Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-05-25
IN A STOR M .
A Love Story, by Harriet Prescott
SpOfOrd.
From Harper's for June. ]

From Harper's for June.1
The rain was drilling out of damp heaven
as III cloud were driving toward us an
breaking over us; the wind which had risen ar
dwight, was swelling with every Succee ling
blast: and the river was rolling in white caps.
S,ll. theI e was no question of LAYING The boat
by when our party IRON the hills came down
and went aboard with much ado and merry
making.
connection at DeSbarS, the little port on the
bay at tie rivers mouth with sea Jat tn 1t
would takes US by farther voyage to our
Journey 5 end. Indeed. the HuntTeSS was not
much If an affair anyway, and the accummO-
dajiOnS We're such that We all preferred to re-
main above, even in the rain, being we'll pro
te Ted in gOSSamer rubber, high boots, and
lme modern improvements. We were gay
party who had been amusing ourselves, as traV
e1ng companions do, with reading and fancy
Work. Irritation and scandal. Among others,
We numbered Mrs. HOwiSOn, the dOyenne of
the party, who gave it eminent respectability
Kept everybody up in his pedigree. and did the
diamonds, as Belle Evans Cameron. her chape-
ron. and the mother of Lucia and John: Miss
Marvin, an heireSS struggling with idiOcy
whose money was possibly the lOadStOne of one
or two youths who hung upon our verge as
Belle said. not of Us, Yet not against us OF the
girls, Miss Evans was, perhaps, the most beau
tIful. yet Miss Murray, with her clear, dark,
culOTle>S face, and the great gray eyes fault
less features and dark hair, and with her man
ner OF proud reserve, stimulated curiosity and
interest considerably more. Tall, and per-
hapS too stately, with her silence and her
naughty ways, she impressed you as one with
81 history: yet when / had been with her one
day more than usual, Mrs. HOwiSOn begged to
assure me thai people often lost caste by assO-
Grating with the commonplace, and that Miss
Murray was only Mrs. Cameron companion,
engaged to relieve Lucia from the trouble of
reading and playing TO her mother. Not one
OF us a all my dear. but a few steps above The
servants. said the good Dame HOwiSOn. She
l. an excellent person in her place, but Mrs
Cameron herself knows next To nothing about
her, although she has employed her for nearly
SIX years; so you see, my dear, said the dOy-
tnne. And her authority perhaps added a
sting to the general behavior of the IN lids and
matrOnS In this regard.
Yet Belle Evans was also not without inter
est TO the impaI tial view, the more as she car
rled on love AFFAIR and Irritation at the same
time, her engagement with John Cameron
having lately been broken, and her heart with
it. II was understood which fragmen;a ry Con-
ditiOn OF her system she was supposed to be
Conceallng by the disguise of pleasure in Col.
Bate>S society, Col. Bates being the next
friend of john Cameron himself. AS for Lucia
Miss Mar in and the rest doubtless some pOr-
tiOn of the world would have missed them had
they suddenly dropped out of it. Such as we
were, We had passed some pleasant days to-
gether. for even although Belle, every day
more di>tracting, drove Cameron to the begin
uing of despair b. her behavior with Col
BateS-whO was blindly convinced that he ONLY
did his friend good service in keeping her
from worse miSchief-and Cameron reduced
Belle To the same pass by the exaSperating in
difference with which he viewed her confuct
yet such sweet sorrow seemed better to them
D
JOY, and they did their best to prOlOng and ac
centuate it. at is better than a novel: it is as
good as a play said once to Miss Murray,
for, in spite of Dame HowiSOn, we had SOM
how taken TO each other, for here are the ac-
tors living and real before YOU" and remem-
brr catching her eye again when she smiled
despite h rSelf, at these side sc, mes, although
somewhat too indignant concerning the
shrubs and bios rs with which young
Black was loading her then to smile at all.
You look like Birnam Wood" Belle had
cried.
And feel as if Dunslnane were at the ends
OF the EARTH she hal answered.
And Sally Marvin, then looking Miss Muir
ray over from head to foot, talked afterwards
IL Lucia, as she always did on such Opportu-
nifty, with an odd sort of InsOlent laughter be
tween the SylIables. The color cams TO Miss
Murray's face but she never noticed anything
of the kind, not even thanking Belle by
glance when the latter resented her affrOnts.
Ii was not frequently indeed, that she was
positively atfrOnled. but commonly that she
was completely Ignored. 1t seemed to make
small odds TO her. She reminded you of some
one who, being in life, must get through il, but
loo ked for no pleasure in it, ScOrning the dis
dain OF women, and indifferent to The admira
tiOn of men.
Not so Belle. Pleasure and she were not
SePaTable terms. The little creature was like
some fly sporting in the sun; but let the beam
fade, and she would fall. 1t did not seem
however, as if Cameron were absolutely neceS-
sary to the composition of that Sunbeam. the
distinction between the girls could hardly have
been pointed better than il was by an advent
one of our mountain rambleS, in answer 10
Bellies agOnlZed and repeated ShrIekS, cling
ing together on a scrap OF ledge at the foot of
a slippery steep, and holding to life by a branch
that alone saved them from falling into the
dreadful depth of the cha>m below, while from
a Granny of the ledge a snake lifted its head,
looking them full in The face. Trembling and
crying and all unstrnng, Belle was helped out
of danger in the midst of her Shritks, but
Margaret fingered, as Col Bates and young
Black grasped her wrist from above, TO have
one look down the dark abyss. And although
Belle was treated as a compound of heroine
and martyr, crying and shivering and laugh
ing by turns as she was the rest OF the day and
declaring that she thought the face Of that
snake was the face OF the Great Enemy him
SELF yet the other went about her duties quiet
~ and unnOtlced as before, IL being somehow
recognized by tacit consent that, no matter
how the affair had ended, it would have made
small difference to Miss Murray.
Col Bates now folded her wraps more CLOSELY
about Belle under the awning of the little
steamers deck, and sat beside her, while Cam
erOn stalked up and down, with his hat
slauched round his ears, and his cigar smoke
surrounding him in cloud, and Miss Murray
leaned over the stern, safe and dry, in her
water proof garments. mOOdily watching thu
dark and churning water through viii h the
HuntreSS had labOred, or the steep shores tn II,
III sunshine clothed them in beauty, foul weata
er made only frOwning and fOrbidding.
We had expected to reach DeSbarS by noon,
but owing TO the increasing storm, il was long
passed noon when, the way widening into The
bay, the town appeared; darker spot on the
dark horizon, which, after balancing of pro
and cons, il was judged unsafe Tor the lit e
steamer to approach, and the Huntress came
to anchor out in the bay, shut in by world
OF mist and rain. pitching up and down, with
her head 10 the gale, there to remain till the
tide turned there being a difference of more
than p feet in the turning OF the tide in that
bay.
OF course it was not long before the distress
oil The party, between hunger and seaSickneSS
and horror OF the night in that II tie cabin,
caused other plans to be considered: and pr S
entity IL was announced that those who woul
were 10 De taken ashore in boats. where
dwelling could receive them till cOnyeyanCes
TO town were found. To be sure, neither Miss
Marvin nor Lucia could think OF such thing
as being slung over the rail into the boats that
care sliding down the side of a billOw, and
they screamed, and shut their ewes. and were
sung over as for Belle, she was so seasick she
did not care what became of her and never
knew whether Col. Bates or John Cameron
held her; two OF the dowagers made the plunge
gi'h the e9uipOise due their weight. Miss
Murray and Slid to Gus seats, helped only nv