Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-06-28
CHAPTER v.

Three weeks ran on-one, two, three,
four more--and it was the first week in
June. Lena still fingered in the little
cottage, which it seemed harder than
ever to leave, now that the roses and
syringas were wooing her with their
unfolding sweetness. She had met Doc
tor Dinsmore several times, and once he
had stopped a moment at the gate, when
she was tying up some long sprays of
honeysuckle that were trailing on the
ground, but he had never been in the
house eSsince that day., AT first she ex-
pected him, but latterly she had lot
thought so much of it. To tell the
truth she could think of nothing very
distinctly. She seemed to live in a sort
of dreamy SPELL, thought and feeling
alike torpid. She grew white anu
ethereal looking. as if the body was
gradually exhaling, leaving only the
spirit. She didn't sleep much nights,
but hay awake thinking, but always in
such helpless, aimless sort of a way
that it only disturbed and perpleXed
her, without helping her to any definite
resoluion.s .,.,
Leslie wolcott came in almost daily.
He had so many errands either to bring,
or borrow books, or help her in her gar
den. or bring some little dainty which
his sister sent to. tempt Lena's delicate
appetite, that he really could not help
it, For little while he struggled against
the fascination of her presence, and he
yielded to the sweet enehantment, and
lived in Eden three sweet, swift weeks,
and then came an awakening.
He had been down to Rose Cottage all
the long, sweet June morning. The
thrushes and orioles had filled the air
with tender melody, and the heavy
sweetness of the syringas made one al
most giddy with their perfume. His
sensitive temperament absorbed and
rioted in the excess of sweetness. l am
afraid he forgot his sisters warning,
looking into the fair face of Lena Har-
grave; forgot alas! another face which
he ought to have remembered. But the
charm was SO intoxicating, and the affin-
ity SO perfect, that he shut his eyes to
danger, and gave himself up soul and
| body to- the beMilderlng fascination of
| the hour. Perhaps Lena was insensible
| to everything outside the charmed circle
where the orioles circled and flashed
through the orchard closes. / do not
1 think, at least that she was conscious
1 did, not fill. Life seemed, in that hour
of perfect abandon, beautiful golden
vista opening into heaven.
4 But all at once the bewildering illu-
sion was broken. Mollie Sterne-
bright, cheerful, practical Mollie Sterne
l-came upon the scene, and the vision
dissolved and eXhaled like the dew Oh
the blossoming clover.
| Mollie had her own theory concerning
Leslie Wolcott. i, don't know as, gen
orally speaking, she was believer il
the doctrine of metaphysics, but in this
particular instance she was very firm iT
thEsfa faifh ho hot n or
been, in some former period of exist
ence, subtle and beautiful serpent, ant
now he had taken on the form of a hand
some, agreeable maps with all the pecu
!, liar fascination that Belonged to his pre-
! vious period Of ofcXistence. She believed
too, that he was in some way a sort o
vampire, and ascribed Lena's failin,
stesstehito some alncanny influence whicl
4 he exerted ever her.
She did not understand those subtl
] affinities that govern us so much NOR
than we know; or have any faith in tn
) unconscious attractions and repulsion
, that you and know are continually al
J fecting us, but do not know how mucI
, and call 1t visionary to try to determine
D We feel the sweet, mesmeric thrill whe
t we come en- rapport with some congenia
r soul, but we understand but dimly tn
I mysterious laws that govern the soul
l the eifunexplainable power of attraction
e that is perpetually striving to harmonic
n the autagonisms of nature, and whic
= we all feel more or less acutely, accor(
ing to the fineness and sensitiveness {
b our own natures.
It 1t was therefore with little seer.
Il thrill of pleasure that Mollie saw Wo
O colt take his leave; the evil spirit VIZ
/, exercised for that day, at least, for sf
d had come prepared to take Lena hon
y with her for the day. Not that she di
d liked Leslie Wolcott particularly, onl
that she had got the notion, somehow
=, that he was accountable for the strang
e way into which her darling had fallel
/, She oved- Lena Hargrave with the fu
/ strength of her warm, generous hear
= and it grieved her sorely that she woul
+ persist in staying alone at Rose Cottas
: when she would so gladly have share
d her own home With her, and felt herse
II the debtor even then.
"Never mind, Mollie," Hugh Ina
IS said, when she poured her trouble