The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-17
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all the ardor Of a young man; that I was
your ideal; and you promised by all you
held most sacred that IL consented I
should never regret. I believed you, and
believed the false words of feigned devo-
ton Which you wrote me later under seal
Of strictest secrecy. You went to Cairo,
and none knew of our secret-the secret
that you intended to make me your wife.
And how have you kept your promise?
To-day my father has informed me that
you are to marry Mary. Imagine the blow
to me My father expects me to rejoice,
little dreaming how / have been fooled !;
how lightly you have treated woman's
affections and aspirations. Some there
are who. finding themselves in my posi-
ton, would place in Mary's hands the
packet of your correspondence which is
before me as write, and thus open her
eyes to the fact that she is but the dupe
OF man devoid of honor. Shall do so?
No. Rest assured that shall not. If my
sister is happy, let her remain So NV
vendetta lies not in that direction The
IRE OF hatred may be stihed, but it can
never be quenched. We shall be quits
some day, and you will regret bitterly that
you have broken your word so lightly. NV
revenge, theH vengeance of jealous wo-
man, Will fall upon you at a moment and
| In a manner you will little dream of. I
return you your letters, as you may not
| care for them to fall into other hands, and
from to-day shall never again refer to
| what has passed. I am young, and may
still obtain an upright and honorable
man as husband. You are old. and are
tottering slowly. to your doom. Farewell.
The letter fully explained a .,circ.,m-
stance of which I had been entirely ignor-
ant, namely that the woman had. loved
mad actually been engaged to old Mr..
Cdurtenay before her sister had married
him. Its. tenor showed how intensely m
tagonistic she was towards the man Awho
had fooled her, and in the concluding
sentence there was a distinct If covert
threat threat of bitter. revenge.
She had returned the old mans let
| tiers apparently in order to show thatYin
her hand she held a further and more
powerful weapon; she had not sought to
break off his marriage with Mary, but
had rather stood by, swallowed her anger
and calmly calculated upon a fierce, ven
delta at a moment when he would least
expect 1t. \
Truly those startling words spoken by
Sir Bernard had been full of truth. re-
membered them now, and discerned his
meaning. He was at least an honest up
right man who, although sometimes a
trife eccentric, had my interests deeply
at. heart. In the progress I had made in
the profession I owed much to him, and
even In my private affairs he had sough,
to guide me, although I had, alas, disre-
garded his repeated warnings. :
took up one after another of the letters
my friend had examined and found it to
be the correspondence Of a woman who
was either angling after a wealthy his.
| band. or who loved him with all the
strength Of her affection. Some Of the
communications were full Of passion, AND
betrayed that poetry OF soul, that was in
nate in her,, The letters were dated from
Neneford, from Oban, and from various
Mediterranean ports, where she had gone
yachting with her uncle, Sir Thomas Hen
ton, the great Lancashire coalowner
Sometimes she addressed him as~"Dear-
est'' at others as Beloved" usually sign
ing herself Your own So full were
they Of the ardent passion chara cteristic
of her that they held me in amazement
It was passion developed under its most
profound and serious aspect; they showed
the serious and thoughtful, not the bril-
liant side Of intellect.
In Ethelwynn's character the passionate
and the imaginative were blended equally
| and in the highest conceivable degree as
combined with delicate female nature
Those letters, although written to a man
| in whose heart romance must long ago be
dead, showed how complex was her char
Eacter how fervent, enthusiastic and self
forgetting her loye. At first I believed
merely designed to captivate the old gen
tleman for his money; but when read
on saw how intense her passion became
towards the end and how the culrnina-
| ton of it ALI was that wild reproachful
/ missive written when the crushing blow
fell so suddenly upon her.
=. EthelWynn was woman of eNtraordin-