Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-12-23

4 me OtQ man glanced DenlnQ nm at the
side-door. which led directly into the
room.
Il wonder if that's Faulkner, /" he said,
smilingly. "He's usually in on US from
this side.-Here you, Tom; you've left
hatchet on the hearth Take II away
now.
/ ''Yes, father-in a minute" respond
ed Tom, intent upon his charmer, and
forgetting the mandate directly.
Presently the old negro, Daniel Snow,
man-of-all-work on the estate with 9TH
ers, was seen shutting through the pas
sage, in full company rig, to the door.
A moment, and there was a bounding
step, a mellow laugh, and rich, gay,
| quick, mclodious voice, intermingling
| with the soft quacl1ing African responses
of the delighted Daniel.
A hve-dollar greenback for old Dan
EieI. (fYes, sab thank ye, sah.' Knock
ed just to bring him on for my Christmas
gift. ('Yes, sab yes, sab. Five for
him, if he comes, said 1. eyes, sab. }
With merry Christmas to his good old
heart. eyes, sab the same, sab. Much
obleeged, sah.' And merry Christmas
to all here e
With the last words, young Faulkner
danced over the threshold, in elegant
costume, and stood with indescribably
cordial grace, his extended Kid-gloved
hands thrown open in playful greeting,
while the phantom of black Daniel,
wagging his up-thrown, mirthful head
and showing all his ivories, crossed the
passage behind him. The next second
he had crumpled off his gloves with an
air of sleight-of-hand, and was moving,
amidst tumult of welcomes, from per-
son to person, with laughing fascination
and gay, tender charm. Of middle
height slender, sinewy, and elegant
1 a figure that naturally fell into beautiful
and alluring attitudes with ight-brown
curling locks, half shading his low,
dense, passionate forehead; dark
glances, witching and melancholy; rlid-
/ dy cheeks high nose; manly nous
tache, coquettishly upturned at the ends;
beautiful laughing mouth bold but
dimpled chin. Well might women love
himi But, Seipio-Hylas that he was,
/ he kept them all at bay. Brave, sweet,
loving, joyous, ardent, amative, proud,
/ generous well-read, well-bred, prof.
-cient in every manly exercise one who
fenced, danced, sang divinely, wrote
charming verses, talked brilliantly, had
in him the sIumbering spells Of ele-
| quence one good at hunt, a regatta,
on horse, with rife; loving all pref
| ty girls lightly and purely, none deeply;
very gallant and attentive to old women
/ friendlyto all men, and easily loved by
them in great request and favor with
every body, chiefly with the ladies, for
ball, theatre, opera, saloon, dinner,
escort, commission a -Paladin in the
| bud, but now perfect squire of danes.
| Add, as a singular thing in one so anna
1 1E 4Iry
| ted life. This, partly from excessive
| imagination, never realizing its ideal
partly from natural purity and naughty
self-respect. disdaining to stoop below
the vision chiefly. because in him, pas
sion like ambition, like his gifts, his at
tainments, his latent power. lay with
drawn and inert in a temperament OF
dream. Thus Michael Faulkner, at the
age of twenty-six, strangely young in
appearance, and looking like some love
| ly youth of twenty; rich in his own right;
son of the old rich General; once
sweetheart of ErniIy's, and for years a
fast friend to John, to whom he had
been the gayest and friendliest rival, and
/ for whom he cherished a deeper attach
/ IgfSsIIc
They were friends still John met
him like the rest, betraying no other
! sign of change towards him than might
have been conveyed in a yet more iron
grip of his strong hand. He was in that
uncertain mood in which one, tortured
by the deep suspicion that his beloved
wife is drifting from him into love with
his bosom-friend-as yet suspicious of
her only, and unable yet to determine
whether the friend is also Just object
for doubt-suspends judgment on both |
in wary scruntiny.
What was the case? F.? Subtle, and hard |
to state-harderf for many people to com |
prehend. There are seasons in a woman's !
life when her conjugal love, oppressed |
by the monotony, the commonplace, the |
humdrum, cold familiarity, the perpetual
same intimacy, becomes not dead, but |
dormant, and existence, void of the old |
romantic joy, creeps on in WEAKNESS and |
indefinite sad yearning. In such a sea-
son, Emily with perfect innocence, |
found a sudden and novel relief, fed by |
many sweet memories and associations, |
in the wild and tender destinations that |
enhaloed Faulkner. He, for his part, |
drew unconsciously to her who in earlier |
days had deeply touched his fancy, but |
now was transformed to his imagination |
with all the added powerful pensive |
charm of her completed womanliness,
the divine dover of the joys and griefs |
of her maternity The mutual spell was |
strong innocent in itself, they innocent
ly yielded to it and so far all was well. |
What is this experience? Two-a |
man and a woman-friends, newcomers |
to an enchanting rural solitude, have
wandered, an hour after their arrival, to |
the banks of a strange stream. There |
is a boat tethered to the shore: let us
enter, and push off a little way. How |
sweet to sit thus, hand in hand, lost in !
reverie, floating TRANQUILITY in the purple !
evening on the bosom of the placid |
water! How sweet the dreamful drift |
ing how soothing the smooth-slipping |
flow of the bright tide how lulling the |
even, all-pervading murmur in the trance |
of the sunset-air!-Ah. that gentle
gliding is the flow of doom; that magic |
murmur is the roar of the cataract. They |
are in the current of Niagara
Standing. sitting, walking about the
room, taking his part in the talk and |
merriment, John Dyer ever kept an eye
upon his wife and friend. She was sit |
ting in her low seat near little Lillian |
when Faulkner came in, and, with a
mad pulse leaping in his own breast, her |
husband saw her bend her averted head |
over the child's dress, smoothing its
folds, and marked the quicker palpita-
ton of her bosom. 1t was only when |
Faulkner, in his tour of salutation |
among the group, paused bowling, for |
an instant before her, that she looked up |
hurriedly, half-timidly, into his face,
smiling, with heightened color, her head |
dropping again as he passed by. This.
too, her husband observed. And now,
with ever-increasing certainty in regard |
to both, and with stern and solemn |
misery at his heart, he followed their |
movements as they wandered about the
room, and every little while for mo-
ment drew together, and marked the re-
curing indefinite signs of love between !
them-of love forever ending and be-
ginning, retiring, advancing. and deep
ening on and on-he pausing near her
with cIasped. dropping hands, and ten |