Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1874-08-20
the valentine, SO sure, she thought to

straight and fast toward the house, and
the blood flew to her cheeks and her
hearts beat fast; but it was not the post
man only neighbor, with -blanched
face and frightened eyes, that told bad
news before his lips uttered it.
She went out to meet him, and they
stood looking a moment. Over the
hills little crowd was coming slowly
something in its midst.
'Don't be too frightened Mrs.
Romer," gasped the man at last. It
may not be as they think. The horse
SHE'D, just before the post office, and
the doctor was thrown. He hasn't
come too yet. Oh, no, no!"-for she
had thrown herself on her knees, and
cried out that he was dead; mot dead
not dead yet, Mrs. Romer."
But the wretched woman knew that
death was very near, and the food OF
agony that swept across her heart told
her that she had not ceased to love her
quiet husband. q
| They brought him in-and from that
moment, for long days and nights, she
kept watch beside his bed, thinking OF
no other thing on earth. praying only
that he might be spared to her. She
suffered agonles Ct remorse. Every
false thought pursued her with re-
vengeful stab.
The gray overcoat hanging on the
wall, which she had thought old
manish and like him, as he rode away,
seemed to :aunt her with the thought
tthat it would never be worn again.
She could not bear the sight of it
longer; and so one day she took it softly
in her hand to hang in certain closet
AS she lifted it, something fell from
one of the pockets "a letter or paper.
She stopped to recover it, and saw a
fancitul envelope. with bright seal
and her name upon it. Such were the
valentines that came to her. This was
surely enc of them. What did 1t
mean? Had her husband discovered
the writer? Had there been some
cause for the accident, of which she
knew nothing? She looked at the
valentine again. 1t had never been
posted.
Ethel began to tremble violently
from head to foot. She sank down
upon her knees, clasping the valentine
between both palms, and held it thus a
while. Could it be?-could it be?-oh,
could it be? She opened it. The same
glowing verse, but sadder and more
hopeless, telling of love unreturned.
The same measure in the same ieigned
hand, yet not all unknown. Had she
never before seen that little flourish,
that peculiar formation of a letter?
"Oh, heaven! make me sure!" sobbed
she, and found her way somehow to
her husbands desk, and opened it.
Within lay envelopes like those up
on the valentine, little tox of such
gay seals, and fragments of verse-the
proofs that the writer of these passion
ate poems of those wild prctestations
love-was no other than Ralph Romer
She crept back to his bedside, and
kissed his face and his unconscious eye
She prayed to be forgiven, with a sense
Of remorse and shame such as she
might have felt had she been muc!
more wicked and heaven listened to her
The crises passed in safety, ant
Ralph Romers eyes opened on a face
palsied with grief and worn will
Watching, but beautiful with her low
ana constancy. When, one day he
head upon his bosom, she told him all
he also had his tale to tell.
. Il am old and gray, you see," ant
such love seems: only to belong t.
youth. I could not speak it, but l fel
it, and put my thoughts into verse
and | sent them to you, my darling
J with the hope, that you would know
whence they came some time, though
. hardly with hope that you could Civ.
me more than child's respect an,
duty"
But she had given him more-sh
had given him all woman might, ant
this told him.
They are together still, and I thin
they have forgotten one is young an
the other old, in the immortal youth o
both their hearts After that one Ion,
talk, they said little more; but thei
love was an assured thing. He tell
her, as of yore, all his scholars dreams
, and talks of the stars and the hower
J rather than of themselves. But Ethe
is content She has but to remembe
those treasured valentines which ar
bound together with blue ribbon in he
most sacred hiding place, to feel assure
of her happiness. There is no empt,
nook in her warm heart, and the angel
, of love and duty clasp hands besid
their hearthstone.
seThere. John. that's twice Won