Wee Wifie

easing, ear

light, for st

of the wei

es into du

the hum

ing, sad

icted one

the lips

nd yet afr

hough sor

u in this c

the fennel'

of our li

he struggle,

p we side

gfe

deceit are like the apples of Sodom, fair to the sight, but mere ashes t

he had poverty; for ease and luxury, privation and toil; but in all her troubles her strong will and pride sustained h

er; and when that failed,

rest hours his words had power to comfort her and take the sting from her pain. When it was

and Maurice's patience, they h

ompelled to live on the proceeds of the check; then Nea sold her jewels, that they

d Maurice, with some trouble, a small clerkship at eighty pounds a year, advising him a

ime in his need, he did not want a fri

rst parents, exiled by a woman's weakness from the fair gardens of Paradise, so, though they reaped thorns and thistles, and earned their bread by the sw

age is high, and the burden of those

uld not bear to go into the world and face strangers. And Maurice on his side could not endure the thought that

e pressure of severer needs, had no children come to

ll this time. Maurice, it was true, had humbled himself aga

d all feelings of resentment, and wrote as she had never written before, as she never could write again, but all in vain; the letter was returned, and in her

es. She would lie patiently for hours on her couch, watching her baby in his sleep. Maurice, coming in jaded and weary from his work, w

old and careworn, and the hard racking cough began to make itself heard, and Nea's fine col

twin boys whom Nea kissed and fondled for a few weeks, and then laid in their little coffins; t

or two, and had just returned to Belgrave House-so Mr. Dobson informed Nea when he dropped in one

dark-eyed girl whom he had married and taken with

e younger Erle his heir; and Nea sighed bitterly as she looked at he

t, for the sake of your children." And Nea took his advice, but she never had any answer to her l

man, found fault with Maurice's failing health, and dismissed him as a

he struggled on, though b

absolutely necessary; and the day before her baby was born, Nea, weeping bitterly, took her last relic, her m

ss, though Heaven only know

his sick wife with pati

ut the comforts he needed; he kept the children quiet, he did all and more than all a woman woul

his face that terrified her, and knelt down by his side, while he to

ed down to the level of his poverty, and made to endure such bitterness of humiliation; she knew, when it was too late, that the man was crushed under the consequences of his w

"go to him yourself; let him see your dear face that has grown so thin and pale; perhaps he will see for himself, and have pity. Tell him I am dying, and that I can not die in p

it was a puny, sickly creature, and wailed incessantly, and she could not leave it-then with tears blinding her poor eyes, she walked rapidly

ister to his fainting soul the cordial of a tardy forgiveness, though she should be forced to grovel for it at her father's feet. And then all at once she suddenly stopped, and foun

he pavement. No one took notice of the beggar-woman as they thought her, and Nea, moved by

l woman with dark hair, and a diamond cross on her white neck, swept through the hall i

dow fell across the door-way, and, uttering a half-stifled cry, Nea saw her father, saw

o stood near him says an awful pallor, like the pallor of death, came over his face for an instant when he saw her st

t he says he can not die until he has your forgiveness. Come home with me; come home w

from his pocket; "give this to the woman an

spoken bitter scathing words to the unnatural parent who was driving her from his door? But Nea never spoke, she only turned away wi

t felt like an iron claw would leave off gripping her heart, she could almost have felt comfortable. Maurice must die, she knew that, but something else had died before him. She wondered if it were this same heart of hers; and then she noticed her baby's

fer and to starv

said nothing; what had she to say? She gave her half-frozen infant into a neighbor's care,

ed peacefully in her arms, and his last words

*

m, friends came around her in her t

his last resting-place, and s

clothed in decent mourning, an

silent apathy, never looke

to her children-they had placed her boy at an excellent school-and told her that for their sakes she must live and work. If she brooded longer in that sullen despair she would die or go mad; and they brought her baby to her, and watched its feeble arms trying to clasp her neck; saw the widow's passionate tears rain on its innocent face-the tears that saved the poor hot b

went on, things bec

daughter Fern accompanied her to the school

rom school, would escort her home-a humble home it was true; but when she looked at her boy's handsome face, and Fern's innocent

yet to come; the last drop

Huntingdon made his first overture o

d suddenly, and her boy was

handsome boy in deep mourning, looking at the riders in Rotten

as a child she had played about the rooms at Belgrave House. Perhaps, stifle it as he might, the sobbing voice of his daughter

th regard to her son Percy. He would take the boy, educate him, and provide for him most liberally, though she must

to live, will be closed to his mother?" asked

looked un

was simply to guarantee that he should be allowed to s

st consented that when her boy was a little older, the matter should be laid before him; but no doubt as to his ch

raints that their poverty enforced on them made him discontented. One day he encountered the lawyer who had spoken to his mother-he was going to her again, with a letter tha

before made with regard to her son Percy, only adding that for the boy's future prospects it would be well n

excitement, "I call that splendid; I shall be a rich man one of these d

. "You know what I have told you-you were old enough to understand what your father suffered? and-and," with a curious faintn

it over, he dilated with boyish eagerness on the advantage to them all if he accepted his grandfather's offer. His mother would be saved the expens

vantage will be solely for yourself; neither I nor your sisters will ever accept help that comes from B

p; he would talk to his grandfather and make him ashamed of himself-indeed there was no end to the glowing plans he made. Nea's heart sickened as she h

re over Percy had left his mother's humble home, and after a short stay

t the thought that her son was living in the home that was closed to her was adding gall and bitterness to the widow's life; he thou

randfather, and of his new pony and fine gun she would not speak, or even care to hear about them. When he took her his boyish gifts they were quietly but firmly returned to him. Even poor little F

nly; "I think my mother is too hard on me;" but even his conscience misgave him, when he would see her turn away sometimes with the tears in her eyes, after one of his boasting speeches. He was too young to be hardene