Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-05-01
The Hour Before Dawn

The latest September days had come
in all their perfection-days when the
pure, cool air seemed like an elixir of
life and youth-when there xas the
first suggestion of the exquisitely sad
davs of the dying summer time in the
hazy, red gold atmosphere that hung
silently over the hill-tops, and brooded
like some palpable blessing over low
land and lawn.
Blanche Carroll sat on the low door
step of the farmhouse, that had been
her home that Summer, looking out
through the twilight with wistful eyes
that were blue as heavens dome.
Thinking-always thinking, it seemed
10 her. since those other days, not yet
wear gone BY, when, instead of being
what she was now, Mrs. Pemberton's
half assistant in the duties of the fam
ily-half sister, daughter, ,friend-what-
ever one chooses TO call the intimate re-
larion that existed between them
NUtll. lil>ltsiu VI lDiN- Nilt ONNh
belle and heiress, whose sway was un-
disputed, whose reign had been as mag
nificently triumphant as its sudden
ending had been pitifully sharp and
bitter.
She had never, in all her eighteen
wears of gay, joyous life, known what
it meant to have a wish ungratified-a
want, however imaginary, unfulfilled.
There had never been any lack of
ready money: there had been horses,
and carriages, and servants atthe girls
signal, and trips to the Continent when
ever the fancy seized her.
Then had come the terrible financial
earthquake, and a week after, Blanche
Carol had learned from the lips Of her
distracted father, that everything must
90, even 10 her jewels and laces, and
costly little elegancies, so that his name
would not be dishonored for the first
time in his life
\ week after that day, which had
seemed the most dreadful of all posi-
BILE days. some one had come to her and
added the very blackness of darkness
TO her woe by telling her how Mr..
Carroll was found dead in his office
chair-apoplexy or paralysis-which
was not yet decided. Blanche almost
collapsed under the second blow.
Never having remembered her mother,
she had loved her father with double
intensity. And when he was dead and
buried, the world yawned before her,
with no protecting arm between her
and it-when there did not remain
hundred pounds in all the wide world
she could call her own.
Poor Blanche,
And yet it was not the very worst.
The worst of all was Elmer Westcourt' 5
detection. with scores of those whom
she had implicitly believed were best,
truest, dearest-others whose detection
hurt her for the time, but whom she
learned she could readily exist with
out.
But Elmer Westcourt. He had been
all that was most noble, most perfect,
gIandest in masculine human nature.
TO him she had looked with almost the
reverence of devotee to her patron
saint.
His physical beauty had commanded
her passionate admiration, his qualities
of mind had called out all her keenest
appreciation, and his peculiarly master
full way had taught the girl for the first
time in her life, how sweet it was TO be
governed.
There had never been an engage
ment between them, and yet Blanche
had been so positively sure he loved
her.
She had seen it in his eyes, time and
again. She had more than once listened
to sweet, suggestive words he had
spoken. in his low, thrilling voice. She
had, with good reason, built the most
beautiful castles of their future to-
gether, and had been only waiting his
pleasure to speak, when her trouble
came to her
And. with all other summer friends,
he, too, had left her, without a word,
without q sign, to think what she
chose. to suffer or not, as the case might
be. Then, in her distress, her sorely-
wounded pride, her desolation of soul,
Blanche had rushed away from London
away up among the cool, green hills
Of Cumberland, where she was not mis-
taken in supposing she had one friend
left-Mrs. Pemberton, who, although
personally a stranger to her, Blanche
knew had been dear, warm friend, in
girlhood DAYS of her dead mother.
And so il came to pass that Blanche
Carroll made her home i'm the tenant
farmhouse, where, with light, ,womanly
duties, and pleasant responsibilities
she was bravelv striving to forget hel
bitter past, and the sound of Elmer
Westcourt's voice, and the look in hi
eyes.
She was thinking of all this as sht
sat in the twilight, that cool, breezy
September night, and into the beauti'