Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1873-05-17
- WILL IF YOU NvILL.o


The Kay House is pleasant little
hotel, standing half way up the side
of a mountain in New Hampshire.
In the parlor there, one July eve
ming, 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:
"CoHld 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 eeaselsss jar and fret,
Body and soul cannot'forget.
"Can they forget, viii they forget
When they shall reach the boundary set
When with the fnal pang and strata
They are parted never to meet again:
Ever TO them shall rest be given,
Senseless in earth, or happy IN Heaven?
That which has been it might be yet
IL we EOulu W
But the stars shall cease to rise and set,
And fall from Heaven ere we forget"
Ely sang with an intensity and
pathos which borrowed none of its
force from within, for she was a
good-natured, inconsequent sort of
girl, who had never hsd a trouble
in her life. The gift OF musical ex-
preston is often quite independent
of feeling or experience. Elly's
music hurt Emily cruelty, and stir
red and reused the old sorrow which
had Just begun to fall asleep for a
little. She had loved deeply and
fondIy a man who had grown tired
of her and left her, because he was
greatly her inferior.
Much as she suffered, reiOiced
when her engagement with Lewis
Leighton was broken. / had known
Lewis from his earliest childhood
and had always disliked him as a
selfish, cOnceited prig. The last
had heard of him, he had turned
Catholic, and Joined the Jesuits
and | only hope he got well snubbed
during his noYitiate. Had Miss May
married him, her disappointment
would have been unspeakably great.
er than it was. AS she leaned
over the balcony while Ely sung
and looked out into shadows and
starlight, her heart was wrung as
with the first anguish of loss, the
| sickening sense of her own blind in,
/ fatuation. ooh God P' she said IL
herself, ''when qciB the bitterness;
of this death be past ~ Then she
became conscious that Mr.. MiIlburI
was speaking to her; but he haC
more than half finished what he haC
to say before she realized that hi
was asking her to be his wife.
He spoke at a very unfortunate
moment. He and Emily had beer
very good friends that summer
They had wandered in the woods
assembled Mount Washington, anC
been to Glen Ellis together. Sh,
had liked him, but she had never
dreamed of him as lover, and WheI
he presented himself in that igh
she was shocked, and startled, and ;
little provoked.
"Oh hush p she said sharply. 81
never can be-never W
''Do you then dislike me so much p
said EVert Millburn, trying very
hard to speak quietly.
''No," she said, making an effor
to collect her thoughts. 81 hav,
liked you-you have been good t.
me; but all the love | had to give i
dead and buried, and there is NJ
resurrection"
He made no answer; but she fel
that she had hurt him.
81 am very sorry" she faltered
''I never meant"
81 understood" he said quietly
cit is no ones fault but my own
/ Good night" And they touched
hands and parted.
Evert went to his own room
where his friend, Dick Bush, wa
sitting in the dark. Dick was bO,
of nineteen. He had been trying L
work his way through college, an,
had worn himself out in the effort
and Mr.. Millburn had brought hin
to the mountains for his vacation
Dick made a hero of Evert, and h
had been mOrtally jealous of Emil
May.
"Dick," said Mr.. Millburn, afte
a little, "we will go over to tn
Glen tomorrow"
And then Dick understood tn
case, and mentally abused Miss Ma
as "a cold-hearted firt," whic
epithet she did not in the least de
serve.
Evert and Dick Went,away earl
in the morning. Emily heard tn
stage drive away, and turned he
face to her pillow, and thought Bit
terly of the horrible peryerseness c
things in this world.
She knew that Evert was gooC
and manly, and sensible. He wa
in a fair way to win reputation q
the bar, and, if not Just handsome
was attractive and gentlemanly.
"There are dozens that would b
proud and happy to accept his love
and nothing would do but that
must throw it away on me-" tho
Emily, impatiently. "But it's neve
worth while to pity men very mucl
They mostly get over their trouble
} very easily, if there is no none
, lost" From which it may be il
; ferred that Miss May was perhaps
i bit of a cynic.
/. Emily May lived with her mothe
1 in an inland town in New Yorl
| Gba ha6 q little OrOnartxr Of bay- w