The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-02-06
Husbands Sight Meant Death to the
Wife.

glass at all. 1t would Seem cruel to
catalogue In detail every defect Of the
face she Saw there; she was not n
never had been beautiful. She had al
ways known it. Ten years before,
when she had married a blind
she had known perfectly we'll how des-
,erately amusing he. friends and ac-
quaintances would he about the event.
rs they discussed it behind her back.
She did not mind; the habitually dull
must have their inexpensive holiday
she was much in love with the blind
man, and he with her.
She had the body of a very beauti-
full womar; that made the ugliness of
her face more s~ardonically cruel. Her
voice was sweet: her laugh-she often
Iaughed-was musical. She had told
her husband often that she vas not
beautiful; her t~ruthfulness had made
her do that. But her love of him was
more than her love of ruth, and she
was content to leave him u~nconvinced
saying that it was always so
that no woman would own in so many
words that she was beautiful, even
though she must know it.
1IlSIc Hdo always oOCh lC SlIdllSS
that he WOULD recover his sight. Sht
had pretended to him that she prayed
and longed for this. It had been the
one horror of her life. One day per-
.haps this nan would see her face. I
would act beautifully and give no
start of horror nor let the expression
of his face betray him. He would be
would not owe her any more. In a
Thousand ways, so small that she
would b. unconscious of them, unable
to name and describe them, she would
know hat he did not love her any
more. Yet it was not quite all pre-
tence; at times, when she saw how
desperately he longed for the light G.
the sun again. she found hat for hi
|sake she, too, was hopin~ that he would
recover his sight. even though she
knew what must happen to her then.
That was all over now. He vas away
in London. 1t had been only a Slight
and entirely successful. To-
day he was coming back to her, as one
who has escaped from prison, with his
eyes filled with the joy n beauty of
living. She had his letters. full of de-
|lightful wonder the letters that were
her death sentence.
She turned from the looking glass
and sat down at the writing table.
All her preparations for this had been
lllIO6 loIS dSo. IllClS 10y liz
|ture which has been painted for her.
1t was the face of a beautiful woman
mot her own face, though it's beauty
and her ugliness had something in
common. There also was a sheet Of
lnotepaper. stamped with the address
of a house where they had once lived;
they had left it three years before.
She had kept hat sheet for her pur-
pose She dated it a little more than
three years back, and wrote:
Dearest, / have been vain enough
to have my miniature painted. 1t is
thought to be very like, though it
seems to me far prettier than 1 am. If
I die before you, I want o to have
this miniature, I'VE though 1 fear that
your lear eyes will never be able to see
it. 1t is to be all entirely for you. and
II pray you never to show it to any
body. 1t is for you alone. You will
find It in the drawer of my writing
liable, together with the letter. You
have all my owe always. Good by,
dearest"
She put the letter into an envelope
that had yellowed a little with age
fastened it, and addressed it to her
husband. marking it. ITO be opened
latter my DEATH" Then she put the
letter and miniature into the drawer
of the table and dressed herself to go
out in her newest and prettiest things.
axe llOSe llONeIS Oui Ol III ollllIIS
room," she said to a servan that she
passed on her way out. Il am going
to get some of the wild anemones from
1.-THE ombankment for the table to-
night" She paused still for a minute
to give some trifiing orders as to pre-
variations for her husbands arrival,
and then she started in the direction
of the station.
Poor dear!' said the servant. She'll
be full twenty minutes too early"
The local newspapers gave a har-
owing account of the tragic accident
which led to the lady's death. She had
been picking lowers or the embank-
ment, and was on the rails as the down
itrain swept around the curve. The
engine driver whistled and put on the
brakes, and there was ample time for
her to have stepped out Of the road.
but she seemed daZed with terror
stumbled-and fell with her head I'M
the wheels of the engine. She was
crushed beyond recognition. h hor-
ror of the tragedy, the paper pointed
lout, was that this was the very train
which was bringing her husband back
to here he having been absent in Lon
don for an operation. by which he had
regained his sight. the anemones
were found IN her hand.
OF that accident one might pos
Isibly give another version. She was a
clever woman, and she arranged things
we'll. She did not want any
Idal-it gives pain to relatives.
Years have passed since then. and
her husband-an easy portly man
has not married again. The minia-
ture more han confirmed what he had
always thought. and when her spirit
visits him in his dreams it IS always
with the beautiful and imaginary face
of the picture.
And maybe hat beauty was her
birthday gift in the dim land Of the
hereafter. For though she died by a
lcowardly suicide, and her last act was
Ifalse-the preparation of a lie-yet it
may be hat still much is forgiven to
them nat love much.-Harry Pain in
Black n White.