Year: 1870

3


pected that very day. He would
bind her to secrecy by the mos
solemn oath he could devise, anC
I, if she failed to keep it, why-a
; any rate he was in terrible
scrape, and this seemed the best
, thing to be done. The woman


returned early in the day, anG
! Ashley at once told all, and i'm
plored her assistance. To his
great relief she agreed at once IL
do all that lay in her power fol


the unhappy young girl, and g
: few arrangements made, Ashley
left the house for the day, de.


termined to shake off the unpleas.


ant impression which the whole


thing had made upon him.





Returning at night, be found


Mary comfortably clothed and
I looking less pale and i'll. His


housekeeper told him that she


had been dressed like a child,


having apparently no idea of as
Isisting herself at all.


1t would be impossible to des-


cribe minutely how intelligence


dawned and grew in the poor girls


mind. ltwasnot a gradual growth


from infancy, but came in filful
snatches. The greatestchapge came
first, when her face frightened


from its sweet, blank vacancy of
expression at Astley's approach,
and then she began to wait upon
him like loving child, and he
with infinite patience taught her
to read and write. She also learn
ed to sew, and was not unskillful
in such woman's craft; but what
he taught was learned quickest, best
Two years passed, and Mary
had developed SO rapidly that she
was much like other women in
knowledge and requirements, but
she had no memory of anything g
before her trance. Ashley told
her the whole story, and urged
her to try to recall something of
the time before; but it was in
vain, her memory was gone. And
the present time was SO happy
that they cared little for he past.
She was something belonging en-
tirely to him, even her life she
owed to his care, and loved him
so intensely, there being no one
in th e world whom she knew or
loved beside, that he could not
fail to be very happy; and the
mystery Of the bond between them
enhanced its charm.


They were married, and still
they lived in the same privacy as
before; her husband and his love
sufficient for everything, and she
shrank from entering a world of
which she knew nothing.


Astley's acquaintances had
long ago decided that if he was
not mad, he was at least eccen-
trio enough to make his society
undesirable, and had fallen off
one by one, leaving him none but
a profession. He had the reputa-
tion of being skillful, and his
practice was large one; his
spare hours were devoted to his
home, which was bis heaven. 4


Two years passed, years of most
perfect happiness. Mary differed
now in nothing from other wo.
men, save for that blank existence
of more than twenty years. Her
memory of that time never re-
turned. She lived entirely with
in doors. Ashley had one evening
taken her for a walk, and the M /
sights and sounds of
the streets had terrified her so
much that he never repeated the



At times a longing to introduce
his beautiful wife to bis old friends
aud relatives in England was very
strong, but the difficulties OF ex-
planatiOn, or of deceit, which it
would involve, combined with her
extreme aversion to the project,
always prevailed, and the idea
was dismissed as if the thing was
impossible.


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