Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1873-03-28
Gin Gnteresting Story,


nOtel, SCanQlng nall way up the SIDE Oh
mountain in New Hampshire.
In the parlor there, one July even
ing, were four people-Mrs. ST. John
and her daughter ELY, Miss Emily
May and Mr.. Millburn. AS ELY St.
John went to the piano, these two last
slipped out on the balcony, and stood
listening as ELY sung:
"Could we forget, could we forget!
Oh that Lethe were running yet,
The past should fade like morning dream,
In single drop of the holy stream.
All we know what you would say,
But we are too tired to hope or pray;
For, hurt with ceaseless jar and fret
Body and soul cannot forget.
"Can they forget, will they forget
When they shall reach the boundary set,-
When with the final pang and strain
They are parted never to meet again2
Even to them shall rest be given.
5enseless in earth, or happy in Heaven7
| That which has been it might be yet
five could only learn to forget;
But the stars shall cease to rise and set,
And fall from Heaven ere we forget"
I ELY sung with an intensity and pa
thos which borrowed none of its force
frofnWithin, for she was a good-natur-
ed, inconsequent sort of girl, who had
never had a trouble in her life. The
gift of musical expression is often quite
independent of feeling or experience.
Elly's music hurt Emily cruelty, and
stirred and reused the old sorrow which
had but just begun to fall asleep for a
little. She had loved deeply and fond
ly a man who had grown tired of her
and left her, because he was greatly
her inferior.
Much as she suffered, l rejoiced
when her engagement with Lewis
Leighton was broken. I had known
Lewis from his earliest childhood, and
| had always disliked him as selfish,
conceited prig. The last I heard of
him, he had turned Catholic, and join
ed the Jesuits; and only hope he got
well snubbed during his novitiate. -
Had Miss May married him, her dis
appointment would have been unspeak-
ably greater than it was. AS she lean
ed over the balcony while ELY sung,
and looked out into shadows and star
light, her heart was wrung as with the
first anguish of loss, the sickening
sense of her own blind infatuation.-
"Oh God!" she said to herself, ''when
wW the bitterness Of this death be
past~ Then she became conscious
that Mr.. Millburn was speaking to her;
but he had more than half finished
what he had to say before she realized
that he was asking her to be his wife.
He spoke at very unfortunate mo-
ment. He and Emily had been very
good friends that summer. They had
wandered in the woods, ascended Mount
Washington, and been to Glen Ellis to-
gether. She had liked him, but she
had never dreamed of him as a lover,
and when he presented himself in that
light she was shocked, and startled,
and little provoked.
ooh hush!" she said sharply. "It
never can be-neyer
"Do you then dislike me so much p
said Evert Millburn, trying very hard
to speak quietly.
"No," she said, making an effort to
collect her thoughts. "I have liked
you-you have been good to me; but
all the love I had to give is dead and
buried, and there is no resurrection. y
He made no answer; but she felt that
she had hurt him.
81 am very sorry" she faltered; 81
never meant"