The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1875-04-07

lldltereuy Il, KNOW uOG 3Wna6tU3 Buy
!, ttlt may be we'll SO, Sidney. So
you are Major Milton, and tho sup
Iposed husband Of Miss Dasewood r.
II There was q long pause, after
which she said /: 81 ask not the cause
Of your most cruel, desertion but
whence this name Of Milton r., 81 ;Ss::
"a property was left meand -.
but Of course, you have long SINCE
ceased to love me, Constanee?" 80
You actually dare to take an M.
braiding tone to me p she exclaimed; !;
.fher dark eyes flashing fire. Then
looking upward appealingly,S she
walled, "Oh, my Godl my Godisand
this is the man for whom, during
these bitter years, I have been eating
my own heartl" r. - 3 I,
"Pardon me, Constance; you may
now learn that there is no gauge
to measure the treasury Of which
the human heart in it's weakness is
capable. Yet there has been o worm
in mine that has never died."
She wrung her hands, and then
said something of her old softness of
manner: "You surely loved me once,
Sidney ?"
~ did," he drew nearer, but sho
recoiled from him.
"Then whence this cruel change ?"
"Does not some one write, we love,
and think we love truly, and yet find
another to whom one will cling as if
it required these two hearts to make
o perfect whole ?"
"Most aecursed sophistry But if
you have no pity, you have not fear?
II have great fear," said he in a
broken voice; "thus, Constance, by
the love you once bore me, I besoech
you to have pity, not on me, but on
my little boy, and his poor mother
preserve their happiness"
"And sacrifice my own ?" she said
in hollow voico.
"Spare, and not expose mc-my
commission-my position here'-
"Neither shall be lost through mo"
she replied, in q voice that grew more
and moro weak "but leave me
leave me-tho ar is suffocating-thc
light has left my eyes,"
Hc drew near to take her hand, but
she repulsed him with o wild gesture
of despair, and throwing up her
arms, fell back in her seat, with CUR
gle in her throat, her head on one
side and her jaws fallen"
"Hclp-helpl" cried he; but. no
help came, and he hurried away; the
sudden din of musket shots, Of shrieks
and yells, announced that tho great
revolt had begun at Meerut, and that
tho expected massacre of the Euro
peans had commenced. In that
butchery, those he loved most on
earth perished, and midnight saw
him, wifeless and childless, lurking in
misery and alone in mango tope on
the road to Kurnaul.
X
While listening to the narrative Of
my friend Sidney, whom l had al.
ways known as Warren, rather than
Milton, the clock on the mantel-piece
struck nine, and he said in broken
vlice:
at was at this very hour, twelve
months ago, that my Toy and his
mother were murdered by the Sd
Cavalry, at the moment that Con-
stance was dying"
AS he spake, a strange white light
suddenly filled one end of the smo-
king room, but amid it there came
gradually, but distinctly to view, two
figures, one was little boy with gol-
den hair, the other woman whose
left arm was around him-a beautiful
woman, with clearly-cut features,
masses of dark hair curling over low
broad forehead, lips full and hand
some, with q massive chin and classic
throat-tho woman Of the vciled pic.
ture, line for line, but to all appear
anco living and breathing, with al
beautiful smile in her eyes, and wear
ing, not the riding habit, but q tloat-
ing crape-like white garment, lmpos-
sible to describe. There was strange
weird brightness in her face-tho
transfgured brightness of great Joy
and greater love.
constance Constance and my
child !" cried Sidney, in voice that
rose to a shrek; and like n dissolv-
ing view, the light, and all we look.
ed on with eyes transfxed' faded
away!
I was aware of an excess Of scnsl-
tIveness, and that my heart was beat
ing with painful rapidity. did not
become insensiblc, but sometime
elapsed before 1 became aware that
lights werc in the room, and that
several servants, whom my friends
cry had summoned in haste and alarm
wero cndcavoring to rouse him 10
consciousness from n fit that seized
him; but from that fit he never re-
covered. His heavy stentorious
breathing gradually grew less and
less, and ere doctor came, he was
dead.
His death sudden as hers on that
evcntful night, but q retrlbutivo one
was declared to be apoplexy; but
I knew otherwise. Since then,
though tho effect of tho grapc-shott
wound on my nervous system had
quito passed away, I feel myself com,
pelled to agrco with the hackneyed
remark of Hamlet, that "there are
moro things in heaven and earth than
arc drcamt of in our philosophy"
How does your brother get on Ill