Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-03-16

ends. Aud the poor boy who wrote III
was dead. There was the great mis-
chief of it all. If he had been living
and well, so tender a halo might not
have rested over the past, and all III the
past connected with him; so bitter
might not have been nursed
in silence against the wrong which her
husband had done them both. But
Frank had lived but few months at
ter her wedding, and she never saw him
again. He was dead, aud she had kill
ed him.-no, not she, but Sir Hugh.
She was thinking such thoughts one
day when something made her look up,
and she met Sir Hugh's eyes fixed upon
her. There was so peculiar an express
sion in them that she could not prevent |
a certain proud, antagonistic inquiry |
coming into her own. He went towards
her with his book open in his hand
He bent down and put his finger on
line in the page, drawing her attention
to it.
elbow much the wife is dearer than
the bride. This struck me rather, that's
all" he said, and went away.
Evelyn sat on by the window, but
the book dropped from her fingers,
he mean? If he had only not gone away
thenl
"How could he do that one thingT
she said to herself. she meant the
line as areproach to me. And would
have loved bim,-is it possible that L
do love him, in spite of it. And so
weak and falsel / want so much to
comfort him sometimes that / hall Tor
get, and am tempted. But never Will,
IL never must. used to be strong,
shall be strong STILL"
And so the same front of icy lndltfer-
ence met Sir Hugh day by day and year
by year, and he knew none OF her
struggles. But he wrapped himself up
. more and more in his books and his
problems and writings. New MSS. be-
/ gan to grow out of old ones, for he had
/ always been given to authorship, and the
accumulation of papers on various sub
iects. In these days a little fairy used
to come In from time to time with q
pretense of arranging them for him.
She would open and shut the study
door with u great show of quietness,
seat herself on big chest which was
full of old papers, and in which she
meant to have glorious rummage some
day; and begin folding up neat little
packages; stitching loose sheets to-
> gether; reading bit here and there,
and looking up now and then with
suggestive sigh till he would lay aside
his work, and declare that she was tue
plague of his life. This was the signal
: always for the forced gravity to disap-
pear from Cecil's face; for her to jump
up, radiant and gleeful, and just have
one turn round the roOm-to shake OH
the cobwebs, as she said.
"But you know you couldn't do with
out me, and do help very much. -
: What do you know about stitching pa
pers together? And You are a most
ungrateful man to say / am plague,
I. only you don't mean it. wonder what
you'll do when am married"
Married. echoed Sir Hugh. "Go
and play with your. last new toys, and
don't talk nonsense
But the word worried him, and made
; him thoughtful. When he came to
! consider it, the fairy was no longer ex-
! |, actly a child, though she was as merry
! as q young kitten. He did little sum
on his fingers in sheer absence of mind,
and found out that In a few weeks she
would be eighteen.
: 1t was twelve years since he went,
that February day, to plead her cause
and his own with Evelyn Neville. He
: used to go now sometimes to the win
dow and look out, and remember the
, day when he had stood at that other
window watching bare branches and
wondering about his future. He knew
it not. Ii only he could find out GChy
it was thus. What had changed her all
at once, on her wedding day, from the
very moment, as seemed to him, that
she became his wife.
Sir Hugh pushed his hair away from
his forehead and sighed. He was get
ting gray by this time, but then he was
past forty. and Evelyn, his wife, must
be two-and-thirty at least. 1t occurred
to him that he had noticed no alterna-
ton in her. She was as beautiful as
ever, with the beauty of a statue that
chills you when you touch it. He
thought he would look at her that eve
ming, and see if he could trace no
change, such there was in himself.
He did look, when the room was bril-
liant with soft light, and she sat Ian
guidly turning over book of engrsv-
ings with Cecil. They formed strange
contrast; the cold, proud, Indifferent
beauty of the one face and the eager
animation of the other. The girls one
; hand rested on Lady Rainham's should
er, caressingly, for the tie between
these two was more like the passion of
a first friendship than the affection of
mother and daughter. Suddenly Cecil
pointed down the page and said some
; thing in whisper, and Lady Rainham
turned and looked at her with smile
AS he saw the look, just such thrill
went through Sir Hugh's heart as he
had felt when she came to him twelve
years ago to give him his answer. No,
time had not done her so much wrong
as it had to himself, and there was one
hope In which she had never disap-
pointed him,-her care for his daugh-
ter.
''For her sake" he said that night
when Cecilia was gone, 81 am always
grateful to you"
But he did not wait for any reply
He never did. Perhaps he might not
have got one if he had; or perhaps he
thought the time had gone by for any
change to be possible.
Lady Rainham looked from the win
dow the next morning, and saw Cecil
under tall laurel, reading something.
And the sun had come out; there was
twittering of birds in the shrubbery,
and the sky was ALI hecked with tiny
white clouds. 1t was Valentines Day,
and Lady Rainham knew that the girl
was reading over again the one which