The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-02-04
BY Alfred -. Horsley.

and Heaven knows-and only Heavel
and you-how much I trust YOU"
And you 10, e me, Elsie ?"
y "Have / not told you so more thai
: once? And did you not know it evel
J before ever told you? / am no cold
!, blooded creature to weigh every word
|, utter and guard every look-and yo
! knew it, Robert, before you ever press
ed me to tell YOU"
I" I did, indeed and therefore love-
: you all the more. But since this is Sc
! why will you not trust yourself to m
: come with me and be my wife ?"
She shook her head.
"Your wife openly, Robert ?"
"Openly; yes, after while-a littl
while, just. have strong reason fo
, it; / expect very soon to be in a posi-
, ton to have claim your father ever
will admit"
",Can we not wait until then?
shall not change"
, pect; there may he delays; and Low,
i to wait. l wart to be certain of you
come what Will"
"And love you so much, Robert
, | lLdl Cdll wall tllu Ue ceTtdlll yOtt
, come what WILL"
All this time the organ kept OH it.
playing, and gave an accompaniment
of solemn psalmody to the word due
of the lovers. For the figure by Elsie.
+ side was clearly that of a lover and mo-
of ghost; and now we know why
the young Organist was not afraid o.
the desolate darkness of the old church
The lover pleaded warmly, passion.
ately, vainly. At-last it became SC
late that Elsie must go; and then theil
lips approached for one moment, and
they parted. But here comes the
strange part of the story. have spo-
ken of the old staircase which led up to
the organ-loft. 1t mounted then a lit
tie farther up into the old belfry OF
tower. Now, when the lovers parted,
Elsie came dOwu the stairs and Robert
went up. She positively came down
the stairs alone, crossed the floor aud
then the threshold OF the old church,
went out into the churchyard, locking
the door behind her and carryingaway
the key! Has she then locked her
lover into that dreary, ghostly solitude
for the night? 1t is certain that, after
Elsie's departure, nor man nor mouse
ossed the threshold of that dismal ed
ifice.
Something like this went Oh during
many occasional evenings of succeeding
weeks. The lovers met and sat togeth-
er and whispered; and Robert fire.
quently urged Elsie to marry him Sc
cretly, and she always refused, and
spoke of her father and mother, and
pleaded so tenderly that he loved her
all the more even for her denial. Al
ways, when they parted, she came
down stairs and he went up; she lock-
ed the church door, and took the key
away. What became of Robert? If
he followed the staircase until it STOP
ped he came into the squat, square
tower or belfry. Surely not pleasant
place to pass many successive nights
in! This belfry had two windows
One looking out on the wider side of the
churchyard, and across it to the range
of houses in which Elsie's parents liv
ed; and narrow as the passage was be-
tween the church and these houses, yet
promise you that no man could trav-
erse i'm leap one third the distance
On the other side the distance, to be
sure, was much less and there was
carpenters work room in one of these
houses just opposite the tower window;
and out of the carpenters window there
did sometimes project huge BEAM
Still, even between that beam and the
turret window, there was distance no
man ever saw wonld like to try to
cross by a single leap, even if we sup
pose our lover was insane enough to
risk his life thus night after night
Moreover, there was a young carpenter
almost constantly at work in that
room; and he must have seen any
aerial exercises, supposing them to be
possible.
Still, there were eyes watching the
lovers of which they never dreamed
Every pretty girl like Elsie ClairOn has
had TO reject importunate admirers;
and Elsie had to repel, at least very
sharply, the advances of Stephen Rose
berry, who was clerk to a lOw-class
lawyer IN the neighborhood and Ste
phen was thereby, of course, as every
mean and selfish creature would be,
converted into the enemy of the woman
who would not have his love. One
night, Elsie, not expecting her lover,
and indeed believing him to be absent
from New York, did not lock the
church door when she went in to prac-
tice, and the lover did come, after all;
and Stephen Roseberry, happening to
pass by the church, and hearing the
organ, went in, poor wretch! in the
hope of meeting Elsie. As he entered
he felt convinced he heard her talking
with somebody in the Organ-loft. Yes
he listened, and then he distinctly
heard an affectionate goodnight. Then
he heard Elsie coming down; and he
crouched in one of the pews to watch
her. She passed along alone! She
went out of the church alone-she lock-
ed the door behind her-and locked
Stephen in! Much as be was veXed
and Mortified to find himself locked in
amidst the growing darkness of that
CHASTITY place, he yet had courage and
energy enough to search Trough the
church for Elsie's hidden fompaniOn.
1t was small building, and the search
was soon over. There was nobody
there but himself. He searched up
stairs and down stairs, in the organ.loft
and i'm the belfry, and found no one
No human creature but himself was in
the church!
There was no way of escape that
LlSHt, uIlCSo1 pCiietpS1 oy uftoiiiuS Out
a window and creating an alarm, or
tolling the bell. He wisely elected to
avoid scandal, and so slept quietly i'm
pew until morning; then hid himself
until the sexton opened the church
doors, and so got out unnoticed.
Now Stephen ROseberry was no be-
lever i'm ghosts. Such belief is not
common weakness among lawyers
clerks. Moreover, if he had believed in
ghosts, he could never have been got
to believe i'm the possibility of pretty
young woman spending an hour il a
darksome church to commune with
spectre. He therefore took it for grant,
ed that Elsie Clairon had been convers-
ing with a living, fiesh-and-blOod low
er; and as he could not guess how the
lover got out, he merely came to the
conclusion that there was way of get
ting out as yet unknown to him, and
he went to work patiently to discover
it. He thought of supterranean pas.
sages, trap-dOors, gratings that cGuld
be lifted, and SO on; and he lurked
about the churchyard of nights, and
spied into every opening and outlet
within his reach, as if he had been
professional detective. He discovered
nothing. Elsie always came out alone;
and yet he felt convinced that she had
not been alone in the church.
AT last, this very night that we have
been speaking of, Stephens patient
sneaking watchfulness was rewarded.
A mere chance showed him what his
Sagacity might never have diScovorad