Litchfield enquirer., 1871-11-16
reat cup is gone! sodnd the klafmi'' I ashed headlonR down and GrAeped bis

rushed headlong down and grAaped his hand. 4 1r es frT 4seine fo1 Hi
 "Where is Maurioes" I cried. .'Where is Arria?" But the words refused to be articulated; he guessed their pukport from the horror in my face, and stood petkihed in dumb silence. Suddenly. in the brief instant that we lost thus, c broad dranght streaned upon us from an open easement the music-room window that opened tn- to tho garden and with it 1n4kt came e sound of outside stir,a beA6ing AB th6gAte. crashing of timber, foot l6aping across the bare shrubbery. and then, Q voice cry ing out in wild Spanish lejacnlations.
 "Guadalajara kept watch himself and patrolled before the gate tonight, as he threatened me, "said Trefetheness. ssHsre! we are wasting time. Maurice must have opened the easement in pursuit of the burglars. He sprung after him. The draught shut the door as he left me; the one near me, an arm closed about me; "Now, now, my darling. comeg" was mur- mured in my ear, and, borne in Q mad embrace, was hurried through the case ment and into the darklgarden-alleys. At the moment light glared over us and flashed out; there came two sharp pistol cracks and the whizzing fight:of ball through the damp, still air. My bearer flung himself forward and covered me, reeled, and dropped from hiss sarmsp There was groan and fall. ! gained my feet and rushed back, and then Q light figure swept by me with outstretched arms. Oh, l it was so swift and dreadful that it seemed but some mimic mask of horrOrt AS if by miracle, all at once a dozen torches famed up throughout the garden, in the hands of the police and servants. Trofetheness flew forward and struck npon the On- I ban in his impetuous progress. Sudden | ly he paused. And his sharp cry srent the air, followed, ,like dead echo. by GArdala- jara's "C'drana6G! GS0rOso! Oh n0che desdichoda" crept toward again ! whence I had come, the dew frozen on my forehead, the teeth shaking in my head, l and clutching Trefetheness, bent over and gazed. And there lay Maurice, still grasp | ing the golden cup from which the ball had sheared O lane of jewels, with one great carbuncle red as a drop of blood, imbedded in his temple. white and dead. Like marble headstone, Arria knelt with her eyes fastened upon him. Slowly in the light she bent her face down to his, slowly lifted it and gazed around.sl aJ l "Hush ]" she said. ''The play is play cd out. Put out the light and let the cur tain fall. One, two, three r and there folloped long low gush of mad laughter. They carried her in, and while others were dressing the dead, TrefethenesD end | I sat with her. We were oil our guard by l her rigid immobility, when instantly she dashed away from us. She had long known all the blind ways and purpossless winding passages of the house. of which had little perception, and now with her insane cunning and subtle courses she still eluded our pursuit, only suffering us to know her place by low bursts of lsugh- l ter.
 ''The medicine closet P I cried to Ire fetheness. But before we reached it she stood there, and was draining Che last drop from the great cup, which she had
 retained. She threw it down upon the floor, and watched it break in twain. "Or
 ever the silver cord be loOsed. or the gold
 en bowl be broken she murmured. "Yes.
 yes. ~~~
 When veins run thick, and streams run up,
 Gaudalajara shall come to his cupl'
 Do you suppose" she said, hastily, in an
 altered voice and stiller manner, ssdo you
 suppose, good people. that I do not know
 all these potions, and which can the soon
 est cure sorrow need opiates When I
 wake again shall not be mad. At her
 and after her when the skies fall yoa can
 catch lsrks, but you can not catch me !"
 and thereat she broke away from us again,
 and we found it impossible to trace her.
 At last, when hours had passed in tho
 search, I entered alone the room where
 Maurice lay. All here was white and still;
 an awe aud hush pervaded the place :. and one curtain brushed aside showed the.
 yellowing dawn through lightly falling
 snow. l paused, and did not venture to- approach that which had been SO radiant
 Q mask. He lay upon the bed as if asleep;
 the death agony had passed away, and all
 was placid the falling lids net wholly yelled the dark and filmy eye, the melans- choly smile crept back and nestled round
 the lips. So cold, so sculptured, SO silent, So wrapped in inscrutable mystery, 50 beau l tiful, so rueful. gtsTT ftssR.fs-sE While gazed, yet too much stunned, too bewildered and terrified for grief. as if I were seeking the dread secret that had snatched and still held him, T saw that one of the white chill hands was held in slenderer, wbiter fnger-tips A thrill ran through me at sight of this clasp. like that of spirits, at these two dead landA frozen with fear and surrounded wikls shadowy sorrows Isaw. too, the hand move, gliding forward in the others hold, pulled downward by a sinking weight. Then an intimation of terrible relief fore through me. I ran round and found Ar ria half fallen on the floor. her head. with its heavy hair dropping backward from the beadside. her eyes looking widely in- to eternity. We could draw free breath again, she was no longer mad. f..i-.s fe s.- - t1se ss. ttsssg ss.. vH.-woRK AND WAIT.
 It was the day of the funeral, when we stood beside the cruel cases that in their dark glittering length held our dead. One still as proudly. sweetly beautiful as if Death had frozsn hin. in the instant of some godlike attainment; the other shrunken. old, and sad.
 "0h, where are they now f'' I sobbed.
 ':I do not ask where. !" replied Trsfethe- ness. 'I know that the same God who cared for them here will care for them there.
 ''Oared for them P I cried through tets of indignant tears. Famous care l''
 "You are wild with sorrow" be said. "You know not what you say"
 "Trefetheness ]" exclaimed. ssTrefeth-