The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-07-23

lOus relief Marion, looked up, met the
gaze, fervent as if it were living glance
of soft gray sanity eyes looking out from
her dead mothers pictured face; and
straightway, as if by message direct
from heaven, all the generous sweetness
of her nature sprang to healthy action
once more.
She stood for a moment with her hands
pressed to her side, thinking-arrangin
her plan of action. She heard her
brothers voice and footsteps below as he
passed through the hall; and she heard
anOther-a voice the sweetest and dear
est in all the world to her-a voice that
had whispered tender lOve-wOrds in her
ear, but one TO which she must, now,
never listen again. Oh, no o!-never,
never again, now. But oh, the pity of
| it!
She fell on her knees before the table
and, drawing vase of freshly gathered
heliotropes to her, she pressed her lips to
the quivering buds and blossoms with
a passionate burst of tears. 1T is my
renunciationW she sobbed. "Thus /
take farewell of you, my love! oh, my
love! When we part with the dead we
bestow on them our last tears for you.
They are sacred as the tears we give the
dead"
She snatched up the vase and hurrying
across the hall entered her sisters room.
Maude was sitting by the table, her face
bowed in her hands, her rippled hair out
spread on her shoulders-her whole atti-
tude that ofutter detection. She started
up angrily as Marion came in.
Not dressed yet" said Marion with
| IL tats Of sfxy md hVr
as if fearing that at the last moment her
courage might fail her. "And see" /
have brought you these flowers. They
will show more beautifully in your dark
braids than in my faded curls."
But Maude turned away disdainfully.
"Do you think care for those paltry
things? she asked. "Why do you
bring them to me now? Since you have
taken his love from me take all the rest.
But do not insult me with your PITY
will not bear it. And she stamped her
foot impatiently.
"I did not know----I did not think"
began Marion confusedly; but Maude
turned on her with lightning eyes of
disdain.
"Don't add falsehood to your treach-
ery," she cried passionately. "You
know--you remember--oh, you must re-
member that summer at the Marshes,
when he was always with me. You were
ill then, and day after day we skinned
along the grassy river banks to bring you
flowers; we searched the salt meadows
and the hills for game to tempt your sick
palate not day passed but he and /
were together; not night came but that
/ crept to your side and, with my arm
about your neck, whispered the story of
our love-"
She stopped and drew her breath softly,
the sweet red blood drifted to her cheeks;
her eyes grew dreamy; and rippled
strands of tawny hair seemed to twine
and curl about her forehead as if the last
touch of her lovers hand were felt again
in the fragrant masses.
After that----after that she went
on, "when you were well once more,
you took him from me! You did You
used every vile; you made him yours,
and there was nothing for me to do but
stand by and see love drifting. And IL
hate you! Ihate youp'
"Hushw interrupted Marion, bending
over her. "These are hard words; but
you can forgive me now, since l from this
moment renounce all claim upon him.
You can forgive me all the readier," she
went on with pale lips, since l too suf-
fer, for too love him love him with a
truer love than yours perhaps, for can
give him up to you, whom, you say, he
loved first. Take the flowers, dear, and
with him take back all his love! 1t is
yours now, and hope you will be happy
once more"
She kissed the small, dark, clouded
face which was kept so persistent
ly turned away from her, and then hur-
ried out.
Long afterwards the parlors were all
ablaze with light when she went down.
Twice had messenger knocked at her
door, and still she fingered: She could
not bear to go. Why could they not
leave her to herself? The best part of
her life---love---was gone from her, and
there was nothing to fill his place. Over
and over she had asked herself, with
kind of scorn, if, because she had loved
once unhappily, her years must all be
bankrupt. And she was forced to confess
that it was so. She had squandered reck-
lcssly, and the waste was final.
The brilliant light beat heavily on her
aching eyes as she entered the parlor.
Captain Richard--happy Captain Rich
ard, of the gay and daring soldiery in
those halcyon days before the war--was
in the window with his pet Maude beside
him. He came forward and gave her
brothers kiss of greeting.
"You've kept us waiting long
time," he said, gayly, "but the result
iustifies the labor expended if you've
been all this while at your toilet. Here's
Crevisson, like an eagel with clipt wings,
after you. Maude and I have had our
hands full keeping him quiet
Marion felt as if all the blood in her
body were beating at her heart, as she
turned and met the gaze. of the dark,
handsome eyes whose light had transfigur-
ed her life. Maude, poor little passion
ate, jealous heart, watching them closely,
noting Marion's changing color, and Gre
VISIONS look Of anxious inquiry, crushed
her slender hands against her breast in
fierce spasm of hatred for them, for her
self, and for all the world.
How that dreadful time spent at the
dinner-table passed she could not tell |;
but she sat by her brothers side and re-
sponded to his careless jests, and drank
the wine poured like moulten rubies into
her glass mechanically, as one does things
in dream but it seemed to her that
words might have been created and de-
stroyed again while they sat there, the
hours dragged so.
Yet when she rose she left the room
with careless, dancing steps, and a smile
thrown backward over her shoulders in
answer to Captain Richards gay badin-
age. The night had changed, as these
cbangeable April nights are apt to do,
and she flung the parlor window open,
letting the wind and the rain blow in,
with grateful sense Of relief, upon her
burning cheeks.
eff I might only fling myself down
and sob my life and my sorrow out to-
gether at his feet" she thought, then
perhaps he might pity me, remember