The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-05-19

gether and put it into his hands.
'' 1t must not be- said she, as he sor.
rowfully departed.
Thou art fool, child % said Toma
so Cecchi, when Lionel was out of hear
ing. "These English know not what tc
do with their gold, and we should have
been all the better for it,"
Slowly plodded the large gray oxer
over the plains of the Campagna lazily
sauntered the drivers at their side. Here
and there one heard the sounds of merri
ment; there again were silent toilers
here. worn-Out laborers who had crept
into the shade and fallen asleep, and
above stretched the blue heavens, still
and cloudless, over the gray and purple
sweeps of far-of landscape, with here
and there patch OF sun-gilt water.
All this Lionel saw, for he had OBJ
tanned a lodging in one OF the large stone
farm houses, since money will obtain any
thing; and the fair, delicate-looking,
generous Englishman was popular among
the poor Italian peasants.
Teresa knew that he was there, but she
avoided him; and he, seeing this, only
watched her from a distance, and gave
no token that she was more to him than
any other labOrer on the vast plains. He
had seen Tomaso and his wife before he
had followed to the Campagna, anu they
were amply provided for during their
daughters absence.
Lionel Merton had fallen in love, and
he sat down and took the matter into
deliberate consideration. His first thought
TnrnGo IN h.l
the wife of any man, was his second why
not of himself? was the third; and that
she should be if possible, was the fourth.
Yet how to, proceed was the difficulty :;
he felt, with all the keen sensitiveness of
an Englishman to absurd situations, that
he was somewhat absurdly placed at the
present moment; for Teresa, calmly pur-
suing her work, gave him no opportunity
of addressing her without bringing the
eyes of the multitude. upon himself and
the handsome maiden.
Teresa was the one to break the 81
lence. She feared the pestilential breath
that comes with the chill blasts and
heavy dews after the burning heat of the
day might take effect on Lionel Merton.
She noted lassitud9 and feverishness,
which he imputed to his state of mind,
and suddenly she appeared before him.
"Signore, you must fee from hence
or you will die !"
And you will have killed me, Teresa. J"
"No; it is the poisonous mists of the
Campagna."
"What brought me hither to breathe
it?" asked Lionel abruptly.
The signore forgets that 1 begged
him not to think of so rash scheme" !"
replied Teresa, evading the question.
" For me who am accustomed to the
changes it is safe; but for the signore it
is death, and he must CO."
Whither?"
"Back to Frascati, if he so wills it, or
better, perhaps, away from Italy"
az can not live away fre1b Italy; it is
my life, my hope; and here / can study
art and make myself heme. Here /
can be happy, and yet you send me
away"
Il have told the signore that am
not fitted for his wife. Besides my duty
is to my parents; l must tend them until
they die"
Yet you leave them now!"
Only for their benefit"
1T would benefit them more if you
were my wife"
But Teresa shook her head mOurnful-
ly. "Non possible" she said, dccid
"Yet you love me, Teresa ,"
y es," said she with emotion but
l must do my duty. have made vow
not to marry so long as my parents live"
1t is foolish vow," said Liorel.
cit is nevertheless vOw," she re-
piled firmly. "SignOre, you must go.
Addio, addio :"
But as she spoke a sudden shivering
seized her-the fever that she had
dreaded for Lionel had fallen upon her.
self.
Teresa had but. few friends among the
labOrers in the Campagna; but one
woman, whom Lionel recognized as be
longing to Frascati, was willing enough
to undertake the Office of nurse in con-
sideration of the lavish payment for it,
and to accompany her home when she
was out of danger.
Then Lionel turned his steps north
ward, seeking no interview, for he knew
that Teresa was firm in her resolution,
and that it would be an insult to her
piety and her sense of filial duty to at
tempt to shake it. So he hastened away,
hoping by constant change and excite
ment to drive her image from his heart
He passed the frontiers, and then the
cold north winds began to blow, and he
cound not face them, and Lionel Merton
learned that his only hope of life was in
deed in Italy. 1t seemed almost as
though fate was bidding him return,
and so he Passively resigned himself, and
retracted by slow stages the way to
Frascati, delaying as he drew nearer and
nearer to it, and yet with every inten-
tion of seeing Teresa once.
He took up his residence at the inn
again, but saw nothing of Teresa neither
did he hear of her until, upon making
inquiries from the innkeeper, he found
that Immediately upon her return from
the Campagna her parents had been
taken i'll and were now in the last stages
of disease, and that they were poorer
than ever But Lionel shrank from in
truding, although he and the old Cecchi
had been very friendly.
Still Teresa had a consciousness of his
in the constant supplies of all
needed for the sufferers at the hands of
the innkeeper, and she did not refuse
them, for she was almost worn out with
her vigil anu perhaps IegdTueu Iilo uh-
assistance as an answer to her
and therefore not to be flung
aside.
And then came the end. The Death
Angle closed the old mans eyes, and the
mourner carried him to his grave-sOOn
to be followed by the wife who had jour
neyed with him through the world. And
then Teresa was left ali orphan, alone IN
the world. And then Lionel Merton
once more said:
Teresa, you love me o.
And Teresa replied, as she had done
before, eyes" But this time she adj
ded: "The VOW that parted us is ac-
and | am no longer forbid
den to be your wife. Jean BPncRur, an
CasseIps Faraily Magazine.
Tho WooIfh of tho HaudidafPS