The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1863-07-30
Mfldred,S sacrifice.

| dainty little parlor were distilling their
sweetest fragrance in the delicious evening
breeze that tossed the muslin curtains to
and fro through the wide, open windows,
and the cherry boughs overshadowing the
piazza caves were hung with sparkling
jewel sprays of crimson fruit. July was
purpling all the horizon with amethyst
| light; July brooded over the hills with
tender warmth and Clara Delford, in her
dark, rich beauty, seemed Ike typic
| blossom of the brightest month in all the
year.
Did Captain Werner notice the changing
color in her olive cheek the blaze that
| Slowed beneath her jetty eyelashes, in
strange, seductive brilliauce Di6 he
observe how artistically she had posed
herself on the tiny footstool close beside
Mildred Moore's shadowy white draperies
and pure, colorless features? Clara Del
| ford understood contrast and harmony
Captain Werner did not; he only knew
that the two girls were like rose and lily
-fervid sunshine and pale, white starlight! !!
"If l could only do something for those
poor, suffering soldiers" she said, break.
ing the momentary silence as if in contin-
| uation of the previous conversation
"Would it not be possible for me to devote
4 portion Of my small means to their CON-
fort 2"
| Captain Werner smiled for the heiress
to speak Of her 'small means" seemed to
him even, like an unnecessary bit of os-
tentatioE.
Certainly" he said sand can assure
you the money could not be spent to a
better purpose"
"Will you object to acting az my treas.
urer!" smiled Clara, with pretty, appealing
softness in her eyes
mot at all !; there are in my own regi-
| ment many cases Of hardship, and even
| desitution, which it would give me great
pleasure to relieve. Thank you'-as she
opened the tiniest Of silken purses and
placed a bauknote in his hand With blush
ing confusion--"I know from experience
how much good twenty dollars will do"
All this time Mildred Moore had sat
silent in the shadow of the cherry boughs,
but now she rose and quietly withdrew.
Captain Nerner's eyes followed her slight
willowy figure with involuntary attraction
"You mustn't misinterpret poor, dear
alildred's silence" lisped Clara, as the
door closed; "of course she is interested
i'll your hospital "reminiscences, but don't
think she cares very much about the poor
soldiers-Alilly' nature is not sympathet-
ic, and"
"And," added the straightforward
soldier, cher means are very limited. She
gives music lessons, or something, don't
She ?'
He had risen, and stood there, tall and
handsome, in the golden July moonlight,
Clara's beau-ideal of man.
Goodnight, Miss Clara l must stop
at Harwood Grange for FIVE minutes, to
tell them about their two boys that fell at
Fredericksburg, and I've two or three
little errands to attend to in town. We
soldiers, you know, are scarcely at our own
disposal"
He held the little jeweled hand in his
a moment, perhaps unconscious hcw close
he pressed it, and then vanished through
the crimson sprinkled branches of the
cherry trees As he walked along, whist
| ling softly to himself, he thought of Clara
| in her strange, transcending beauty,-of
| her melting, liquid eyes, and her mouth,
like Cupid's bow, carved in scarlet coral
at was generous in her to give that
money" he thought. "But don't under
| stand-it's no business of mine, suppose
but why couldn't Miss Mildred have
expressed her sympathy in words at least
1t annoys me little, and yet don't for
| the lite of me see why it should"
"You sent that set Of onyx to my moth
er 2" he asked, an hour or so later, as he
entered the stylish little jewelry store in
| the main street Of the town.
"Yes"
"Then it's ali right, and 1 may as we'll
settle the bill"
He tossed fifty-dollar Treasury Note
on the counter as he spoke.
81 hardly like to par. with that money"
said he. ''The fact is, I've kept it about
me so long that It seems almost like a
lucky penny. However, there it goes
hand over your receipt"
He dashed the bir of paper into his
pocket book with the quickness that char
acterized all his motions, and walked out
again, whistling the refrain that made
sort Of company for his solitude.
1t was nearly midnight, the air dewy
and sultry, and the stars beaming in the
violet concave of heaven, yet Captain
Werner sat in his balcony, looking out on
the summer nig ght, with the faint fragrance
Of HE cigar wreathed about him. Was
be thinking of Miss Clara Deliord, or