The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07

long since barred her doors against ad- visers who might give such advice.
 So deep was her devotion to him, so boundless were her pride and joy and confidence, that he hardly had to lead her to play into his hands. They had not been long engaged when she began to turn over to him, under his skilled suggestion. authority over her proper ties. He stood possessed of a great part of her riches long before the time set for the wedding,
 The marriage day was fixed. The wedding tour had been arranged. The House The wedding guests had been invited, and were on the way. She was sitting before her golden mirror. dress ing for the wedding, when a letter was delivered to her.
 It was from him. He wrote, quite coldly, brutally brief, that he was a married man and had courted her simp- ly to gain what he had gained. The letter fell from her hand. A gilt clock in front of her pointed to 20 minutes to 9.
 
 she had for long, long time. She re- turned to consciousness, but hardly to life; for though she lived her life had stopped on her wedding day. and in her wild passion she decreed that it should know no time beyond that hour.
 Satis House went blind and stark. It did not fall into decay Slowly, through the monotonous work of sad years. She had it laid waste over night. She smote 1t, as she had been smitten. Its happy builders happy zeal in making it beautiful vas not one thousandth part as great as Miss Hayisham's furi- ous zeal for blighting it.
 1 The gardens were made desert. The great doorways were sealed with bolts and spikes and chains. The windows were walled up, or barred with heavy iron, The rooms were dlsmantled and given over, like the great, gay corri- dors to dust and rats and echoes. What few servants were indispen- sable were exiled to a-remote part of the house and forbidden to show | themselves to her What she might de- sire was to be brought to the doors of the rooms into which she withdrew and left there What messages there might be were to be delivered through those closed doors.
 The rooms in which she thus hid her self were her dressing room and the others of the suite that had been declked for the wedding. They were the only part of Satis House that was not touch ed by the destruction that she had worked. But she laid on them a curse far worse than the widest destruction would have been. She shut out the sunlight from them forever and kept them in every detail as they had been l when the letter reached her. Where any changes had been made during her illness, she restored them In the room where the feast had been spread. the great table was ar | ranged again, as if it were waiting for the guests. The candelabre and silver. and cut glass were placed. The we'd ding cake and the mass of confections were gathered and put on it in their pomp.
 In her dressing room the half packed trunks and splendid dresses were left scattered as they had been. On her dressing table with the great gilded looking glass, were placed the jewels that she had not yet put on. Her hand kerchief, gloves and the prayer book were heaped before the mirror Even the flowers, withered now, were laid where they had been.
 In those rooms, Illuminated hence forth only by candles, Miss IIavisham lived from that day, never again sec ing the light. She garbed herself in her bridal gown, to the very veil that flowed down from her hair, in which she placed the withered bridal wreath. on her neck and hands she put the jewels that had sparkled there. When the let ter came she had not quite finished dressing. One white satin shoe was on her foot, the other was lying on the table. She arrayed herself so. The un- used shoe remained unused.
 There were many clocks in the rooms, beside the little gilt clock on her table and her watch. She turned the hands of each to 20 minutes to and stopped them.
 Still. she was not mad by any means, as the world defines madness. Her greedy relatives soon found this out by the care she took to entrust her wealth --stlil very great despite the fortune that had been stolen by her false lover Into the hands of an extremely can able lawyer. who saw to it that she was not molested.
 The wedding cake and the decl,nps of the table gradually crumbled away or were Sdevoured by mice and rats. cob- webs shrouded the great silver eperpne in the centre and what showed of it's metal was black. The table cloth became yellow. Dust and mould dropped on everything Everything was dead excent spiders and other crawling things.
 The silks and satins and laces became yellow, the bridal gown faded like tbe wthered flowers. the stocking on the shoeless foot was trodden to rags. and soon the hair under the bridal veil was snow white. The dress that had been put on the rounded figure of a beauty hung loose on a figure shrunken to skin and bone, figure that was as the figure of a phantom, except for the unfadin. brightness of the sunken eyes,
 She lived in this completely lonely des l olation for five years. Then she adopted an orphan girl, had her educated, and | lavished money on her to make her charming and attractive. For the first time since her liv.ag burial. there came | i,Ll ttt-