62 JESSIES ACQUAINTANCE MADE.

only his wife!’ said somebody near me ; just as if
he had said, it’s only his dog. These were things
that I felt in my very soul; so I rushed into the
house, just as the brutal husband, mad with liquor
and cruelty, and with blood upon his clothes, threw
himself out of the door into the middle of the crowd,
which, ‘spite of the attempts to seize upon him, he
struck off right and left, and made his escape. A
crowd of people beside me had rushed into the
house, and up-stairs where the woman was, whose
blood we met, trickling down-stairs, before we
reached the top. She was bleeding from face, and
neck, and arms, where she had many great gashes.
She looked as if she were already dead, and a little
child, not six months old, lay crying on the miser-
able bed beside her. The sight of the woman
caused a cry of indignation and horror in the people,
and half of them turned back to overtake and secure
the man whom they now regarded as a murderer.
From a feeling of pity which wrung my very heart,
I took up the child in my arms; it looked into my
face, and smiled! It was she!” said the old woman,
pointing to Jessie, who now, pale and excited, was
weeping again. |
“They took the woman to the hospital,” con-
tinued she. ‘“ She was one of a travelling company
of comedians and horse-riders; her husband and
she acted the principal parts: she had been, and
still was, very beautiful. She was the school-
master's daughter—the daughter of that mother
who had sought her so long and so wearily! She
did not die. There were two children: the infant,
and agirl of seven years old, a young creature that
played night after night, and was the great attrac-