New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-10-31
ONE OF NM sBY.GONEs."

the cruel gray!
ONE OF NM ssBY-GONEs."
After striving all day with the total de.
pravity of chairs and tables and bedsteads
which refused on any terms to look homelike
in a new house, it was comfort untold to rush
out into the avenue, in the dusk, and take
sweet counsel with myself, or, as quaint ole
Herbert expresses it,
- to tumble up and down my chest
And see what my soul doth wear.
1t was the avenue which made me take the
house nobody's avenue in particular, yet il
seemed to belong to each one of the small
group of cottages to which it led from the higf
road. 1t had existed as a sort of lane before
the cottages were thought of, and great trees
had had time to grow up in sort OF lelsurely
way and meet overhead. .
A long gate closed it in at night from the
snares Of the outer world, and gave greater
sense of security to the lonely spinsters and
timid widows who lived in the cottages.
On this night thick mist embodied the trees
and me as with a sombre garment, and the
remark of one of our old neighbOrs when she
heard our destination came back to me like a
bird of omen: "GOing to DovecOtes! Then
you will live and die an old maid. No one
ever goes there but the doctor to make then
sick, and the lawyer to write their wills. II
is too far from the village to walk, and toe
near to make it worth while to ride"
She evidently spake not without knowledge
and keenly felt the little fine point that was
wrapped up in it. 1t had fearful sound to
be an old maid all my days, for old maids dc
live immensely long lives, having neither
great joys nor great sorrows to wear out their
oil fhof xyif
more effort, they might live forever. was
twenty-five years old, and no love passages
had ever been mine. If one must be an old
maid, it would be some consolation to have a
few old letters and bunch of dried flowers
to turn over in winter evenings. 1t was an
old familiar track in my mind; my thoughts
travelled it often.
The hour was not very late, but the foe
made a darkness that might be felt. Sud.
denly heard voices near me, but whether in
front or following it was impossible to tell,
as 1 distinguished no footsteps. LII
81 fear we have made mistake" said a
woman's voice, trembling in spite of hard
tone in it. "If you cannot bear with me
while we are lovers, what will become of me
by and by?"
1t is only when we are alone that
should ever suspect that we were lOvers,'
rejoined a masculine voice.
You were willing that our engagement
should be secret" T
eyes, because you besought me so anx.
iously, but your manner to other men is sc
utterly utterly-'' f--Tss%
"Don't hesitate for word. assure you
can endure it. My manner is So"
"Unengaged, I would say, to put it very
mildly"
"Perhaps it is better that my condition
should fit my manner"
Perhaps--unless you can change that
manner"
"I could no more do that than the leopard
could change his spots. 1 have loved you
well, but that is no reason why we should
marry, / suppose"
Is it not ?'
sob! none whatever. l hear some one
coming. Here is the ring that you meant fol
q fetter. Good night and good-by."
A woman ran by me so closely that her
skirts brushed mine, and the fog lifting a
little at the same moment, / saw the outline
of man take his elbows from the long gate,
on which he had been leaning, and STOPPING
down seem to look for something on the
ground. Then he hurried away toward the
village, and, as Bunyan says of his pilgrims,
saw him no more"
felt like person blindfolded, who has
against his will. / leaned my own arms on
the gate until the fog cleared away, and a
soft, wavermg moonlight fell on the trees,
which seemed to whisper together about the
very secrets that l shared with Them
In a crack between post and bar something
CLEANED i'm the moonlight. l picked out q
ring, the ring which one had thrown away in
her angry haste, and which the other had
looked for on the ground in vain. II was a
violet formed of small sapphires, with a
diamond in the centre.
l carried it home and tucked it into the
furthest corner of my upper drawer, and for
a month | pondered it in my heart. / looked
eagerly for all notices under the head of "Lost
and Found" Vast hordes of dogs seemed to
have gone upon their travels about that time
muffs and bonds and other small matters
were entreated to return, and no questions
asked; but no one had lost ring. i com.
posed with infinite pains at least dozen ad.
vertisements, which should delicately convey
to that outline Of a man that his ring might
be recovered it he desired it. said no word
to my aunt with whom shared the cottage
and all other worldly goOds) of my little adj
venture in the avenue. If she had ever had
any nonsense about her, 1t had entirely worn
off before my time. She would have sought
for the owner of the ring in the same straight.
forward and exhaustive way as if it had been
stray hoe found i'm our garden. Those two
lovers would have been forced to stand and
deliver their names and their secret within a
week.
Aunt Esther had brought me up in the
same way that she did everything else; she
never forgot to wind her clock on every sew
enth day, and she never failed to give me
good measure of home comfort, but it was
not pressed down nor running over. 1 gave
her honest liking and respect without any
love, and she never missed it. Nevertheless
IT gave me terrible sheck when her vigor.
GUS life was suddenly arrested by stroke Of
paralysis. Our only servant in her fright
was helpless as her mistress, but Miss Purdy,
who lived next door, came in to stay with my
patient while I ran through midnight dark
ness down the avenue and the long village
street for a doctor. DR.. Gilmore was the
name on the first floor that had light be-
hind it. At the first pull of the bell the