The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-05-13
M L @o1 LL.A NJ z.
IFrom Lippincoa's Magazine. !
THE PRICE OF A DREAM.
CONTINUED ;

CONTINUED. ..s-
As the months went ON and her head
aches and nervous horrors Of all sorts in
creased, that sound absolutely haunted her
dreams; It led her 70 herr fathers grave; It
pealed over her head on the brink of the
precipice; it was the knell which ushered in
r.ways her worst and most feverish dreams.
The Abbess did not mean to overwork
her; the other teachers, in spite of their lit
tie womanly jealousies, did not wish to be
cruel; but for years they had all been going
on under the high-pressure principle, till
their nerves had hardened into iron, and
they forgot how many had dropped by the
way because their nerves would not harden,
and never remembered that this tropical
plant must at least be seasoned gradually.
So more and more duties fell to her share;
she had none but the Spanish classes and n
few beginners in music; therefore she could
do this or add that lesson; and she did not
complain. She had an insane horror of not
earning her salary-of being retained out of
charity; that thought was spur which kept
raw spot always in her soul, so constantly
did she thrust it in when it seemed impossi-
BILE to endure another moment-when she
longed to throw the books at her pupils
heads; to fall on the floor and shrek until
she brought the whole house about her; to
do something anything, which might break
y,
relief.
Do you get an idea of the creature I am
trying to describe? do you understand and
pity her?
Perhaps all this is tiresome to you, but I
had nothing to tell beyond the unfolding OF
her character, and the state, mental and
physical, in which she was when another
crisis came, for it did come.
1t was the day on which Dolores heard
4Ia4 r,O,1@ l~@x
being answered it'with rush of gladness.
She felt that something within her soul,
which all this time had lain moaning in its
dark prison-house, started up at that sound
and stretched its bonds to the utmost, try
ing to reach upward.
It may sound foolish and overstrained
but do not say so because such things have
not been familiar to your experience; they
are not unnatural.
that anything is unnatural; life has taught
me that the widest incident in q sensation
novel is feeble compared to much that hap
pons about US every, day.
She heard that voice in her dreams wher
sleep found her; she woke with its music IL
her ear. For three days after, everything,
wherever she moved, whatever she did, was
in keeping with that cadence. Three days
and then Sunday came.
Oue WehU 10 CuurCu alWdyS Will Inc Lacy
Abbess, and sat in her seat, just in front Of
the one which held such pupils as did not
from parental example or command, seek
the chill of dissenting chapels.
It was odd that Dolores was not Roman
Catholic, but her grandfather had been an
English Churchman, and the dear old faith
had descended to her with its beautiful sim
plicity and its blessed aids. If she had
only known how to employ them!
So there she was in her place, and raising
her eyes from her prayer-book, Dolores
looked full in face which she had never
seen before-looked till in that brief glance
her very soul seemed to go out
She knew that the voice which she had
heard was his, that pale, handsome mans
he who was 80 intently regarding her, moi
impertinently, almost unconscious of his
own scrutiny, in the wonder he felt at hel
unlikeness to anything he had ever seen
before.
Going out of church, he and his party
were brought close to the Lady Abbess and
her flock, and exchanged salutations with
her. Dolores held her breath to catch his
voice; it was the voice which had been
haunting her.
the girl. 1t was not only that she wen
back to her dreams and gave him o plac,
therein-listened to his voice, hearing it Sc
plainly that often she awoke from sleep cry
ing out in answer. All these things would
have been bits of girlish romance, such n.
many quiet woman could recall But sht
loved this man.
TO BE CONTINUED.