Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1855-11-21

ton hughes.
He saw her again, the only woman
who had ever troubled the deeps of hi:
soul, as he saw her then, with her shin
ming golden hair, and her hazel eyes, as
sweet picture as ever the heart of mar
framed and housed up in the past. They
had just returned from long ride in the
country, and they stood by the gate. He
had assisted her to alight, and still retained
her little fingers in his own.
A young moon was mounting over the
forest, and the light lay soft and sad in
the hollows and along the road side.
He was only nineteen then, and it was
the tenth of July His heart would
keep those TWO dates till it took up the
last one.-EEernity.
He remembered how, standing there he
leaned down to her, and putting away the
cluster of curls under her bonnet, said,
" l shall not be here again till the hol-
lows are as full of snow as they are now
of moonlight. May God take care of my
darling. and oh! you will be true to me,
my Maryv
She looked up to him, her dear eyes
shining fOndly through her tears. "Wil-
ton"-how the memory of her voice
thrilled his heart" Wilton, you may
trust me y and it was not the words so
much as the look, which filled his soul
with such trust that if an angel had spo>
ken from Heaven he would have believed
not more fully. He remembered the last
kiss, and that his eyes were dim rs he
sprang into the carriage. 1t was the last
time he ever saw Mary, or the red farm
house with the weeds growing on its
edge.
He had never blamed ber-not even
when the blind darkness of the great sor-
row settled upon the morning Of his life
when he learned she was another's and
his heart grew dead within him.
He knew she was true, and that was q
great blessing her friends had deceived
her and she went to the altar, believing
that Wilton was false to her.
Mary's family was a poor and proud
one SO was Wilton's.
When the rich man came and laid his
wealth and social elevation at the feet of
the country girl, her parents looked off on
the little yellow cottage, which was Will
tons home, and said i" Our child shall
be the wife of the rich man p But Mary
was true, God bless her and there was
q long web of deceit and Galsehood woven
about her heart before she yielded to their
entreaties. She learned it all too late
And then Wilton Hughes went out in
to the world, and did good battle with
it. He educated himself; he elevated
his family and at thirty.fve he was a
rich man.
He had but two sisters and when his
parents died they came to the city and
married rich men. Proud, fashionable,
elegant women they were-admired their
brother, because the world did so, and yet
dreaming little of the spring of poetry,
whose clear waters gushed through and
kept green the heart, so hidden from them.
They called him odd, notionless, fastidi-
Gus, and could not understand why he
was so Indifferent to women, with whom
him an especial favoritc.
Wilton Hughes lived with his sister, Mrs.
Hill. She was the younger, and perhaps
he loved her the better of the two. But
there was no sympathy between them
He was mystery, and very provoking
one, sometimes, to her and she was to
him like book which one admrcs for
the elaborate binding and gilded edges,
but knows there is but little inside, after
all.
And so Wilton Hughes sat there alone
in his sisters drawing room that winter
afternoon, and the old years came up
softly and sung sweet song to him-a
song Of youth and love. and hope-and
/. Ill 81,
some pearls with which to dover the pre-
sent.
1t was quite late when he came back
again to the paper and arm chair; and
he smiled sweet half mournful smile to
himself as he looked at his watch and
murmured: :
What time stealers these reveries are !
I guess I'll finish up those letters. and not
go out till after supper
1t was q raw winter night. Wilton
Hughes stepped back for his umbrella,
for he knew, as the wind met his face, it
was getting ready to snow.
When he returned he found young
girl trying to close the door in the teeth
of the wind, and looking tearfully out in>
to the thick darkness. She was slender,
and had pale, delicate features that was
all he could make out by the gas~light
opposite, but her youth and timidily ap-
pealed to his heart at once. Besides, it
was not night on which young and
unprotected girl should be out alone.
"Mrs. Hill is not in this evening"" he
said to the girl, supposing she had come
there on some errand to his sister,
Have you seen the house>keeper Size
should not allow you to return aIone.''
"I have been sewing for Mrs. Hill to-
day, sir" answered the girl and some
how, her soft sweet voice thrilled the