The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-04-25

ed unwillinglv the little hill where they were
to part. and that when they at last reached it,
even the saving grace OF speech seemed to
have forsaken them.
For there they stood alone. There was no
sound nor motion in earth, or woods, or heav-
ell. There might have been the one man
and woman for whom this goodly earth that
lay at their feet, trimmed with the deepest
azure, was created. And seeing this they
turned toward each other with sudden in
stinct, and their hands met, and then their
lips, in one long kiss.
And then out of the mysterious distance
came the sound of voices and the sharp clat-
ter of hoofs and wheels, and Jenny slid away
"a white moonbeam-from the hill. For a
moment she glimmered through the trees, and
then, reached the house, passed her sleeping
father on the veranda, aud, darting into her
bedroom, locked the door, threw open the
window, and, falling on her knees beside it,
leaned her hot cheeks upon her hands and
listened. In a few moments she was reward-
ed by the sharp clatUer of hoofs on the stony
road, but it was only horseman, whose dark
inquire was swiftly lost in the shadows of the
lower road. At another time she might have
recognised the man, but her eyes and ears
| were now all intent on something else. IL
came presently with dancing light, must
| cal rattle Of harness, cadence OF hoofbeats,
| that set her heart to beating in unison, and
was gone. A sudden sense OflOnellneSS came
over her. and tears gathered in her sweet eyes.
She arose and looked around her. There
was the little bed, the dressing-table, the roses
that she had worn last night, still fresh and
blooming in the little vase. Everything was
there, but everything looked strange; the
roses should have been withered, for the party
seemed so long ago; she could hardly remem-
| Der when she had worn this dress that Law
| upon the chair. So she came back to the
window and sank down beside it, with her
cheek, a trife paler, leaning on her hand,
and her long braids reaching to the floor. The
stars paled slowly, like her cheek; yet with
eyes that saw not, she still looked down from
her window for the coming dawn.
1t came, with violet deepening into purple,
with purple flushing into rose, with rose
shining into silver and glowing into gold. The
struggling line of black picket-fence below,
that had faded away with the stars, came
back with the sun. What was that object
moving by the fence? Jenny raised her head
and looked Intently. 1t was a man endeavor-
ing to climb the picke!s, and falling back
ward with each attempt. Suddenly she start
ed to her feet, as if the rosy fushes of the
dawn had crimsoned her from forehead to
shoulders; then she stood, white as the wall,
with her hands casped upon her BOSOM
Then, with a single bound, she reached the
door, and with flying braids and auttering
skirt, sprang down the stars and out in the
garden walk. When within few feet of the
fence, she uttered cry the first she had
| given-the cry of mother over her stricken
babe, of tigress over her mangled cub, and
in another nome mt she had leaped the fence
and knelt beside Ridgeway, with his tainting
head upon her breast.
"My boy-my poor, poor boy! who has
Who, indeed? His clothes were covered
with dust, his waistcoat was torn open; and
his handkerchief. wet with blood it could not
staunch, fell from a cruel stab beneath his
shoulder.
"Ridgeway!;,,my poor boy-tell me what
has hadppened'
Rldgeway slowly opened his heavy blue
veined lids, and gazed upon her. Presently
CLEAN of mischief came into his dark eyes,
a smile stole over his lips as he whispered
slowly:
''It was-your kiss-dld it-Jenny,
dear! | had forgotten-how high priced
| the article was here. Never mind, Jenny!"
he feebly raised her hand to his white lips
lit was-worth it," and tainted away.
Jenny started to her feet and looked wildly
around her. Then, with sudden resolu-
ton, and, with one strong effort, lifted him
in her arms as if he had been child. When
her father, moment later rubbed his ewes
and awoke from his sleep upon the veranda,
it was to see goddess erect and triumphant,
striding towards the house, with the helpless
body OF man lying across that breast where
man had never lain before "a goddess at
whose imperious mandate he arose and
cast open the doors before her. And then
when she had laid her unconscious burden
on the sofa. the goddess fled, and woman,
helpless and trembling, stood before him.
A woman that cried out that she had ''killed
him"-that she was "wicked! wickedr' and
that, even saying so, staggered and fell beside
her late burden. And all Mr.. McClosky could
do was to feetly rub his beard, and say to
hirrself, vaguely and incoherently. that
Jimmy had fetched him.