The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1871-08-17
THE LILY AND THE MOON,
SWEET sAL0ME.

SWEET SAL0ME.
CONCLUDED FROM LAST WEEK.
Once in her room Salome turned up
the gas and, opening private drawer OF
her desk, took out q package of much.
read letters-tSose letters, how dear they
were to her, how important to her hap
piness; but yet she must part with
every one! Was it not q hard fate
thus TO b. suddenly ber''ft + what
made life am, a revel? If th.,
mad never come to her she might per
haps have enjoyed existence with only
= passing biot Of its ;noompleteness ;
but that they had been once her own,
she felt as if it Was like parting with
some sweet superior sense which had
put her en- rapport With the delights Of
being, because forsooth. by this act she
renounced both the love and the lover.
She unfastened the ribbon that tied the
precious bundle, and read each separate
letter as il Tor the first time for, in-
deed, they were always new to her ; she
was continually discovering fresh senti-
menls aud ideas therein, as the astron-
omers are constantly discovering new
planets IN the heavens; but just now
she hung over each word in anguish,
as if she would commit the whole to
memory, the very shape Of the letters.
the Fluctuations, whatever his hand
had wrought or his thought enriched.
How tender they had seemed to her,
how she had waited and watched for
them, how they had fred her brain and
drawn the tears from her eyes-and
now to be given up! One can not cease
to love in an hour and this, be it re.
membered, was Salome's first passion,
stronger thousand times than if she
had dissipated herself among host Of
trivial affections and it was with
a feeling that she had been utterly
stripped Of all fortune and favor, of all
the bloom Of youth and hope, with
which she put her name to the letter
that promised to be the last she should
ever have occasion to write to him, and
prepared the package for the mornings 8
mail then sao went to her pillow aid
slept soundly, for often after great eff:
fort Of mind or body, Of whatever pain.
full character, sleep descends like an in.
spiration and wraps the patients in de-.
licious calm if 1t we're not so, if little
oblivion did not intervene, who could
| endure the first keen throb of reawakeu
ing?
When Salome opened her eyes and
met the early sunlight looking in upon
her like the smile of some eternal and
inallenable friend, it seemed to her that
she never had had any other, that she
must have been drea ming away all those
happy summer days 10 imagining that
ono soul was more elite than another.
"Mercy " cried Aunt Parry, when
| she opened the door of the breakfast
| room; "what's the matter. Salomr
Y"u look az old az I do this very min
ute! 1t won't answer, you're losing
your bloom through these late hours
We must turn over a new leaf. Blythe.
way" as an after thought seized her,
"tbe Baron didn't propose, did he?"
"You think such finale would give
me shock ?" said S.lome. "No, thank
goodness, the Baron didn't propose.
| "ant no more such annoyauces p
"1f-I ever-heard 4 ereaturo-in
her senses talk so indiscreetly! When
was young-ahem THAT ie, before
married-ovcry offer countcd one."
Increasing from right to left in ten.
told proportion :? You know I was never
good at figures"
"Except the German. What are
you going to do with yourself to-day ?"
"Any letters to 60 to mail, Madame p
said Jonas, looking in.
eyes, JONAS" said Salome "you will
find a-one on the hall table,"
"0ne !" repeated that diguitary, in
hearing only OF the pretty house-maid
who was sweeping down the stairs
"C.ls that 'one r" he continued
"Now zee here, Polly;it girl l writ
to waz to 60 back on me like this ERE,
do you think Id put up With it7''
"What 'ud you do /" ash ed the maid,
tossing her head coquettishly.
"1'd take something, I would. Polly,
can you make out this ere name ?" re-
turning to the letter.
ri guess it's French" said Polly,
laughing in her sleeve.
"Dash me If l know-'tain't the
B,ron's, is it! l don't see no big b"
| in which state OF uncertainty he made
| IN obeisancs to the lovely Polly aser
the manner Of said Baron, and depart.
cd.
| How Salome wore away the few days
that passed before M'Gregor'e letter
came to her it would be hard to tell
I she could never remember any thing
&k.< IL lre;nr, thai ~nnpso6 oa;<h