looked up
inquiringly in the face which had no thought for her, for Mr.
Douglass's words had fallen upon him like a thunderbolt, crushing him
to the earth, and for a moment rendering him powerless. Instantly he
comprehended it all. He had deceived himself, and by his impetuous
haste lost all that he held most dear on earth. There was a cry of
faintness, a grasping at empty space to keep from falling, and then
forth into the open air they led the half-fainting man, followed by
his frightened bride, who tenderly bathed his damp, cold brow,
unmindful how he shrank from her, shuddering as he felt the touch of
her soft hand, and motioning her aside when she stooped to part from
his forehead the heavy locks of his hair.

That night, the pale starlight of another hemisphere kept watch over
a gentle girl, who 'neath the blue skies of sunny France, dreamed of
her distant home across the ocean wave; of the gray-haired man, who,
with every morning light and evening shade, blessed her as his child;
of another, whose image was ever present with her, whom from her
childhood she had loved, and whom neither time nor distance could
efface from her memory.

Later, and the silvery moon looked mournfully down upon the white,
haggard face and heavy bloodshot eye of him who counted each long,
dreary hour as it passed by, cursing the fate which had made him what
he was, and unjustly hardening his heart against his innocent
unsuspecting wife.

CHAPTER XXVI

MARRIED LIFE.

For a short time after their marriage, John Jr. treated Mabel with at
least a show of attention, but he was not one to act long as he did
not feel. Had Nellie been, indeed, the wife of another, he might in
time have learned to love Mabel as she deserved, but now her presence
only served to remind him of what he had lost, and at last he began
to shun her society, never seeming willing to be left with her alone,
and either repulsing or treating with indifference the many little
acts of kindness which her affectionate nature prompted. To all this
Mabel was not blind, and when once she began to suspect her true
position, it was easy for her to fancy slights where none were
intended.

Thus, ere she had been two months a wife, her life was one of
constant unhappiness, and, as a matter of course, her health, which
had been much improved, began to fail. Her old racking headaches
returned with renewed force, confining her for whole days to her
room, where she lay