Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1872-10-11

warm youth, and find the void deeper
when it had gone out.
To the very last day, Rosa kept her
place by my chair and to the very last
the New Zealander kept his place by
her, when no one younger stepped in
to carry her off, which was pretty Of
ten, to be sure. Then, healways quiet
y went away himself, with a kind of
grave regret in his face. On this last
morning, Miss Armour had just left
us, along with young lawyer, to drop
oranges and lemons among the steer
age passengers, when I noticed the New
Zealander looking after her with sad
der regret than usual-almost a pain
in his eyes. He had such handsome
dark eyes! [ could see that without
my glasses.
'sNow," said I to myself, 81 hope he
isn't going to get sofia sensible, gen.
tlemanly, agreeable man like him, and
quite old enough to be her fatherY'
And SO looked at him to see if he
was, when suddenly he turned upon
me.
''At least, you might have written,
Agatha Wells!' said he, sharply.
l started, as you may think, to hear
my own name spoken so familiarly by
a stranger; when, looking again, be-
hold! [ saw beneath the bronze, and
under the wrinkles and behind the
beard, face that twenty years before
was the dearest in the world to me
the face of Duncan Ashley! We part
ed one day expecting to meet on the
next; but that evening he was called
away, and wrote instead of coming. In
his letter he said, what he had said be-
fore with his eyes-yes, those same
beautiful eyes-that [ was the choice
of his heart and the desire of his life.
.'Answer me-" said he, 'I cannot wait
till I see you.'
Sol answered long, foolish letter;
though there was no need Of writing !;
for he had read all I could say long
before, with those eyes of his. Then
[ watched and waited for him; but
never saw him or heard one word more.
If you are young, you can imagine the
slow dying out of hope and expecta-
ton; and if you are old, you know how
such things can be lived over, and hid
den in secret graves.
But now, as though the graves had
been opened, and the judgment set,
came this sudden reproachful question
up from the buried past. [ fairly
caught my breath, as I turned back
my eyes, and looked him in the face a.
gain.
"Forgive me-" said he directly, in a
gentler tone. "Idid not mean to speak.
You brought it out with your eyes;
that questioning turn was so familiar.
Of course you were quite right, and [
never blamed you. Inever meant you
to see me again; but the temptation
to feel myself beside you, only to be in
the soothing charm of your presence,
was too great. It has been a blessing
[ shall carry with me all the rest Of
my life.''
He was rising to go away, but I put
out my hand: 81 did write, Duncan
said I ''the letter must have
gone wrong"
"You did! You wrote!" he cried,
back in his chair again, and
looked at me eagerly. "What did you
say?"
"There was only one thing I could
say; and | said that" [ answered,
blushing as though [ had just written
the letter.
A middle aged woman in hood and
waterproof! But, dear me! it was only
my face that was middle aged, after
all my heart was as young and silly
as ever. And as for Duncan's face,
the marks Of care, and thought, and
time fell off, leaving in it only the eter-
nal youth of love.
It was the old story of lost letter,
and the older story of a proud man be-
lieving himself rejected and humiliat-
ed, and fleeing to the ends of the earth
with his pain.
'sTwenty precious years wasted! !"
said my New Zealander. owe will not
be separated another day while we both
live. There is clergyman among our
and we will be married this
very hour"
That was so like his headlong deci-
sions Certainly he did need a sober
second thought like me for ballast
''That cannot be % Icried. 'The cere-
mony wouldn't be legal without IL
cense or something. And I would by
no means do anything so sensational
and conspicuous"
But, bless your heart! I might as
we'll have tried to wipe up the Allan
tic with my pocket-hankerchief. He
was SO grieved and so impatient (and,
indeed, when one comes to think of it,
twenty years is long enough for an en-
gagement), that finally dropped off
my waterproof and my seasickness, and
stood up behind the pinnacle, and was
married before eight bells that very
morning-ring and all. Duncan pro-
duced it from small casket, where he
had carried it in his waistcoat pocket
for the whole twenty years.
81 could never bear to put the little |