Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-01-26

low lOoIlsh dream TO influence MS con-
duet Neverw
But, jamie | insist upon it"
"And | utterly refuse. There"
"Janie" he said, almost sternly.
"lf you will not abandon the subject
at once for all. " she said resolutelY. 81
shall consider it sign and token that
you desire our engagement to be at an
end
"Bat you will let me"
She put her hands playfully yet i'm
peratively over her lips.
"What did | tell you? Come, your
business awaits you, and l am in a des-
perate hurry to get all these things pack
ed"
:" / am TO consider myself dismissed,
then ?'-he said half laugh ng, half vex.
ed.
jamie jumped up, ran to him and gave
him coaxing little kiss, as he stood on
the threshold.
shall write to you just as soon as !
get there, and we shall be separated but
a brief lime after all"
!" may see you at the depot?'
Not even that" jamie was begin
Ing to be annoyed again. Let me have
my own way for once-it's woman's
privilege until she is married, at least"
Pierre Raymond was d'squieted still
The dream haunted him every hour, it
would neither be laid or exercised, let
him strive as he would
"If | we're at all inclined to be su-
lperstitious man, said Pierre Raymond,
I" j should believe this to be warning
| should regard myself as mad if | gave
no heed to it.
1t was brilliant starlight night in
| Dect mber when the trim little figure, in
the sober grey travelling dress and veil,
ed face took her seat in the stage coach
which stood at the Courtfield depot
awaiting the advent of all Danelsdale
passengers-starlight, but cold, with a
frosty clearness in the atmosphere, which
made closed windows by no means un,
comfortable.
Not but two faces besides the outside
passenger" muttered the driver discon-
tentedly, as he slammed to the door aud
mounted to his place behind the horses,
where tall dark figure already sat.
amt going TO make my fortune, on the
Darnellsdale road, that's clear.
| jamie Martin glanced curiously toward
the other passenger-a masculine look.
ing old woman, in a beaver bonnet, a
green berage veil, and huge old,fash-
ioned bombazne cloak with double ca pes
who sat nodding with her elbows on the
lid of the square wicker basket she car.
ried in her lap. jamie felt strangly lone
! Iy-even the companionship of The un.
couth old creature, she fanced, would
be better than utter isolation, and she
timidly attempted to begin an acquan,
tance.
1T is very cold tonight" she remark,
ed in conciliatory tone.
"Eh!' demanded the old woman, put.
ting her hand to her ear inquiringly.
"a cold night ?' cried jamie, at the
top of her sweet little voice.
"Eh!"
1t was plain that the old W, man would
not be much company for jamie, and
she abandoned her social essay in dispair
! Sill deaf old woman was better than
nobody at all. jamie feltihat all alone
in the coach, she would nave been very
lonely, in spite of the nervous thills she
experienced once or twice when happen
ing to look up as the coach ratified
| through the gas-lighted suburbs of Court.
land, she caught the quick vigilance OF
the old womans furtive sdeward glance
instantly withdrew.
1t was not pleasant, and jamie almost
wished that she had consented to Pierre
Raymond's wish to accompany her, as
an escort on the long and lonely journey.
Pierre dream, laughed at and forgotten
at the time, came back to her now with
strange distinctness, oddly blended with
unpleasant recollections of Lindley Grey.
81 am goose" mentally protested ia.
ME, "and I'll 60 to Sleep"
But she could not sleep. Onward roll
ed The numbering coach, past the sub
urbs, beyond the few scattering habila.
tions that clung TO the outskirts of the
little town into The open country woods,
where the solitary farm houses that they
occasionally had passed were already
closed and darkened for the night
woods where the rustling, dead leaves,
eddying downward, sounded like weird
whispers. The stage coach numbered and
jolted, until suddenly they plunged into
the dark, fragrant recesses of an ever
green wood, where the tall hemlocks and
clusters of spruce trees seemed almost to
arch the interlacing boughs over the mar
row roadway.