The herald. (Smyrna, Del.) 1870-1871, 1871-07-01

wanted ner for his wife. A man in ever :
sense of the word-brave, noble and in
teilectual. She thought of the coming
years-long, lonely, desolate-of her
loveless, mateless heart. Shecoald make
him a good, true wife! Why not? That
early dream was over. The promise
trembled on her lips, yet she did not
speak it.
A wild blast rat.led the easements,
and whirled the dead leaves up and
down the garden paths. She arose, and
kissing the dying man into silence,
turned to the window.
The afternoon was raw and gusty, and
the waves bent upon tho shore with a
dull roar. Janet could see the wide, wild
sea from where she stood, and the little
boats and fishing craft dotting its bosom.
That sen held all that her heart could
ever love! A fierce despair pierced her
like knite. She had "lost her corner by
the household, behind the heads of chill
dren."
AT that moment Mr.. Sheffield entered
the apartment. and approached tho bed
upon which the dying rector lay. Janet
caught up mantle and threw it over
her head, and drawn by an impulse that
was irresistible, left the house, and ran
down to the stormy coast. The rough
winds heat her back, aud tore the man
tie from her head, and dashed the salt
spray in her face; but she clambered to
,NF,. Il
down, locking out upon the watery
waste with solemn, yearning eyes. The
voice of the waves seemed lmosthuman
to her ear; the shrieking blast moved her
like wall of mortal pain.
Far ont upon the rough waters was a
shorebound boat-a tiny speck, rising
and falling with every surge of the sea.
Singing it out from all the rest, tie girl
watched its progress with kind of fas-
cination. The afternoon waned rapidly,
and the lurid, stormy twilight began to
fall. Slowly, but surely, the little craft
neared tie shore; and the girl watched
it, her eyes strained, great heads of per-
spiration ON her brow, her very heart
ponse. She wondered, vaguely, what it
all meant. Wus she going mad?
The yellow sunset faded, creeping
gloom settled down upon the waters;
but the little boat came on, now mount
on the crest of huge billow, now lost
in the rough trough of the sea. Janet
could see man in the boat, rowing for
his very life. A wild thrill shot through
her; she arose and extended her arms
with passionate cry. But the cruel
night was closing in, black and STAR
less, and the storm was gathering
strength.
Presently it burst upon her. The
winds clashed like ten thousand warning
sabers, and the mad waves ran noun
tans high. The lit boat went over
like cookie shell, and the man who sat
in it went down. Janet uttered wild
cry and leaped wn from the rock. She
felt as if her own soul was being engulf-
ed in those mad waves. She ran down
on the wet sands to the very edge of the
foamy water. A great convulsive shock,
u towering wall of foam spinning up
into the darkness, and then drenched |
figure, a white, dead face, lay at her |
feet.
She knelt down, raising the poor head |
to her lap, parting the tangled hair from
the icy brow. Then her wall of agony |
rose above the din of the storm.
"Oh, Ross, Ross p she cried; "I have
waited so long, and must l lose you
now ?"
" - Is
Once more the sweet scented hyacinths
threw their incense ON the breeze, and |
the golden hearted ransies hloomed ON
the garden borders, and the happy birds
sang. The old rector of Stramville slept
sweetly in the little churchyard, End the
bells in the windy steeple We're ringing
out a wedding chime. Tho fiifIk,April
streamed through the low win
dows of the parsonage, glinting in gol-
den flashes on the spotless robes of
bride-on the fair, sweet face of a woman
whose soul had been purified of all
dross in the hot furnace of sore af1lic-
tion, The happy bridegroom stood at
her side.
"At last ~ he murmured, his clear
eyes aglow with rapture. AT last! All,
Janet, my darling, this hour repays me
for all the bitter years of banisbment."
She looked up with happy smile,
putting her hand in his.
God kept us for each other,'' she said,
'and nothing had power TO part u.s.
True love is omnipotent, dear Ross; il
brought you back TO me from tAaeSery
ends of the earth; even cut OF th5@kpths
)f the stormy sea-"
And then the wedding chimes filled all r.
he summer air, and hand in hand Ross
Milburn and Janet Raehurn went down.
o the church, the people shouting, alfx
little children strewing flowers along II
way; and there, in the presence of GodF a
me two became as one flesh. And from i
their one life knew naught {
'ut perfect peace. |
A LARGE portion of the Canadian Do q
ninion press is seriously and earnestly [