Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1875-04-08

has thrown its rider should say
leastwise, the saddles empty
She rose up, white as death, and
came and looked, and saw the horse
snorting and stamping out there. Then
she rushed for the bell all her weak,
ness gone in a moment, gaveit one
fearful peal, and was out before I
could stop her-out in the drive, fly
ing down it wildly, with the wind in
her satin drapery and gray hair.
/ started after her, waiting for moth
ing. My heart was in my throat. AS
gained the high road I saw her be-
fore me-a black shadow whirling
away into the night. called, but she
needed me no more than the wind
Down the hill I ran in her footsteps,
and along little intervale, and up an
other hill, where there was an old sand
pit, with bit of treacherous ledge
overhanging it. I saw her 60 up to
this and stop on its verge, and look
over, and then throw up her arms,
with frightful scream, toward heav-
en-. And then up the ascent I, too,
tore, and stopped, too, and peered
down the sandy, sliding abyss, side by
side with that proud woman who had
driven her son but few hours before,
with curses, from her doors, and with
her saw him lying down there far be-
low us, in heavy, bloody heap, stiff
and dead
'Ihe brute must have SHE'D sudden
ly when he cameto the pitt one ofthe
men servants said. Master Felix was
always Ea' careless rider. He had a
way of dropping his rein when he was
thinking, and letting the horse take
his own course
They carried him back to Penhal-
low, and his mother followed him,
neither weeping nor wailing, but call
ing him by every tender name she had
used in his babyhood, and wiped the
Hblood-stains from his face with her
own gray hair. They had, just laid him
down in the great hall, when there
came footstep in the walk without,
and white figure, with flying hair,
darted in through the open door, and.
ran up to the dead man and his moth
er. 1t was Molly.
And you killed him p she screamed,
pointing. to my mistress, who writhed
and shuddered, and flung out her
hands before her face. You cursed
him, and you killed him! He could
not bear your anger; he was on his
way this night to beg your forgive
ness. His heart was tenderer, by far,
than yours. And now look at him =
YnI7 hnEa6 T
want. Do you like death better? Is
the grave fairer wife for him than I
You have murdered him. It is all
your work ?
And she went on raving like this,
with such look and such gestures as
l never saw before, and my mistress
stood like a stone, and answered not
word to her, till none of us could
bear it longer, and we carried her by
main force away.
After his burial, PenhalloW was
closed to everybody for many long
day. Only I and two or three of the
old servants remained, and with US
the mistress lived on, shut up from all
the world, aged, and broken hearted
and humbled to the dust. Molly had
gone back to her own people, but one
day Mrs. Penhallow came to me,lo ok
ing very strange.
'Venner,' she cried, Il have heard
great newsP
Indeed, ma'am,' said L
That girl-Felix's wife, has child,
a son, Venner, and 1 never knew it
until to-day!' She trembIed and shook
and her face was quite white and her
hands worked oddly, and she bade me
get on my bonnet and shawl at once,
and make ready to go with her; and
that night she brought home Felix's
widow and her child.
So Molly walks the old rooms to-
day, bearing herself like any lady born
and bred, and she has been wise in
her way, land acquired, with uncommon
quickness, the airs and graces of her
station. And her boy is heir here. and
the idol of the mistress, and a fine,
bold, handsome fellow he is-a true
PenhalloW. AS watch him, some.
times. it seems to me that God has for
given my mistress the curse she once
asked Him to register, and restored
the son again to the mother, SO like
this Felix is, in his rich nut brown
beauty, to that other Felix who hung
about the same knee twenty wears
ago.