The Newtown bee., 1877-11-08

answered mechanically the truth, think ing, knowing nothing os what thai truth might say to others. All Was to her a dull enigma, until out of the throng there dropped upou her soul, like balm a look It's sorrow was an awful revela- ton to Agatha, but its human sympathy touched her to tears--thOt bitterest need that human heart can know.
 No priS0n-bars closed upon this wo man in her youth She went free, for nothing could be proven against her but she knew that others saw upon her forehead the brand of Cain, and whis- perCd together that she had lost the price of her guilt, for Priscilla Peyton's will was nowhere to be found The law stepped in and did its emotionless duty. The old mansion and grounds aal all that had belonged to the dead woman fell into the hands of one man--a man not connected by ties of blood with Agatha's family but one look .al estab. lished kinship between him aEd the sus- pected girl.
 Once settled in his lonely home, the new heir found for Agatha tGe employ ment she had sought elsewhere in vain employment that left her in isolation, re- quiring no human being to reprcss a shudder of repnlsion at her approach, to offer reluctant hand To her lodging room came piles of paper to be covered by a facile pen--easy work and well paid. There were occasional meetings between the employer and the employed, and there grew up between them a sub tie friend ship, none the less feryent, perhaps, that the man was ny many years the elder They found that their thoughts flowed together in very pc culiar unison; but those was always one subject which was forbidden ground, and sometimes when their companion ship seemed gaining a new tenderness, q sudden chill anI gloom woRld come be- tween them, and then for days each avoided the other resoiQte'y.
 l. happened that at this epoch. Aga tha met her first lover. Alone md Geso- late divided by d mysterious cloud from a friend who might else have been all the world to her, she could not but feel grateful for d love forced ant thrust up- on her. and yet she dj0 nOL anl could not return that love.
 Beside Priscilla Peyron's grave. in the first days of calamity, shc met the stran- ger who consistently sought her ac- quaintance,
 He fulfilled 10 the utmost girls TO- mantle dreams young and handsome, brilliant and unknown, ready, if she might believe him, to do or dare any thing for her sake By his persistence he won.
 Paul Raynor, the heir of the Peyton estate, looked on and said no word, while slowly and by imprrc"ptible de- grecs the glow of their friendship waned When they met he was kind and formal, and Agatha wopt foc the } loss of her friend as she would not have wept for her lovers death
 The time of Agatha'e wedding ap- proacbed. She Was tn be married in that southern lAnd far away from home and kinlred In her white dress she stood before the long mirror i'll the lndg- ing house parlor, teclgd as for hef bri- ,lal day. aH& thinking her own secret thought. SD inenty that sine had forgot fen why she had come to look into the miyror--so iuteutly thqt she Gid not hear the door behind Der open The man who was to be her bridegroom came softly in. smiling. At her left side Ii" stood and bowel his heal lis seoi! blue eyes twinkled.
 "How do you like me?' he said, be tween his closed teeth.
 Without turning, Agatha looked , 1 From her face every vrstige nf clloi was gone. but not an eyeash stirred - only her eyes dilaied 1t might P have been love that swayed her soul, oI tear, or any other passion as well; nc looker-on could have told; but in thar moment there was given to her, as ha: beel given to other whmen--a reyeh s ton. Her hand graspei slender chair
 back until i, seemed that ths knuckle; S and sinews must burst through the skin; r but when she greeted her guest she wa herself again, and never before hal sht so responded to his woDing. Her love n heamed with delight and fattered vani,! h before the evening was over.
 k Agatha and her wedding-campanl g were gathered in a parlor of the "l, t Peyton mansion. The clergyman wal t ready, and Paul Raynor. with a grave n sweet smile upon his face, waited to giv
 the bride away. TEen Agatha stariet f forward. her dark eyes gieaaning, he
 face IS white ss the dress she wore ile - frame treinbled like al aspen leaf, bu r her voice was clear ard steady. e "There will be no wedding here se