The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-12-20
Selett StuEg,
A CRACK IN THE WALL,

satisfactory piece Of work unless we take
down the whole mantlepieCe. You see
it has been loose for years, There is
wide crack at the back that must have
been there long time"
Herbert Payne looked ruefully at his
table of papers, his large book cases, his
pictures, busts, and art Objects that made
his handsome library the one room in the
large house that seemed truly like home
to him.
at will make dreadful mess, won't
it?" he inquired rather dolefully.
"Wel," the workman said, scratching
his head, "you can't help the dust, sir,
and the falling bricks and mortar but
we'll be aa careful as we can"
"And as quick ?"
"Yes, sir"
"Very well. Only be sure you put it
I'D this time so that there will be no fur
ther annoyance
Then Herbert Payne fled from the con-
fusion to come and took trip Of two
weeks,absolutely without end or aim, ex'
Cepting the escape from his disordered
library.
Mrs. Beach his housekeeper, took care
that none of his treasures were injured,
and when he returned there was no trace
of the invaders, save that the falling
mantlepiece was carefully and firmly re
set.
But upon his table lay sealed enye-
lope, yellow with age and directed in a
lady-like hand to "Mr. Herbert Payne,
II Montgomery street.
Every shade of color left the middle
aged bachelor as he saw this epistle. His
hand, stretched out to grasp it trembled
so violently that he drew 1t back. Mrs,
Beach was within call, and he controlled
his emotion to ask:
GLOW came this letter here2"
"The man found it behind the mantle
piece, sir. 1t must have slipped down
the big crack"
He shut the door and boted it, No
b careless curious eyes should watch him
while he read the letter, the letter that
must have been hidden thirteen years
behind the mantlepiece.
Before he touched it, he unlocked a
writing desk evidently seldom used, and
took from it miniature picture-a picture
of a lovely girl of eighteen or nineteen,
with large brown sand waving golden
hair A face full of sweetness looked out
from the cold ivory, and the eyes of the
strong man grew dim with tears as he
gazed upon it.
For he had loved her. Not with the
wild, unstable love of youth, but when he
was a man passed thirty, who had faced
trouble and temptation, and conquered
both.
He had met her first in the country,
where she was the comfort of an invalid
father, spending winter there, and he
had been won first to love her sweet pa
tience with the irritable old man, who
kept her constantly busy in his SER
vice.
Later, when they were friends, Herbert
learned that Mr.. Morrison, the tretful
sufferer, was a very wealthy man, and
that Leda was his only child. Being him
selfa man of large fortune Herbert Payne
needed but little that Leda was probably |
an heiress, but he found his whole heart
going out to her as they grew better
friends.
Accomplished, beautiful, and read, she
was as modest as a wood violet, yet not
shy, and graceful and sweet, and purely
womanly. Every day he loved her bet
ter, till he was assured of her love in re-
turn, when he sought her fathers consent
to his taking her to his heart and home,
his loved and honored wife.
And Mr.. Morrison's plea was this:
81 cannot spare her yet. When l tell
you her story you may not care to marry |
her but if you still love her, spare her
to me a few months longer. l may not,
cannot live over another spring, even in
this soft climate, but when l die Leda
will inherit all my fortune, though she is
not my child. told you she had his
tory.
"When my wife had been married but
two years, our first child was born and
died in an hour. Leda-my wife Leda,
was delirious, calling constantly for her
babe, and the doctor said it was life or
death with her to have child. So we
took the babe, who has grown to be the
comfort of my life, from a founding asy'
lum. l have no idea who is or what was
her parentage; but from the hour she lay
in my wife's arms, and the pressure of
her tiny fingers Gained the wild ex
element of her brain, she was to us our
child.
awe never we're blessed with one of
our own again, and all the love that was
in our hearts for children was lavished
upon Leda. She was ten years old when
her adopted mother died, but she knew
nothing then, and knows nothing now,
of the secret of her birth. Only two 9th.
er persons besides myself know of it, my
brother and my nephew, who will be my
heirs i'll leave no will. But promise
vou to make a will before die, and leave
Leda independent. You-you do not
look as if this story had shaken your
love-"
''Nor has it B.! Leda will ever be to me
the one woman Hove, and | care nothing
for her fortune, Rich or poor, she will
ever be the same to me-"
"But you will not urge her to leave me
yet-uot until spring? "Tis but few
months, but it is all life.
al win not ask her to leave you" Her
bert said, deeply moved by the pathos Of
those last words "but let me speak to
her, win her consent to be my wife If l
can and the right to return to her, to
comfort her, at the time you fear you
must leave her in sorrow and loneli-
ness. -
"Yes, yes but must you go"
81 must! l am here only on business,
and must return to my home at once.
But, if you wish it, will return in
March"
81 do wish it. / will give you our town
address, so that ifYou cannot remain here
YOU will find Leda in her own house in
London. shall will the house to her"
Little doubling his suceess-for while
Leda was never unmaidenly, she had
never quite concealed her shy, pure loye
L - l.. L.