The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1873-07-24

Vavasour."
First let me remind you of promise
to walk to the top of the cliff with me-
How soon can you go p
&c Now, if you are not critical" she
replied, with a shake of her rumpled
founces T" In ten minutes, if you prefer
smooth curls and a fresh costume.
There. I'll not put your choice to the
test, but you may wait for me in the time
ne med.
CHANGING back as she skinned up the
staircase, she saw him enter doorway
which did not communicate with his own
apartments.
''Those rooms were vacant through
the week" she thought s. / wonder who
has taken them lone Of his friends
perhaps"
She had quite forgotten the occurrence
when she presently climbed the narrow
pathway which led up the cliff land stood
with Vavasour, watching the light as 1t
faded on the surface of the sea.
He was manifestly uneasy, and broke
his subject with the abrupt haste of one
who breads to pass an unavoidable Or
DEAL.
"Never mind the scene out there,
Zoe. Who do you suppose is coming to-
night?"
"How should | know" she asked
laughingly. You forget that our
paths were the paths of strangers until
we met here. You must enlighten me. "
q am expecting friends, and, with
them, my wife, I hope you will take to
each other
He would have gone on uttering COM
mon places but Zoe lifted her face, grey
as ashes, to search his own with an agon-
lied glance Her halfhope that it might
only be cruel jest he was uttering was
blotted out by the cowardly defiance she
read there.
"Your wife Heaven help me % she
murmured, huskily, and sank down at his
feet in stricken heap.
He thought she had tainted but she
shrank away from him when he would
have raised her in his arms.
''Go away Leave me alone ~ she i'm
plored.
Vayasour shuddered as he glanced to-
wards the precipice,a hundred feet down,
with the sea rolling at its base
"Will you go? she demanded an
grily.
't | am afraid you will do something
rash. Oh, Zoe, Zoe 1 never knew until
now that l love you so Forgive me,
darling my punishment is more than l
can bear!"
He covered his eyes with his hands,
and groaned aloud. He was weak. va
cillating, and in that moment really be
| lieved that life without her would be
nothing more than mere bleak waste
of years.
The awakened bitterness was succeeded
by an impulse, mad as it was sinful. He
| stopped over her, with imprisoned en-
treaties in his tones; and that hand
some, false face, whose beauty had gone
so far to win her, lighted with plead
ing glow.
Zoe, darling, come to me! Life is
nothing without you-fate would be cruel
to part u.s. Forget what [ have told
you; let us defy the world. and live only
for each other!''
Slowly she rose up, with crimson flames
leaping back into the pallid cheeks and
lips, and the wide black eyes stained with
uuutterable longing.
{" You love me like that?" she asked
those wistful eyes fixed upon him with a
reproach he could not fathom.
Better than life itself, Zoe"
He stopped as if to caress her and.
with quick motion, she put him between
herself and that precipitous descent with
the sea at its base.
Her two hands fell upon his arm, light
and fair as snoWfakes, and her face was
upturned with such a look as might have
inspired a better man.
love you," she said, with solemn
earnestuess that made him shrink and
SILVER with chill dread. You are cruel,
but | love you l could never live the
life you propose, and I can never face the
jeers and sneers of those who know how
lightly.you had won me. Fate would be
cruel indeed, to part US now. Come =
Her soft white arms twined about his
neck, and her gaze riveted his with a
fascination he could not brook even
while he started with horror at the
meaning he read in the wide distended
eyes.
The two figures wayered upon the edge
of the cliff. He threw up his arms wild
ly, eudeavored to shake her of, and then
both went over the giddy height.
The sea washed up its victims, their
hair spangled with the glittering ocean
sand and twined with clinging seaweed,
her arms still clasping his neck as when
they had fallen from the cliff
And her face was ineffably calm but
his was stamped with horror and dread
of an unsought death.
GOOD THOUGHTS.
Christian graces, ike the stars, shine
the brightest in the darkest hour.