The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1907-11-08
CHAPTER vIil-(continued.)

so she determined to try and earn
her wi living. She was clever with
her hands, n her father, who was a
practical man, had let her serve an APP
premiership as a milliner in her own
town.
She had, therefore, a means OF live
lihood IL she could get a situation. She
went about the West end for several
days in search of one. and at last OBJ
tanned what she wanted at a big estab-
lishnent in Regent street.
May wrote to the address her hus-
band a given her and told him what
she had done. She received one OF
two letters from him, and then she
heard no more until he wrote to in.
form her that he had enlisted in a cav
airy regiment and was stationed at
Canterbury.
she went to see him twice, and each
time he ~endeavored to induce her to
obtain money from her father. He ex-
planned to her that it was to get him
out of a mess"
May went down to her home and
confessed the truth. Her father was
very sorry for her, but declined 10
give her a farthing for John Wilson.
Some little time after the old man
died. He had left all he possessed to
a charity, with the exception of a sum
which would give his daughter CT a
week for life.
! He also left an affectionate letter for
his daughter, In which he explained his
reasons for disinheriting her.
Had left you the little fortune that
nave accumulated by years of indus
try, every farthing would have found
lts way into he possession of your
scamp of a husband, who would have
/ ~squandered it,"
May Wilson mourned for her father
without resentment. In her heart she
Knew that the will was a just one. Her
love for the man who had deserted hen.
did not blind her to his real character.
The love remained, but the illusion had
! vanished.
Before h had recovered from he
shock OF her fathers death the nm
happy girl had another bitter sorrow
to bear.
Her husband wrote to her from pris.
on. He had been arrested on a charge
Of forging the check of one of his
officers and getting cash for it.
Now the girl-wife was widowed in
deed. and there was no n to whom
she could confide her trouble.
She had gone into her situation as
Miss Wilson, thinking it better, and
she had taken the lodgings to which
she had moved after her husbands de-
sertion as Miss Wilson.
Her wedding ring lay locked away
among the girlish treasures she had
brought from her home.
She had told her husband of her de-
termination to pass as a single woman
and had explained her reasons, and
the few letters she had received from
him since the commencement of his
penal Servitude had been addressed to
Miss Wilson.
May Wilson went out alone and did
her shopping. In the crush and push
of the crowded pavements. amid the
glare of the endless lights and the
cries of the hawkers and street sales
men, she tried to put away the thought
that had come to torture her.
But the effort was in vain. During
the years she had been fighting the
battle of life alone she had gradually
separated the lines of her fate from
those of her husband. But now again
they began to cross each other and to
intcrmingle.
1t was as the wife of John Wilson,
convict, that she had to consider the
future, o that she had learned that
a young man living under the same
roof as herself had, believing her to be
a single woman, fallen in love with
her.
No thought of such a thing had en-
tered her mind until the landlady sug-
gested it. She liked Frank Allister,
and had accepted his friendship and
that Of his sister in a neighborly spirit.
Loyal In every thought to the hus-
band of whose existence her compan-
ions were unaware. the possibility of
another mans friendship for her ripen-
ing into love had suggested it.
self.
But with Jane Cheney's words ring
ing in her ears she saw things in a
new light.
A pure minded, gentle hearted wo-
man. without an atom of vanity or CO.
quetry III her nature, she knew that
she was still young and attractive, and.
remembering how frequently the
young novelist had sought her society,
she did not attempt to comfort herself
with the thought that the kind hearted
landlady had misinterpreted his senti-
mentS.
What should she do? What ought
she to do? Mr.. Allister had said no
word to her that would justify her in
asking him to accept her condolences
on the subject of her true position.
But he might speak such a word IL
she continued to meet him daily under
the same roof.
Her proper course would be to leave
The Winery and seek a home else
where.
These thoughts passed rapidly
through her mind as she made her
way through the gay Saturday night