The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1878-10-22
DECEPTION,
llCoRcluded.,

3iConoluded. ASA as5E
"Iloyed her so much" breaks forth Angus
In passionate tones; would that she had
only loved me as well. If I could have
married her and been with her always until
the end came. But there is q great gulf
between us; she never loved me, Rachel, OF
she could not have sent me the message she
did through you. And yet, Rachel" he
continues with q sad smile, 81 think it was
thoughtful in her; she did not wish to pain
me by refusal
at was Just like herself" SAYS Rachel,
with a cold glitter in her blue eyes a she
was always very thoughtful"
Then they relapse into silence. They are
both pondering On poor Caroline, who is
lying asleep in her room with the mountain
breezcs flaming her cheek md dreaming of
the golden floors and jeweled gates Of
heaven. ~,
The summer deepens to autumn. Caro-.
ines pilgrimage is nearly done, and the
ieweled gates Of her dream are opening to
receive her. She is too feeble to be re-
moved to her city home, so she stays to
breathe out her last sigh and to die amid
the shadows of the mountains. Rachel de-
votes herself to her sick friend with touch
ing affection, while Angus runs up to the
city and returns again speedily; he cannot
stay away from the dying woman-the
only woman he has ever loved or ever can
love. 'e4qT 80
The lovely October has come and scatter-
ed its rainbow colored leaves over the
ground. Wrapped in q shawl, Caroline sits
out in the sun on the piazza. She is alone.
Rachel is riding with one of her admirers.
Caroline sees, almost without emotion,
Angus coming up to the house. She is SO
near the confines of eternity hat the things
of this world affect her but little. Her
pale cheek grows no paler MS she places her
Thin hand IN that Of Angus, and quietly
welcomes him. So shocked is he by the
Change which a few days has made in her
appearance that he covers his face with his
hands, n cries out:
%, Caroline, this should not be; why
iere we ever parted ?"
She takes his hands down and gazes into
mis- eyes, not angrily, but forgivingly. as
ane should look whose feet are nearing the
sapphire courts above, and she says:
Il accepted your d~ecision-all that n
woman can do"
Not mine, not mine" he says, eagerly.
:" accepted your decision, not submissive
iy, but u~nwiliingly.y The message you sent
me by Rachel"
She seizes his hand, and says slowly;
The message l sent you by Rachel 2"
1.-The message you sent me by Rachel,n
he repeats. THAT message which told me
that you did not intend to marry, for your
heart was in the grave with the only man
you had ever loved, I thanked you, Caro-
line, for your kind intentions-the wish to
spare me the modification of q direct re-
fusal-butI never ceased to love you"
Caroline looks at him with divine love in
her eyes, and gasps out
God pity us; 1 never sent you such a
message"
And you did love me ?" he says eagerly.
Then, and now, and forever she says,
as she sinks back exhausted in her chair,
while Angus takes her thin fingers within
his hand and kisses them reyerently-rev-
erently as he would kiss the hand Of an an
gel, for is she not almost that already
Rachel's blooming face blanches when, as
standing beside Caroline's lifeless form the
next day, Angus accuses her of killing the
friend of her youth:
"Falsest of the false" he says with
scorn, ''you came and put a great gulf be-
tween us but it was removed, and even
with the pallor Of death on her lips she de-.
MED your cruel story ~