North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1864-01-06

words were mystery to me. l could never
understand them, for, in the eyes of the
world, he was single man. | have thought
perhaps he may have been secretly married.
Ho had beer gazing from the window
while he spoke. As he ceased be turned
towards his companion. An exclamation OF
surprise escaped his lips.
Her hands were tightly clasped, and an ex
preston of agony rested upon her face.
Apparently by a great and painful effort
she regained her self mastery, but there was
tremor in her voice as she said:
any emotion must seem strange to you,
but l. too, lost friend on that fatal day,
and your word caused to vibrate painfully
long untouched chord in my heart"
"Would that had known thism he ex
claimed, earnestly. pardon an offence innc-
Gently committed:"
Shs exe lde1 her hand, and as it rested a
moment in his he felt how icy cold it was.
Good night" and she was gone.
Edgar Haughton stood where she left him,
absorbed in thought.
80 she could feel, after all, and deeply too
| All, /: was clear to him now She had
loved the friend to whom she referred, hence
her strange emotion. He thought he under
stood her. She vas one ofthe few with
whom Love is love for evermore."
From that night Miss Rawdon's manner
towards Edgar Haughton changed To him
she was kind, almost gentle but to others as
cold, as proud as eyer. The change to him
was fatal. He learned to Lore her with all
the intensity of strong pure nature, yet feel
ing that he was
Nursing heart fame that might be
Quenched only with his tears
! But will the storm cease at mans bidding,
or the avalanche stay its course? =? As soon
will the tempest of passion be still, or love
| obey TIE dictates Of reason.
Edgar Haughton stood in the oriel window,
with the moon smiling down upon him as
coldly, calmly as it had SIX weeks before,
when Rowena RawGpn had been beside him.
On the morrow he must leave Rawdon Hail.
He had fingered there TOO long already and
yet it was very hard to withdraw from the
| presence of the woman he SO madly worship
ped Should he go without telling her of the
! great love that surged through his whole
being, and like the ever-moving sea, would
not be still? He knew she could not love
him, but she would pity him and even her
pity would be grateful to him.
The rustle Of dress startled him from his
reVery. lie turned and Saw Miss Rawdon
just rising from divan, hear the window.
He had not heard her come in she must
have been there long time /; but being in
shadow he had not discovered her.
"Do not go, Row; Miss Rawdon," he
pleaded, eagerly reaching forth hand to de-
tain her, as she was gliding by him.
She quietly took her place beside him in
the window.
here together ?" he asked, and without
awaiting reply he went on. That night |
| learned that you loved once, and | knew that
with such as you, to love once is to love al
ways. Yet certain as felt of this could
not teach my heart submission to my will
and day by day the feeling / entertained for
you deepened, until 1t has become the intens-
est, strongest passion of my nature. Oh,
Rowena, would to God you could love me p
He had spoken calmly at first, but, at the
last the wrung heart would wall forth one
cry of anguish.
She laid her hand softly upon his arm, and
in voice of gentle, plying tenderness mur
INJURED:
ooh, my friend, I would rather have died
than that this should have happened. did
not dream that any one could love me. For
80 long have shut myself up in hermlt-like
Isolation OF heart and soul, repulsing the af-
fiction, sympathy, even the friendship of ny
fellow beings, that thought no man could
ever wish to link with his life so chill, so
joyless as mine You love me-alas that
you do-you are my friend. know you
honorable, noble, true, and do not fear to
trust you. Listen. He you laid TO rest on
the battlefield of Balakva was my friend as
well as yours nay, he was more, he was my
loyer-my husband -
She felt the strong frame shiver beneath
! her hand.
"When first met Elliot Vernon, was a
wayward girl of eighteen. A creature all
feeling, all impulse, singuarly sympathetic and
impressible. and delighting in the romantic
| YCu know that he was man to command a
woman's admiration, love. He won my heart:
but my father, in his pride, SO soon as he
knew of it, forbade him the house, and
ordered me to cease all intercourse with him.
His daughter should not mar ry the penniless
son ofa country curate. secretly rebelled
and few moaths after Eiot's dismissal we
| were clandastinaly narriad Nv ,bor 3s