Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1868-09-16

fell, and her little basket rolled away and
her flowers were scattered over the ground.
Recovering myself, sprang forward to her
assistance and helping her to re-gather her lost
treasures ] addressed some little word Of in
quiry and reinsurance, and we sat down with
our flowers before us to talk over the many
little secrets that lurked among their petals.
Thus began my acquaintance with her
used " call my Annie, and many sunny
hour we passed together then. and many a
lesson did learn that my heart long cherish
ed, though all are forgotten now. Would
70 God she had never taught me them Mr..
Willard, ! am an old man now, and years and
care have done their work upon me- and words
OF love may seem like strange mockery COM
ing from lips like mine but | loced that girl,
and when | went back to college halls threw
aside the many pursuits that had distracted
my attention pored hour after hour over
dusty tones laborcd with might and main 10
gain distinction in my class, all that ] might
appear worthy in her eyes, and might hope
soon to earn the hand she promised me- And
believed she loved me; she told me 80 and
soon fought my way to position in which
! might offer her competence and o happy
home-her for whom alone | ever cared to
call such mine
8" And when all was ready, went back to
that little village among the mountains, and
told my love that | was ready now to claim
her for my own; and she bushed, and put
her hand in mine and said it should be so,
and the next month she would be my bride
50 ! left her, TO prepare home for her where
every bright and pleasant thing might help to
make her happy.
~ A.. H. -, II -
dmg-day | stood at her cottage door and
knocking there, was met on the threshold
by group of sad afrighted faces, and they
told me that the woman | loved had gone -
fed with one, they said, wealthy, soft
spoken villain, who with cunning words and
well-told lies, and many hellish arts of gal
lantry, had stolen from me the heart of An
ME; to whom she had sold for few words
Of glowing fattery, all that ever l loved, all
that ever in my whole life I priced above
life i;selfm
As the old mans tale went on, his voice
had lost its tremulous feebleness, and the
eyes, that no longer fell upon the carpet, blaz-
ed under the lowering eyebrows with fright
ful passion. With a sweep of his hand he
pushed away the half-emptied glass, and his
clinched fist in his vehement agony seemed to
sink deep into the marble slab. The listener
at first had leaned forward in his eagerness
to catch every word now he fell back into
his chair, his fascinated eyes still following
the unconscious speaker, and cold drops stood
thick upon his forehead, and rolled down his
cheeks in streams
rushed madly from the door no sound
but one stunning buzz was in my ears; no
sight before my eyes but one black, impene-
trable cloud | had no thought but of some
crushing evil that had befallen me, and so |
fled away and knew no more till | was hun
dreds of miles from land, and the fresh sea-
breeze was blowing upon my cheek. For
4 years under an assumed name wandered:
few climes are there where | have not beon
few sorrows and privations that l have not
felt since then. | am wrinkled and gray, and
shattered in body and mind, and my life is
stained with many sins. For all that | am,
sordid, and implacable, and vindictive as am,
and dead to every human feeling--for all this
am | indebted to her whom once | loved.
And now hear an old mans curse J" and Phil
| Hope stood upright, with his trembling right
hand raised to heaven, the baleful fire flashing
from beneath his gray and shaggy brows, his
pale cheek ghastly with unearthly passion,
and the thin lips writhing and curling, and
bloodless with revenge. And how in the
terror-stricken face opposite was reflected
back that deadly ashen hue. and the dropped
jaw quivered in speechless horror, and the
starting eye-balls rolled and gared in dumb
alright "Tenfold for all the love that ever
, | bore her, for all the good that ever | wish
ed her, for all the JOY and gladness | ever
hoped to share with her, upon her head, il
she still lives, upon her children and her chill
dren's children return hatred and scorn, aud
evil untold, and sorrow, and dark, IMPLYING
: despair May all the evil that ever endur-
ed, all the torments that ever pursued me over
the worlds wide waste, all the deep passions
and deep corrodng suspicious that have prey
ed upon my life, may they follow down to the
grave, without end, or one moment's sweet
reprieye, Annie Leslie and her damned para
mour. May -"
:" Stop In GoD's name, Philip Stanley,
) hold Let fall your curses on the guilty
/ head :" and Philip Stanley recoiled at the
) sight of his own livid face so faithfully rem
dered back, as the rich merchant stood with
arms out-stretched before him at was ],
I, villain as you call me, that found out Annie
7 Leslie, innocent and artless in her native val
: ley; | that sought in vain to gain her heart.
1t was | that, after every art, and device,
! and intrigue were exhausted, sent, under an
others name, a message Of sickness and dis
! tress, to decoy her away to a lonely hut far
off among the mountains; it was that await
} ed there her coming and dragged her away
by force, under the cover of night and the
: dark shadow of the forest; | that snatched
your betrothed from your arms and sent you
a wandering outcast through the world An
ME Leslie escaped pure and unsullied from
: my clutches, and returned to her home to find
. her lover fed and soon she laid down her
young head, covered with shame and sorrow,
? under the willow that weeps over her grave.
IL it was who did it all ~ ss ID
Up and down up and down through the
long parlors, like some goblin's tramp, echoed
the halting iootsteps the lofty mirrors sent
} back TO each other the image of that spectral
, face as it turned from one to the other; and
long after the midnight bell had struck, tho
3 watchman across the street gazed in wonder
} at the oft-returning profile of downcast,
aged face, that for moment was drawn so
distinctly upon the curtain, and then changed,
aud shifted, and faded away. And when tho
bright beams Of the new year streamed far
, into the rooms, and the master of the house
with heavy groan raised his gray head from
the table, there on the rich carpet, under the
glaring gas, lay Philip Stanley, cold and stiff
IN death
There still, through the long last night of
the year, tramps up and down an unequal
heavy step; and year after year, though his
foot never stands upon its threshold, the own
or of that stately dwelling starts when tho
last stroke of the old year has sounded, at