Year: 1873

III WIS COli uliu lTOSly niSul.
Without the moonlight lay in silver
radiance on the white roofs of the
houses, and made strange, fantastic
work among the branches Of the
lcailcss trees.


Within q luXuriously furnished
room on a fashionable street q man
was sitting alone, writing. His face,
in the lamplight, was full of strong
and bitter pain. His lips worked
convulsively as he wrote on, and
more than once he paused to brush
away n dimness from his eyes.


And this is what he wrote:


"When | first saw Alice Graylc |
loved her. She won my heart with
her blue eyes and beautiful face. /
forgot that she was the child of pa
rents whose pleasure it was to graf
ify her every wish: forgot that she
was rich while | was poor. Love
makes us forget much that we
ought not to forget; we remember
the forgotten things in after life
with bitterness-when It is too late
to profit by the remembrance of
them.


"Yes, | loved her. | can say
frankly that no mercenary motive
influenced me to WOO and win her
for my wife. l wanted her for my
self alone. | had some Of the old
potrician blood in my veins, and
bore a name that in itself was an
open sesame to good society, conse-
qucntly / was often in her COM
pany, and though there was the
difference of wealth and poverty
between us, moved as her equal in
social life, and felt that after all |
was not prcsuming in daring to
think of winning her.


IL think our love was mutual
from the first. She had many WOO
ers. 1t was natural consequence
of her beauty and her position in
society that she should have. But
from them all she turned to me, and
|, whose worldly goods were less in
value than the ring that sparkled
on many suitor's finger, won her
for my wife.


How happy we were when we
were married and began our life to-
gethcr. Her father gave us a
splendid home, and furnished it
luxuriously. His daughter had
been used to luxury all her days,
and he could not sec her give up
that which he could SO well afford
to give her. | think if he had al
lowed us to begin life in a different
way we would have been far hap
pier in the coming years. | had
only my salary to support the fine
establishment on. 1t was u good
one, to be sure, but hardly large
enough to be in keeping with the
handsome home in which we began
our married life. Living in the
style we did, society demanded
something more of us than it did
of those who could probably as well
afford the manner of living we in
duldcd in as we could, but who
were wise enough to begin lower
down in the social ladder and work
their way up.


would have preferred a more
humble beginning in life-some-
thing more in keeping with my
means-but the thought that Alice
had always been used to luxury
forced itself upon my mind un-
pleasantly, and for her sake l re-
solved to work early and late to
procure for her that which by her
marriage with me she had in a
measure given up.


"'I shall not give you anything
now,' her father said to me one day,
except this putting a paper into
my hand as he spoke. 1T isn't
much, but it's something, and l
think it good thing for q man,
especially young one, to work. If
you do work, as / am sure you will,
you'll carve out a fortune for your
self. When | die-why, then /
may give you something more, but
I'd rather you'd depend upon your
own head and hands than to wait
for "dead mems shoes"


81 opened the paper and found
that he had purchased me part
nership in the establishment where
had been clerk. / thanked him
earnestly and went to work with a
will.


"The love ! had for Alice was
constant spur to labor. l worked
hard that she might not forego one
luxury of her old life. She had a
passion for rich laccs, for diamonds
and costly dresses. Her love for
the beautiful was wide and cultivat-


n II