Year: 1864

bOod heavens, you amaze me. CTleU.
Your husband burglar Z?


He is not my husband, sobbed the poor
woman.


mo"


Sit down, DOCTOR and let me tell you
pitiful story in few words and then, if
you can give me any good advice and sym
pathy, | shall receive it with gratitude;
and if you scorn and cast NE from you, [
shall only find | was mistaken in suppos.
ing you had heart


| seated myself and became all attention.


Il was reared in affluence,' she resumed,
and for seventeen years was the pride and
JOY Of my fond parents. At seventeen |
fell in with man some years older than
myself, whom | believed to be perfection
itself. My father knew better, aud warn
ed me against him. He finally forbade
him the house We correspondent after
ward, met clandestineIy, aud at eighteen |
eloped with him. We went, as Isupposed,
| to Ghe house of clergyman, and then
set off on our wedding tour The man
had so wildly loved proved to be black
hearted villain, and soon robbed me of all
my money and jewels, and then deserted
me in a strange city. He afterwards wrote
me that the marriage was a sham, and that
he had deceived me in that manner in or
der to revenge himself on my father for
| bis insults.


n blank followed this awakening from
bright and glorious dream to a reality
too horrible for an ordinary mind to con
| template. | had brain fever | became
| insane. | returned to reason in pauper
mad house. | got my liberty in rags. |
wrote home to my fther the whole truth,
and implored him to receive back his poor,
wretched, broken hearted daughter was
ragged mendicant in strange city, and
God only knows with what intense and
fearful anxiety | waited an answer to that
letter. | waited days-I waited weeks
L waited months none ever came, | was
cast off -abandoned-ruined for this
world and the next. Oh, the suffering
and degradation | was. compelled to endure
At last Ralph Wagner offered me his pro-
lection and his hand [ accepted We
were married. He declared he loved me,
and certainly treated me with respect and
showed affection. | knew not then that
he was house breaker; and when found
it out | asked myself what better was |
than he that | should leave hin? So |
have lived with him ever since, nearly two
years, and now he is arrested, and | am
again alone in the world Such is my
sad history, doctor. Now tell NE what to
do!'


Write again to your parents said
they may not have received your letter,
or the reply may have been misearred'
i have sometimes hoped so, and [ want
u die in that delusion, if it be one ? she
eagerly rejoined. IF | were to get an
answer now, that they know my condition
and have cast me off forever, it might craze
my brain again. Besides, / am no longer
fit to be forgiven and received back among
the good again ?


1T is never too late to repent, replied
Remember the words OF Christ to the
men who would have put to death the
guilty woman for her crime: He that is
without sin among you, let him first cast a
stone at herr We all have our errors and
all need forgiveness


After saying much more Of a similar
purport, | urged her if she did not wish
to write to her parents herself, to give me
their address, and let me ascertain in my
own way, if they still lived and cared for
her. She finally consented, and wrote the
address on a slip of paper | read it,
sprang from my seat and looked at her in
perfect amazement. | understood it all,
but [ could scarcely credit my senses.


She was my sisters child


pass over the scene that follwed this
strange discovery.


1t was all mistake on her part-her
letter had never reached her almost dis
tracted parents, who had long mourned
her as dead, or lost to them forever She
went home with me. and remained at my
house till her fond and loving parents came
to reclaim her. 1t was fearful scene of
commingled joy and grief when we all met
under the same roof; and humbly on our
knees we all thanked God for the wonder
ful restoration of the lost one, who was
plucked, indeed, as brand from the burn.
ing, and saved in body aud ! trust in soul


Three years after, Ralph Wagner died
in prison, and with him perished one great
portion of the guilty secret. | have pur-
posely concealed all other names-but my