The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1866-12-15


must leave you tomorrow"
Leave ~ Claire turned cold from
the heart out. "Leave usl Where are
you goingp"
"To seek my fortune. You know I
am very poor, do you not ?"
" l have guessed it,"
And so of course I must 90 else
where. But it is hard to leave you.
The little cottage is the dearest place on
earth to me-"
Claire shivered. For the first time
she understood what life would be with
out him. She forced herself to say,
When shall we see you again 2" and
then stood mute.
His answer came slowly:
I" 1t is for you to decide, Claire. You
may say, Go forever or Come back to
me.'"
She looked down and trembled. She
had no voice to answer. He spoke
again:
"Claire, I wonder whether poor
man, who has no personal attractions,
no wealth or fame to give, has o right
to tell that. You only know whether
he is not quite mad when he also says,
Can you love me?' Yet, cannot go
away leaving the first untold, the last
unasked. Darling Claire, will you say,
Go forever or Return some day to
claim me?'"
And listening to faint whisper, Gill
bert heard, 81 cannot say CO." and
clasped her to his heart.
Oh, 1t was happy, yet bitter mo-
ment! She felt herself beloved, and
she felt that she was at the same time to
part from her best beloved. She clung
to him, and exclaimed, "Stay. After
this stay! l could have borne it before ;
and now-not nowm
But after awhile, with her head upon
his breast, she listened as he told her
what she knew already-his duty as a
man.
~ 60 to build q nest for my bird }"
he said ~ must try to win a home for
my wife. The poorest, the humblest,
will be sweet to me if she does not fear
to share it. Does poverty alright you,
dearest ?"
And she answered, "Not if shared
with you. 1t used to once, Gilbert"
They walked together after that for q
long, long while; and when they part.
ed Claire knew that they would not
meet again for many days. The battle
would be long-she knew enough to
know that. And she sighed as she said
"Write often, Gilbert"
lie was going with the early dawn.
He told her that, as he kissed her: and
she must tell her mother all, and thank
her. And Claire crept up to her room,
happy, yet sad-anXiOus, yet overjoyed
Oh, it seemed so hard that poverty
should part them; yet he loved her-he
loved her
Then she thought Of him, lonely and
almost penniless among strangers and
kneeling by her trunk took forth
her little hoard Of silver, saved shil.
ling by shilling for the new dress,
and folded it in a paper, with some has
tily written lines, and creeping upstairs
on tip-toe, found outside his door the
little black valise, and slipped the treas.
ure in, and re-locked it, and sped away
like guilty thing.
What did she care for silk dress? OF
for the grand party where she had
thought to wear it? or for anything but
Gilbert, and parted from him?
She lay awake long hours; but drop
ped to sleep at last, despite herself, SO
that in the early dawn she heard no
closing door or departing step.
The next day was dreary one, and
tears blinded the blue eyes as they bent
over the weary work. There seemed SC
little left, now Gilbert was gone.
Yet perhaps those hours were the
most blessed of her life. In her great
love she had learned to live for another
Not word she said to her mother-not
a word to any one, but stitched and
thought, until, with the twilight, her
work was folded by, and over the tea
table the widow talked of what they
were to wear at that wonderful party,
and then Clarie startled her mother by
saying, quietly, ~ shall not CO."
"Not go? Surely and certainly the
child has taken leave of her senses"
Claire felt sorry to annoy her mother
but to dance and make merry, with
poor Gilbert wandering sadly away
from her, seemed too heartless.
So the days glided by, and that of the
great party came, finding her still in the
same mind; and at last, the widow
dressed in her best, went alone; and
Mrs. Scraggs having gone to gossip
somewhere, Claire was left to her own
thoughts. They were Of Gilbert-all of
Gilbert.
She sat lstlessly and idly on theporch,
In the August moonlight, as the clock
was striking nine; when, lifting up her
eyes, she saw the form of Gilbert Brown
beside the garden gate. He stood quite
still, looking at her and for moment
she believed she saw his wrath. The
next he was hesido her, with his arm
about her, and she was sobbing.
"Qh, Gilbert, what has brought you
hack9 You frightened me so l thought
you had como to tell me you were dead,
and she lay sobbing on his hreast,
In a moment he had drawn from hi'
bosom little package Of silver and held
it before her eyes,
NJ came to bring this hack,h he said