| Show oops ma I 1 I 1 MY POOR WIFE BY I 1 J P SMITH elc M s asa vill continued I 1 I 1 made cautious luu inquiries and found to my surprise that my miserable identity u sab quite lost lott I 1 had ghen no hint uttered no name during my stay there that lead to die covery I 1 le arneil thai that the clothes I 1 wore when taken up by the police were mere rags of the coarsest coar pst most loathsome kind and a bit of boiled soiled paper bearing the name thimpson found in the pocket ot of the dress served as my certificate of bap mir and so elizabeth thompson Thom pron I 1 re to all who met me during those even seven years when and how my clothes were viere changed and stole as an they undoubtedly were I 1 dob dolt t remember after three stars I 1 was die charged as cured and aa as I 1 bad had shown same capability for nur nursing sing during an epidemic that visited the abslum a it kind nun who had charge of the catholic lie ward aard offered to get me a place as 0 attendant in a hospital where I 1 re bained some time and ou never thought of roe me nei neier er longed to see me 0 to o know how I 1 shi laughed bitterly aa as she waved the eager interruption aside with a gesture of pain never thought of youl ah you will never know liow biow you filled my life can never andert land what I 1 felland felt fel tand and suffered suffer edl I 1 knew you must believe me dead and I 1 knew lie best thing for your happiness our peace pence of mind wae was to let you remain in that belief I 1 struggled to keep away from you to learn nothing about you but when nursing a patient whom I 1 casually casualty heard bad had lately been in domestic service in the neighborhood of codworth Col worth I 1 could not resist the temptation of questioning her from her I 1 learned paul that mr dennys of codworth Col worth was married to a miss mima with whom be had inherited a large fortune that he was very baly bal y and prosperous and the father of three beautiful children this news allayed alloyed all my doubts drove every lingering spark of hope and happiness from my future I 1 legged the reverend mother who had procured me the place in the hospital to accept me as a novice but she hesitated for some time knowing of the taint in my blood however after a coupin of years seeing no sign of a relapse and getting a very favorable opinion of my case from the asylum doctors I 1 was as received into the convent and on application allowed to join the mission going to new zealand I 1 IN e were to have sailed next week and as the time drew near neat A terrible restlessness came over mr me a longing eo so intense to breathe the air you breathed once more that I 1 felt I 1 could never be a useful and contented content pd servant of heaven unous my longing were gratified I 1 appealed to the reverend mother and she with her usual goodness gave her consent I 1 arrived at dusk that that blessed night intending only to tay ray a prayer for you and yours at the cross preserving my memory and then steal away as I 1 had come at the station I 1 saw your brother accidentally believing him to be you his big flatum 9 are wonderfully like what yours once were I 1 found to my utter bewilderment and I 1 think relief that my love was dead completely dead that husband was nothing to me 1 11 I wandered out pondering ron dering the meaning of this discovery and saw you stretched across my grave at the first sound of your r voice at the first glance into you worn altered face ah beloved I 1 knew that I 1 was not free and could never be no matter what gulf divided us I 1 tried to gave save you as an I 1 thought to leave you but but CHAPTER she stopped a little hysterically and be laid bis his hand on her lips presently fhe she lifted it away and ball sail with eager wistfulness dut but you loved her paul alster ln in law or not you never can explain that away io no no do not try tryl you wanted to marry her before you met me I 1 am sure of it you loved herrou wanted to marry her once she repeated monotonously yee yes yes I 1 wanted to marry her once listen listen to me helen I 1 was a mere boy home from an outskirt in india where I 1 never saw a womans face I 1 was ionly ion ly and ead sad she was kind and beautiful and did everything in her power to fascinate and enslave me how could I 1 help falling in the trap I 1 left her in IL state despair which I 1 now know was only skin deep though I 1 believed at the time she had dealt me a life wound 1 I met you we asere ere married and spent six months tog together ther badroad ah ab helen I 1 did not understand until long afterwards how happy those six months were how thoroughly they had made you part of my life the very essence of at my content and happiness for I 1 was happy but blind conceited dolt that I 1 was I 1 attributed my contented state of being to my ova own n selfishness and generosity in marrying you and accepted as my due your devotion to me well well sell I 1 was punished cruelly punished for it all I 1 lived to over every day every I 1 I 1 1 ma w rf 1 y is hour of those nix six month months with a yearn ing 1 passion a sickening remo ic e that left there those linen lines ou fee see on my fare face and stiv inking rny my hair halt with alth g ay be fore I 1 had reach il the prime of life hen we returned she came across my path again and necessity compelled her to confide conf lilo a secret to me alien hen I 1 learned b it how shamefully nhe she had been treated I 1 believed I 1 had nil mis judged her ler cruelly and an as only vager to offer reparation in my power I 1 felt feit that no sacrifice or exertion I 1 could make would atone for the irreparable wrong dore her by one of at my name and lour our brother arthur you mean he had bad he ile had forced her an ignorant thoughtless girl 11 of sixteen to marry him secretly when hen she diab laying staying with n invalid aunt in london of eni khe she exclaimed eagerly you mean that she be she he is your brothers wife before I 1 left baj a all all flint little still li was willi with ue us our brother brothers wife 1 I es so yes at first the excitement and adventure had pleased her but late ua wh ha s he came to know arthur arthurs true character and mode moie of big life ho he had squandered anderea hie his fortune wae was shunned by honest men and respectable omen when her uncle ho had heard some rumor of a childish attachment between the pair informed her that if it she exchanged another word with arthur be he would not only alter bis his will and leave her penniless but would expel her from hie his home her complacency changed to a state of misery and almost unbearable suspense which by degrees taught her to bate hate the cause of her selfish terror and made his existence a positive nightmare to her at last after a stormy interview arthur consented to emigrate to australia pledging bis his word ord to remain there until the general should die and edithe inheritance be quite eafe safe he lie sailed but after a time tiring of colonial life broke his solemn promise and a month after our arrival at orth he turned up at southampton and edith in her terror of discovery confided her secret to me implored me to help her and induce my brother to return to australia at once I 1 I 1 promised to help her by every means in my power wrote at once to my brother begging ahli to leave but be he refused point blank until he be bad bad at least one interview with his wife whom with all his faults I 1 believe be he truly loved as his conduct within the last seven years has amply proved S eing be he was not to be shaken we arranged that the meeting should take place at codworth Col worth there would be less chance of detec tion it was in vain I 1 begged edith to let you share the secret she was inflexible on that point her motive tor for that reserve at the time I 1 thought trivial and unreasonable but I 1 have since fathomed the terrible overweening vanity and heartlessness of the woman and can now understand it perfectly she was jealous of you my ray darling that I 1 should have so quickly recovered from her wanton attak was a stab her vanity resented bit terly she saw more clearly than I 1 could see myself dull thoroughly happy I 1 wai wal haw how dear you were to me and so she set about with a thou thousand nameless almost intangible fleit lie and artifices to wreck tho of a man who was sheltering and protecting her fighting to pres prestle her fortune and honor with bro brodien icen halt d hints and anun does she gave me to understand that T would have been her bee choice had I 1 spoken long ago before my brother tried by every means in power to wean me from your influence to force on me the fact that I 1 had made a bremen doug dous sacrifice in marring marr ang you that my chivalrous and tender bearing to you awoke in fit ler feelings that made her own wretched fate almost unbearable bearable and at the time time I 1 presume from what I 1 ve heard that you my poor darling did not escape her I 1 paul that time when you left me alone with her when 3 ou went to london to meet her husband yes yeal she told me not at once rou ou know but by degrees it atit it three days paul that you couyou you had lo loved lowed wed her pa passionately for years that you bad proposed to br her a few day days before you met me that even after her first refusal you had followed her about london trying to make hr change her mind and that falling that you you had bad rushed back to ireland in wrath rath and despair and and in married me I 1 she told you tent the jade I 1 not boldly aa as I 1 tell you now but with little hinte hints and joke jokes halt balf laughing sighs that were almost worse my bly poor brother well my darling the end came you followed us that night and saw the meeting between husband and wife P paul paul you me e J 1 it wa was not you I 1 saw holding her in your arm arms imploring her to fly no it waa was arthur we were more alike then than now love and I 1 bad lent him my big gray ulster for be is complained of the cold the the mis ml take was natural but oh ob how awful ila III its lt net to you 4 ri wr go 00 on oh go out on she at ata breathlessly 0 when convinced of your terrible ler rrt ble 1 dath brain fever act t in and for some om month months I 1 wai was unconscious of my low ims I 1 recovered roue rope from my sick bed wretched in heart and body the lore 0 hope happiness of my life burled buried ta to your grave I 1 left Eur europe ciple traveled I 1 biml paly in aula apia and america for six alx lx A yeara far a in the meantime the old general tat had died suddenly aud denly a few soaks 01 after our disappearance leaving bla niece sixty thousand pound pounds in bard cash but the hall and surrounding property to a male relative edith married arthur publicly almost at onre once and they nettled settled down at codworth Col worth renting the place from me we A few month months ago my brother okho ho la in row raw a most exemplary member of no vo clety wrote asking me it I 1 would wll it my interest Inter cut in it and let them oitt antill it it on their eldest son aa as it waa was ray my I 1 I 1 avowed intention not to marry again I 1 could not mat male e up ray my mind and came homo home to nettle settle the business A few daa ago at the lingham I 1 met my brother and his hi wife for the fret time since their second marriage and he p persuaded me to try to visit the old place again I 1 came down alith ath them and walked the 4 helda fields to the cross which bore bare your name IN hen I 1 saw the familiar 14 spot the house among the trees the cruel mill heard the mournful rustle of the leaves and the ripple of the water all the old pain broke out as fl fiercely re ely a on th the ft day T anat in I 1 tara mai upon our rare 11 1 ing out our name your voice 1 an me I 1 looked up and saw you helen landing in the moonlight before me two months after her installation at codworth Col worth mrs arthur dennys her lord and master nursery hones horses car biages I 1 lackey and maids were storming the sleepy country station id again for a sydenham bam till villa real residence dence where she still bemoans the th 1 III luck of her eldest born who will never now inherit Col Colw wortis THE END 4 |
