Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-08-12
A MOONLIGHT WRECK.

BY HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.
BRIGHTLY the hillside gardens bloomed
about the old house in brilliant slopes of
yerbena, great myrtle plats and geranium
beds, and the running fire of the sea- let
bean; while the breath of heliotrOpe and
honeysuckle and passionate red roses hung
like an atmosphere above them and drew
the birds and bees down to revel in their
richness.
But Of ali the bright, gay things that
grew in the gardens there nothing was
rarer than Pauline. Not so much because
of any special beauty as of the sweetness
and freshness and innocence of her youth.
It would have charmed and revived a
weary heart to see how life and the great
world stretched out before this happy girls
Imagination like pageant; how there was
no trouble but looked to her eyes small
enough for her hand to grasp and set
aside, SO full she was of daring and en-
deavor and sparkling strength. Yet she
had hardly any experience beyond the
quiet one of the town, the fshing-people,
and her gardens-her gardens in which
she fairly lived, borrowing a certain staid
sobriety of the stock gillyfowers and holly
hooks there, that, if they did not preside
over these paths since her earliest days,
yet looked ancient enough to have done
50. And, if she were not precisely beauti-
full, yet the damask roses that she tended
were no more perfumed velvet than that
of her cheek, where two dimples nestled
and the viOlets, whose parental blossoms
had given her gOodmorrow on the first
day she had drawn breath, were no blue1
than her eyes.
Yet experience was coming to Pauline
and it began on the day when she found
she had lover-the day when Dunstan's
great dark eyes bent and looked into heI
own with new meaning-and, in answer
to that daring, sudden kiss of his, q
strange, wild thrill leaped to her lips and
taught her, through her quick, glad tears
that she loved as she was loved
What year of bliss it was! 1t seemed
to Pauline as though she had not been
alive before, or else had been a mere chrys
aid, asleep and waiting for the change
Now that change had come; and it was on
wings that she floated with Dunstan from
season TO season of that perfect year. And
sends upon our lot decreed that Pauline
should no longer be exempt
A dark day it was for the girl, bright
though the sun shone, when Dunstar
started in the Sea Eagle on his Chiliar
voyage. The firm, long engaged in South
American trade, needed him there But
to tell the truth, he had been 10th, until
forced, to 90 and leave Pauline with he1
Cousin Gilbert lowering round her, as he
phrased it; though it required powerful
imagination to picture a great fellow, six
feet high, just graduated specifically from
college, intrinsically from boat-racing, in
the act of lowering. Dunstan, however
had some reason on his side For Gilbert
her mothers ward, coming home on his
long vacation, had surrendered. without
discretion, to the charm of Pauline. and
noble soul though he was forgot for time
that Dunstan, her plighted lover, lived.
The day he was to sail, having wrought
himself into a frenzy OF forebOding in thu
wakeful night, Dunstan demanded tina
Pauline should not speak with her Cousin
Gilbert in his absence. Of course she re
piled that it was impossible, dwelling TO
gether, to maintain such a course. Thel
he demanded that she should not speal
alone with him And, Indignant, with tn
swift anger of youth, at the suspicion Q
her faith and truth that the demand in
piled, Pauline resisted it again. He waite
moment and then impetuously insiste
that she should marry him before he sailed
though he had to leave her behind; ant
shocked with the sudden idea, and wit
her indignation still uppermost, she a
sharply refused that claim also. He gaze
at her for long moment. then steppe
toward her and took her in his arms