Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1858-11-17

- on would scarcely think had been IL
the States Prison. would you p
''In the States Prison p I echoed. ''Oh,
of course. you mean as visitor and fell
citatcd myself that my good-humored host
had not sold me %
"No-I mean as a convict
''As convict l echoed again. dropping
my pipe in amazement. Impossible"
True. nevertheless:"
Mrs. Elmore raised her eyes from her
knitting, and locking at her husband aud
J, then tine with a--sort of sad smile, that
seemed to say-"True, every word of it"
! Mr. Elmore was a planter, living near
Nachez, in Mississippi, and l, fancying my
| self an artist, was at that time staying at his
house, ostensibly engaged iD painting por-
trait of his daugh hter Annette, fair young
| beauty of seventeen
| True, my stay had already been longer
than was strictly necessary for the purposes
of painting, but for reasons which will appear
more fully hereafter, I still fingered on the
plantation, an honored guest. And often,
in the calm autumn evenings, we would
all sit together on the veralGah. aud talk for
hours in home-hke. old-fashioned way,
under the shadow of the clinging vine
''In the States Prison as a convict" I
repeated after pause, inwardly wondering
violent old gentleman could ever have been
so abused.
Perhaps you would like to hear how it
happened" he said inIuiringy.
Most certainly, if you willing to mar
rate it."
Il have never spoken Of it since have
been here. but if you will listen tonight TO
an old mans babbling, | will tell you the
story.
Forty years ago today. l was twenty-five
years old, and. improbable as it may seem
L was practising law in the city of Boston !;
or, rather, | was sitting in my Office waitia 2
to practice. My father, who bad died when
was but boy, had been lawyer before
me, ard il was nay ambition always TO be like
him, as | dimly remembered him, and as |
had heard my mother describe him.
AT that time my mother aud myself were
living together in little house in Roxbury,
and had just began TO see some prospect OF
success i'll business.
There was an acquaintance Of mine Lou
is Milton by name, at tLat time cashier il
one Of the city banks
circumstances had thrown US much to-
E gether, and we had grown to be very good
e friends, much SO that he had often spoken
;; to ne of a certain Mary Marshall, whom be
was accustomed to regard as his future wife
this contract, for such only it could be called
. having been entered into years before oy theil
t parents.
q Weston Marshall was wealthy importer
= and the elder Milton chief owner Of the banI
It in which Louis was cashier. Both wer.
e wealthy and beth arstocratlc, and hence tht
n foundation Of the contract. | bad never seei
Il her, and never thought of her but when b.
! spoke of her, little dreaming that she wnult
e Que day ind lrectly effect thorough chang
! in my whole lfe But | must not antici
d pate.
Il shall never forget one snowy night, tn
- first time | ever saw her. Some THEATRES
- celebrity was starring at one of the Bosto
$ theatres, and Lonis and myself happeniu
together in the evening. sIrol.eJ to the thea
Of tire. In one of the Intervals between the acts
Louis turned to me and asked
j. - Have you ever seen Mary 2
is I answered that | had never had th:
ne pleasure.
Do you see. he said directing n after
81 tention TO remote part of the bouse .thi
- young lady dressed in purple, with dar
plulnes in her hat?'
Il replied that I did.
Well, that's May
PLACED as We then were, in the glarin
light, could see little beyond the particula
of dress that he had remarked but ii
chances Of the crowd, as VIC left the tbeutr,
brought me quite near her. and [ though
then, as | think now, that had never locke
En- into pair of deeper OF more heart-full eye
en- But we passed on chatting pleasantly t
ID; gether Of Indifferent thugs. and that night
na slept sound. dreamless sleep as if thel
~ were never a woman il christendom
''Mayhap yoU have noticed-if you hay
Of what people call IAN ear for music you &c
tainly have-that you may listen to a pie,
m of music which strikes you as being pecul
- arly beautiful, and go away, aud one no,
~ aferward, you could not recall, so as to a
ticulatc, single note of it, though your Ii
6 depended upon so doing Aud vet, da
afterwards, when you least expect it, you W
catch yourself humming, strain after strai
NJ easily as If you had known them fro
childhood and in truth, it shall seem mo
Iry like an echo of something with which you b
81 long ago been familiar, than the acqusiti
Of something entirely new.
the Just SO was it to ME with Mary Marshal
ern eyes. L do not think ] thought Of them
weeks after that night at the theatre, IN
one morning | was walking in my offc
thinking of declarations not 10 love. but
me law, when her image started out in memo
as with more than the distinctness of most
ull miliar faces. | cannot explain why Il
10 should be so, any moro than | expl;
~ why it Is that at occasional periods in eve
mans life, there flashes across his mind, "
ess sort of curdling shudder, shadowy &C
Fps scioGshess OF Aa'lhg seen ana heara All u
is then passing. at some remote point OF
illinitablo past. only know that both
- true. The causes of, and the inductions fro
H. I Z
. ''Onoo having presented itself, it seen