Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-07-02
CHAPTER XVII.

over Holingwood House. The front windows
were all closed in, and the servants moved
noiselessly about, as if afraid to disturb the
unwonted hush that prevailed. All felt the
influence of the thrilling and mysterious oc-
currences which had so suddenly broken upon
the monotony of their lives; and their natural
love of excitement, and Auency of speech,
we're quieted and subdued by the conscious
ness of the awful presence of Death-Death
in one of its most heart-rending FORMS
The body of Mrs. Norton, or rather of Eliz-
abeth Sydney-poor little ill-fated Elsie =
was laid on couch in one of the darkened
rooms, in readiness for the burial. Those who
had been accustomed to see her III the plain
sad garb she had worn, with the look of fixed
sorrow and gravity upon her face, which had
rarely departed from it, or been lightened by
a smile, could scarcely realize the identity Of
the fair and youthful countenance to which
death had restored almost its full measure of
past beauty and grace. The fresh blood and
coloring it had worn in early years had indeed
faded forever but every trace of pain, OF
premature age, was swept away; the small,
delcately cut features had regained their
child.like softness of outline; a slight smile
rested on the curved lips, and look of per-
feet serenity and peace lay like a moonlight
glow upon the lovely face No chiselled mar
BILE could have been fairer, in its purity and
repose.
Ellinor's own hands had smoothed the rich
brown hair that clustered about the tranquil
brow, and placed snowy flowers on her breast
and about her pillow, while she listened, with
compassionate tears, to the mournful story of
her life. She was grateful to DR.. Norwood
for the theory he unhesitatingly advanced,
that the mind of the unfortunate girl, turning
increasingly upon the subject of her wrongs,
had become completely unhinged, until at
last she was no longer accountable for her &C.
tions being, in regard to this subject, totally
and undoubtedly deraugcd. Evenin the COM
mon events of her life, Ellinor recalled many
little instances of sngularity which had i'm
pressed her at the time; though she had little
suspected her to be the victim of so fearful
and terrible monomania as she really was.
Sydney had expressed so earnest desire to
look upon her face once more, and seemed so
distressed and excited by the doctors refusal,
that the latter finally changed his mind,
thinking the consequences of a denial Of his
wish more likely to prove injurious, even
than its qualification. Accordingly, the in
valid was placed in large chair, and rolled
into the room where lay the whte-robed form
of her around whom his tender, but too tickle
affection had once so closely twined.
All that past love, all the buried memories
he had stifed so long, rushed over him in an
overwhelming food, as he gazed upon her.
Memories of winning glances and gentle tones,
of clinging, child-like caresses, of innumer-
able evidences of pure, unquestioning affec-
ton, and docile and ready obedience to his
slightest wish; of the days in which she had
been his petted plaything, happy in his ap-
proval, grieved by the last shadow of his re-
proach yielding herself in her humility and
self-distrust solely to his guidance, ready to
follow him to the worlds end so long as he
loved and cherised her in his heart. And
how had her confidence been repaid? How
had he rewarded the sacrifice she had made
for his sake? How had he repaid her for leav-
ing her mother, her home, and breaking every
tie of her innocent, happy girlhood, to cast
herself upon his care? BY wilful, cruel deser'
ton blighting the tenderness she freely Law
ished upon him, breaking the heart that had
laid itself at his careless feet. Could he
plead in extenuation that the step was not a
voluntary one-that he had been urged to it
by the evil counsel of his insidious, false
friend, to whose pernicious advice and wicked
invention he had lent only too credulous an
ear? Could he excuse himself for abandon
ing the helpless being whom, by the most
solemn obligations, he was bound to protect
and cherish, by saying that for his own selfish
ends his tempter had coined the tale of false
marriage, the truth of which he did not even
pause to investigate? MOTOR all this he
felt that there was no excuse.
He was crushed and overborne by these
thoughts, and by the weight of retrbution
which had fallen upon him and looking upon
the dead girl as she lay in her tranquil beauty
before him, he envied her the fate which had
removed her from the troubled scenes Of life