The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-03-01
TERRIBLY DECIDED.

"Oh para, you alS too ausulu'
And pretty Grace Ashleigh laughs her
pleasantest laugh. "The idea of loving
two men at once, and not knowing which
to choose Idon't believe you at all "
"Believe or not, Grace, just as you
please" is the soft, serious voiced an
swer.,
Those wonderful, deep, hazel eyes OF
Sara Prescott's turn all their subdued
richness of color toward her friend
whilst she speaks, and every feature OF
her beautiful oval face wears an impress
of earnest meaning.
cit is true, Grace" she whispers;
"true. true, true! There are Moments
when I feel confident that Ralph Curtis,
with his dark, Southern looking beauty,
and his impuisive, reckless ways, is by
far dearer to me. But visit from
blonde haired, blue eyed Walter Crosbie
changes everything. / am Just tossed
about in spirit from one to the other.
Each seems to touch, with me, a separate
chord of congeniality. I don't know how
it will end. Here they have both been
lingering along at the hotel, Grace, pay
ing me daily visits since the first Of
July"
"Perhaps," suggests Grace, after a
little silence, while they walked along
through the twilit paths of the great
lawn which compasses the luxurious
summer house where Sara Prescott lives
perhaps you will end by hating
them both, Sara %
81 cannot tell. And yet that seems
impossible"
Every well," answered Grace; 81
must ask you to have my carriage order
ed round now, Sara, Notwithstanding
that should like to remain and help to
counsel you in your troubles; but please
,semember that I have seven miles to
drive, and that mamma makes a perfect
Rachel of herself if I stay out after
dark"
So Grace presently takes her depar-
ture, and Sara is left to hold converse
with her own thoughts, while she begins
a second, and this time wholly solitary,
stroll among the stately shrubberied
lawns.
Very gloomy and miserable those
thoughts are. She recalls, with sense
of shrinking fear, how intense passion
for her has recently grown to possess
both Ralph Curtis and Walter Crosbie-
how each has become almost aggressive,
of late, in his fierce request for some
final answer to his eager hopes, and
how the more that either pleads the
more absolute and complete has been
her indecision, her doubt, her per-
plexity.
No, she cannot make up her mind.
Allow that she is mentally monstrosi-
ty of womanhood; allow that nobody
has ever been precisely in her unsettled
condition; the fact exists, all the same,
that she loves two men at once, and has
no power to choose between them.
Suppose they should have some
deadly quarrel on her account. Nothing
is more possible. They have grown to
hate each other; of that fact Sara feels
quite sure. They are living at the same
hotel, and are constantly thrown togeth-
er. Sara shudders now when she
remembers what evidence she has had OF
how fierce nature each possesses. On,
why cannot she be like other women
Why must she suffer so keenly from
what seems nothing but her own gross
stupidity and silly irresolution. Just al
this stage of Sara's thoughts, the sound
of footstep directly behind her meets
the young girls ear. She turns, AMI II
the vague dark sees Walter Crosbie'
tall, commanding figure, and fair, Saxon
face. He begins speaking with hrusque
suddenness "Sara-Miss Prescott
have come to bid You goodbye .
She clasps both hands together in ar
abrupt burst Of surprise.
"You cannot possibly mean it ?"
CT do. / am tired of being playei
fast and loose with, from day to day."
"You are not going," she answers
calmly, after little silence, and willis
they were walking on. 81 know by you,
tone and your manner that it is only ;
rusc. You are not going until l giv'
You fual answer"
And for Gods sake" Walter burst
forth, "whenis that final answer coming
There are times, Sara Prescott, when
feel like believing that no more heart
less coquette than yourself ever dre1
breath, and that you. care no more fo
me than you care for Ralph Curtis"
"Pardon me. l think that hear
nv name mentioned"
No other than Ralph Curtis himsel
- >oI,a Iboco uor1g