White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1858-01-21
gtlttt Gale.
THE OATH OF MARION.
A STORY OF THE REVOLUTION.
BY CHARLES ]. PETERSON.
CHAPTER /.

CHAPTER i.
Every man knows best how to buckle his own belt
FLLsTIrr.
ibid you get the pass, Macdonald7" said
young man, looking up as his servant entered
the room of lodging house in Charleston, in
the latter part of the year l7SO.
"Yes, sir; and the baggage and horses are
ready" was the reply of a stalwart youth, whose
dress betokened condition removed from that
of an ordinary mental, and partaking of that Of
familiar though humble companion. 81 think
We can give them the slip, sir-Lord! how |
wish for crack at these fellows! and once with
Marion, we'n not long want the opportunity"
"Be in waiting for me at midnight, them"
said the first speaker; and, as Macdonald re-
tired, he threw himself back agaiTp his chair,
and fixing his eyes on the floor, resigned him
self to the abstraction out Of which he had been
reused.
Howard Preston, the hero of our story, had
just returned from Europe, where he had been
fulfilling the injunctions of his fathers will, by
q couse Of study and travel until his twenty
fourth year. The first great sorrow Of his life
had been his parting. at sixteen, with theonly
child ofhis guardian, Kate Mowbray, then love-
ly little girl, who for years had been his pet and
playmate. Many were the tears she also shed
at the separation, and faithfully did she promise
not to forget her boy lover. Such childish pref
erences usually end with youth; but it was not
so in the present instance. With every letter
from abroad came gift for Kate, which she re-
Quilted with some trile worked by her own hands.
But as years elapsed, and Kate approached to
wemanhood, these presents we're no longer re-
turned, and Preston, piqued at what he thought
neglect, gradually came to confne himself, in
his letters home, to a cold inquiry after her
health, instead of devoting. as heretofore, two
thirds of the epistIe to her. Yet he never thought
Of America without also thinking of Kate; and
when he landed at Charleston, month before
our tale begins, he was wondering into what kind
of woman she had grown up.
Still his own feeling of pique was uppermost
when shown into her fathers magnificent par
lor; and this, combined with his establishment al
seeing graceful and high bred woman announ'
ced as his old playmate, lent an air of coldnes:
and embarrassment to his greetings. Whether
it was this or some other cause, Kate, who wa:
advancing eagerly, suddenly checked herself
colored, and put on all her dignity. The inter.
view, so inauspiciously begun, was short and
formal, and to Preston, at least, unsatisfactory
He had expected, in spite of their tacit under.
standing, that Kate would meet him as raptur,
ously as Of old, forgettiuRsthat The child had
now become a woman. overlooked, also
the effect his own restraint might have produced
Thus he returned to his lodgings dissatisfied anC
angry, half disposed to dislike, yet half com
PEELED to admire, the beautiful and dazzling crea
ture with whom he had just parted. The trutl
was Preston, though hitherto ignorant OF it, hat
loved his old playmate from boyhood. This hat
made him feel her neglect so acutely, and thi
had led him secretly to hope that her welcome
on his return would heal the past, No wonde
ne vent home angry, yet quite as much in low
as ever.
Preston and Kate often met after this, bu
'ney seemed destined % misunderstood eacl
other. Kate was really ignorant of the mischie
she had done. She had come down to meet hin
With heart full Of the memories Of other days
and if the truth must be told, little neryou
ana anxious how he, Of whom she had 80 offel
tnought in secret, would receive her. His prou'
qemeanor had chilled her. Nor on subsequen
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