Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1912-01-11

| voice: there was no contact. The wife
/ was buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery,
/ not that the widower might go there
I to weep, for he did not consider her
mortal past as aught except corrup-
! ton, but that he might conveniently
! visit her grave occasionally to see that
/ the plants she best loved and which
/ he had placed there be nurtured."
"Why," asked Professor Markham.
! ''if there was only corruption beneath
! the sod were the shrubs the woman
had loved planted there? Corruption
has no Appreciation"
"In you materialists," responded Pro
fessor Taylor. there is vacuum
where the faculty of sentiment should
exist. The widower did not place the
| flowers there for the dead but for the
! living woman. To him the thread of
1 her life had never been broken. More
| over in our natures there is that
! which we call association, and there
! was to him a pleasure in associating
! the plants she loved with the place
where her mortal part lay.
Zone evening about sunset Leroux
/ entered the cemetery of Pere Lachaise
/ to visit his wife's grave and see that
all was in order there. AS he APP
preached it he was astonished to see a
man. uncovered, bending over the
mound, apparently absorbed in grief.
! What could it mean? LerouX had
never heard his wife speak of broth
er or other male relative near and
! AA hn yI1r
this mourner could be. Advancing. he
addressed the stranger:
"'Pardon me. May l ask why you
arc thus grieving for my wife?
"The man turned The grief his
countenance had worn was turned to
anger.
Your wife. Then you are the man
who robbed me of my love-
Your love! She never had but one
love. and that surely was not yours.
Who are you?
Zone who loved the woman who
lies there
"'She does not lie there interrupted
loved her as you say. you would not
| speak OF nef as lying tnere.
"I say loved her reiterated the
other fiercely, and she loved me. We
parted in anger
"'Real love is never angry. 1t may
grieve for another's fault, but it can
not be angry
"I left her for foreign land,
America There | have been since
then; there l prospered. l returned
to do penance and claim my love. l
heard that some one had won her
hand, though | know that no one but
myself could have won her heart; that
she had died and was buried here. l
came to her grave to weep for her,
and fate has brought me the man who
believed he occupied my place.
"I know not what this Means Le-
roux rejoined. If my wife had love
affair before she married me she knew
that it was not true love and would
pain us to speak of it; therefore she
RETAINED
"'Who are you to assume this-you,
who if you received any love at all.
received a dead love.
1.-THE man. provoked by the uncom-
promising certainty of one he consid-
cred his rival was by this time beside
himself with anger.
"'Had we weapons l would soon
convince you that l am the rightful
mate of the woman who lies there;
that you are an interloper. The only
recOmpense you can grant me for the
robbery you committed is a meeting
tomorrow morning in the Bots de
Boulogne,' he said.
"'Since my wife through mistake
once may have thought enough of you
to engage herself to you | shall not
harm hair of your head
"The stranger felt convusively for
weapon he knew he did not have about
him, then, taking out cardcase. threw
card at Leroux's feet, saying. If
you are not coward | shall hear from
you Then he strobe out of the in
closure and down the avenue toward
the cemetery gate.
"The card bore the name of Jules
Bombardier. LerOuX, calm as when he
entered the cemetery, attended to what
he had come to do, then returned to
| Paris. On the way he tried to think
of some mention of a love affair his
wife had passed through before meet
ing him. but he could not Neverthe
/ less he was content to remain in igno
rance concerning it.
"This is what I call true love, and
will show you that the stranger who
manifested all the outward appearance
! OF love had not experienced it, Not
six months after Professor LerouX had
met him weeping at the grave of the
woman he believed he loved LerOuX.
taking up newspaper, read notice
of the marriage of Jules Bombardier,
a Franco American. who had recently
returned on n visit from his adopted
country.
"Leroux lived the same life, so far as
women were concerned, that he had
lived with his wife. In other words,
after her death he continued to live
! with har In tho Snirit -