Year: 1878

1t was the evening of a disagreeable
! day, the 3lst of March, of this present
! year. Rain and snow mingled together
! but the very dreariness of the weather
prompted Inc to call upon the Dudleys
! who were suffering a most melancholy
! bereavement. The servant admitted me
without announcement, as [ was the con
| tidential friend of the family. Miss
Dudley was sitting in a chair with her
| head bowed over her arm, and when she
raised her face to greet me / saw she
had been weeping. Dudley was walking
up and down, back and forth, with slow,
dragging steps, his head sunk on his
| breast. [ sat down beside Caroline tax
| ing her hand in mine, for we were en-
gagged to be married when the year of
mourning had expired.


This weather is enough to depress
even the happy l said, "but I wish that
l had found you more cheerful Do you
! not thinks that yoo ought to overcome, 50
far as possible, this trouble, for Dudley s
sake? 1t is killing him."


az know it, and that is what gives me
so much pain. OF course my grief is
nothing compared to his. But it breaks
my heart to see him so changed. fear
that if he does not die outright worse
calamity will happen. Sometimes fear
for his mind


The disaster which had brought such
irremediable ruin upon the house of
| Dudley was the loss of his wife. Her
| youth, her beauty, her devotion to him,
and the tragic manner of her death, were
apparent to all why his sorrow should be
! deeper than that of many others similar
| ly bereaved. To ne, who knew some
| thing of the character of both, and of the
| intense love which seemed to blend their
beings into one, it was almost marvel
| that he survived her at ALL When I had
| seen them together in the freedom of
their own home the thought had more
! than once occurred to me that the exis
tence OF each was dependent upon that
of the other. Yet she had perished sud
denly-been swept frcm him by swift
and terrible catastrophe, which had hard
ly allowed them parting embrace.


In the autumn of 1862 Dudley had
been called to Havana upon business.
His wife persuaded him to permit her to
| accompany him. How we'll L remember
that splendid autumn day upon which
they sailed! Caroline and myself staid
with them on the vessel until the last
moment. How beautiful Mrs. Dudley
looked as she waved her handkerchief tc
us from the deck, the bright color light.
ing up her always eloquent face into the
loveliest animation. We had watched the
noble vessel until it was speck out in
the Narrows; then We had turned away
with sigh, half sad and yet not sad.
We had no presentiment of evil, and
when her brother and wife returned
Caroline and [ were to be married.


That vessel was fated never to touch
the Cuban shores. When but twelve
hours from Havana at midnight, in the
midst of darkness and storm, she was
run into by another ship, and sank in
| fifty minutes. Thrown from his berth
by the severity of the collision, Dudley
seized his trembling wife under his arm
forcing his way through the disordered
crowd from the cabins, already filling
with water, to the upper deck. Here he
maintained his place while the men and
officers made efforts to launch the boats.
The first of these filed and went down.
The second was more successfully man.
aged. \ few women, to whom was given
the hight of lanterns, whose uncertain
CLEAN made the tempest more appalling.
Mrs. Dudley cIung to her husband, beg.
ing to be allowed to stay with him unit


he, too, should be permitted to make
this desperate effort at salvation. But
for once her prayers had no influence


with him. His desire for her safety
overruled the pieadings of love. Will
almost rudeness he tore away her cling
ing arms, the rope was fastened about
her waist and she was lowered down.
The lantern threw a strange beam upor
her pallid face, turned to him as she
swung off from the ships side, and tha