, for the article concerning Fe.
do,a's coming marriage had caught
her eye, too, and she began to fear for
Jack again.
When she saw him so moody and ap-
parently at cross purposes with the
whole world, she felt very bitter to.
ward Fedora, and had it been in her
power just then 10 remedy matters,
even at the expenee OF pain to herself,
Mazette would have only too gladly
done so, for Jack married to Fedora
and happy was far better than Jack
miserable. Respondent ana devoid OF
ambition
The fatal evening came.
Jack had grimly made up his mind
r4ro,,1d 1oDIr ~ ayootr xrrft,, eeef
ceremony that was to darken his life
and take from him the girl he had SO
long looked upon as his inspiration.
Knowing that fashionable audi
ence would fill the church. and that
admission without card would be
] difficult, he made friends with the or
ganist and managed to get an invita-
tion to occupy seat in the loft.
Mazette insisted on accompanying
hlm--at first he had been appalled, by
the thought of another witnessing his
mute suffering, but she was so per
] sistent, and her sweet presence al
ways served to arouse his better ma
ture, so finally he gave a reluctant con
sent,
When the organ pealed out the we'd
ding march from Lohengrin," Over
| ton shut his teeth hard and waited the
coming Of the white procession that
started down the aisle, flower girls
strewing the way with rare blossoms.
Fedora looked like a dreana-her APP
pearance would haunt him to his dying
day.
And Livermore was very handsome
| a., III. u -oor. e,,4t-..1.o or,pno y.ad IunrU
4 proud, and had eyes for no one but the
beautiful woman who kneIt before the
ehanceI rail beside him and vowed to
love, honor and obey"
When Qyerton heard this he seemed
| to feel change come over him he
knew it was false. for, loving him,
how could she truthfully promise to
give to her husband the affection it inn
pliedg--his faith in womankind was
dead, he believed forever, and from
that hour he could never believe in the
sex again.
Toward the close Of the ceremony
Fedora raised her hitherto downcast
eyes, as If drawn by the subtle power
of Jacks stern gaze, and looked into
his face.
AS ii an arrow had pierced her heart
she turned pale and shuddered, nor did
she dare raise her eyes again.
Perhaps she even dreaded lest the
man whom she had so cruelty Tilted.
whose devoted heart she had cast
away after it was of no further use
to her, as one might worn-out glove,
might in his righteous anger do some
thing desperate such things have
been known ere now in high life.
Altogether those last few minutes Of
the ceremony that should have been.
the proudest and happiest in her whole
(. life were the most miserable, and she
endured small portion of the same
suffering her act had brought upon
Overton.
All was overl
The wedding procession was passing
! down the aisle to renewed strains Of
joyous music Perhaps those who
were near enough to notice wondered
why the happy and envied bride
should turn her head and look in a
half eager, half frightened way toward
the altar they could not know that
rernorse was already beginning to goad
her heart, and that the memory Of
J that white, set, agonized face in the
I organ loft would come before her with
q feproaches every day OF her life, while
the bitter accusations of a murdered
i conscience must many times drive her
!. to tears when surrounded by all the
i beautiful things that generally go to
Z make the sum total of a fashionable
!. womans happiness, and to possess
which she had betrayed her own heart
a When Jack went out Of the church
= ofter fha hutferf3v audfanee had rnT1ed