The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-05-17
The Strange
Case Of q
New Love
An UnseI6sh Woman and the
Sacrifice She Made.
By CUTHBERT BAKER
Copyright. 1910. by American Press
Association.

The married life between Clarence
Hooper and Edna Worth was very
happy. When they were united Clar-
ence was twenty-one and Edna nine
teen. Ten years later the husband
was obliged to make business "trip
to Russia. His wife being in delicate
health at the time, it was not deemed
best that she should accompany him.
From Russia Clarence wrote often to
his wife. at times mentioning In glow
ing terms certain prima donna, Welt
volsky, a Russian Pole. He was not
aware that there was anything said
lieve that his feeling for the singer
was anything more than friendship.
She did not write him that she was
jealous of his new found friend. In
deed, she never mentioned the singer
in any of her letters. When his and
the singers paths diverged he ceased
to mention her in his letters.
One day he received a cab1egram
from his wife's bosom friend, Sarah
ingalls,, that Mrs. Hooper had been
caught in one of those terrible railroad
accidents which kill and MAIN so many
people and had been crushed to death.
He had seen an account of the acct
dent the day before cabled to an Eng
fish paper. but did not dream of his
wife having been on the train.
A death of one very dear to us in
the events Of which we do not par
ticipate personally is very different
from one where we are present. Clar'
ence Hooper could not realize that bis
wife was dead. 1t was only when he
returned to his desolate home that his
bereavement appeared to him as a
reality, and then it rushed upon him
with it's full force. No children had
come to them to impart life or cheer
fulness to the companionless man.
Nevertheless he remained in the home
where he had been so happy, morbidly
dwelling upon his loss. The lady from
whom he had received the cablegram
announcing his wife's death had gone
abroad, crossing him on the ocean.
She had, however, left letter for him
giving all she knew of the circum-
stances attending his wife's death. 1t
was not much. since no one living had
seen her killed and the body was un-
recognizable, but stated that she had
buried the remains In his lot at the
cemetery. He would find the grave
near the center of the lot.
Hooper's first act after his return
was to visit his wifes grave and she'd
bitter tears there. The remainder of
his life seemed dreary waste before
him. He had had his one love. it had
passed from him. and he would never
have another A few days after this
he opened his wife's will. He was sur
prised to notice a codicil added during
his absence abroad leaving the In
come of certain property to Sarah In
gals, who had been his informant as
to the testator's death. The reason
Hooper was surprised at this be-
quest was because Sarah ingalls, was
wealthy. Moreover. this legacy halved
his own income from his wife's prop
erty.
1t was winter when all this occurred,
and as soon as spring opened Hooper
went to the cemetery for the purpose
of putting plants about his wife's
grave. What was his establishment to
discover that the adornment he had
intended was there already. 1t con-
sisted of rosebushes of variety that
his wife had loved and had kept In
their conservatory during the winter
season.
Standing there beside the grave of
the woman he had loved so well
tumult of suspicious, conjectures pour
ed in upon him. The events of his
married life passed before him In re-
view as they are said to pass In
simultaneously before one who is
drowning. He had known his wife
since they were children, and this
sweep of memory went so far back
as their first love, and he wondered
if any one then had been his rival
Next he considered those she had
known when they were young men
and women. From there he passed
to those who might have come be-
tween them since they had been mar
RED Among all these he could not
remember a single person who could
hnx Cd fho hn ho6 for Voc
considered he alone could FILL
Hooper was stirred by deep emotion
His wife had been an orphan with no
brothers or sisters-indeed. no relatives
in whom she had taken an interest or
who had taken any interest in her
Sarah ingalls, had been the only being
except himself that she had loved and
by whom she had been loved. Yet here
was some one who had forestalled him
in caring for her grave. Was this I'M
known person man or woman? If a
man, had he loved her before or after
her marriage? Had that love been re-
turned? This last thought maddened
him.
He turned away with a groan ex-
pressive partly Of grief. partly Of an
ger. Why had Edna never spoken Of
this person? A woman she would GER
tainly have mentioned. man she
might have mentioned, a lover she
would not likely have mentioned. and
a lover whose love she returned she
would never have made known.
Such was the reasoning by which
Clarence Hooper persuaded himself
that his dead wife had loved some man
and, loving that man, she could never
have loved her husband. Doubtless
some obstacle had interviewed between
| them to prevent a marriage, or what
was worse, she had met the unknown
| after she had become wife. Hooper
inflicted upon himself succession Of
such torturing hypothesis and when
they had been all applied began again
and went through the process anew.
One day Hooper saw in a paper that
Veltvolsky was coming to America to
sing In opera. The thought that he
might meet her again was pleasant to
him. When she arrived he went to
the metropolis where she was singing
and called upon her. He told her OF
his bereavement, and she sympathized
with him. With kindly tact she d.
verted his mind. When she had time
to spare from study and rehearsals
/ II