Thrice Lost, Thrice Won — page 245: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

240 ‘The Fall of the Thunderbolt. to leave’ her. Never had she been so gentle, so sweet, so lovely, so surely his own. He lingered late, and waiked j home, through the April moonlight, in the blissful trance — that was his normal state now. : The gas burned low in his room when he entered, whistling gayly-a popular air, and he saw a letter lying awaiting him on the table. He turned it up, lifted the letter, and glanced carelessly at the superscription. On the instant he stag- gered back, with a strong cry, holding it from him, his dark face blanching to an awful leaden white from brow to chin; © for it was in the handwriting of his lost wife—the round, 4 school-girlish hand he remembered so well, and there in the | corner were her initials. y He stood paralyzed—his face livid, his eyes starting, ~~ gazing upon it as though it had been a death’s-head. Then, 4 in a passion of sudden fury, he tore it open and devoured its © brief contents: ‘ Gi “My Huspanp:—I live. Years ago, no doubt, you gave © me up for dead. I never meant to undeceive youl. never | meant to address a word or a line to you again. ThoughI © were dying of hunger at your door, I never meant to lift ~ my eyes to your face and-ask a crumb from you. I know | how you have searched for me—I know that after ten years — you have returned, and are searching for me again. I know | your motive, too: you wish to marry again. You love an- ~ other woman, as you once loved Leonie Rutherford—you 7 wish to obtain proof of my death, and make her your wife. ~ You never cared for me; when -ou read this, and know I 7 live, and stand between you and your idol a second time, you © will hate me. Be it so—I will still do my duty. My only © crime in the past, my only crime in the present, is loving you @ too well. A broken heart, a ruined life—all the wrong and 4% misery of the past—have not been strong enough to conquer that love. But you cannot marry this other woman—this ~ French heiress—for I, your lawful wife, before God and man, © still live. I -break my ten years’ silence to warn you. You @ need not fear me. I will never appear before you or her— ~~ never interfere with you in any way save this. But you } will not do her, since you love her, so great a .wrong. Re- | wr member, though the laws of the land may set you free, who — has said, ‘He that putteth away his wife and taketh another — committeth adultery.’ I-do not reproach you for the past; © I ask nothing for the future from the husband who never — loved me; but if you have any merey for me, or this woman you wish to wed, then tell her all, and leave her. Tell oo your wife still lives—the wife you detest, hut yours still—the _ ‘wife who may never look upon your face until you meet. her » com choo <S.cOr