Litchfield enquirer., 1878-01-03
WHOLE NO,s 2692


 What could be more delightful 10 a l0wer's ears than such words? And yet, pleaean1 e they sounded to mine, the tone and manner in which they were uttered served but to incrense ! my old dislike of the speaker. s'r7naueiV l Bella returned immediately afterward. She | started, blushed, and cast quick, reprunchful ! glance upon her father as her eyes fell upon
 me, and asssOOn as.civility would permit ahs
 S; ToWardsunsss I % d hesishsh day al os ay y vIsiI. went down to the shores of the laie and stretched myself upon the green sward. I l knew she sometimes walked there of an even 1 ing, and l thought might thus procure what she always avoided, e tete-a-tete. The parting gleam of sunshine faded at last, and the gDld | en haze was absorbed in gray mist that dark ened the heath-clad hills almost to blackness the lake lay still and sonbre bsnsa1A the frown of the enciGcling precipices. How aw- | full it looked in its gulf prcfundlty! % treacherous, 30 menacing in its stillness-- la sleeping monster waiting for its prey. Al wes deathlike silence around; the very apirit of sol 1 ltude seemed lowering above me with out- stretched wings. 5.1 to11 a Dtspairing of meeting heFtha nlghi, and with my imagination deeply impressed by the weird gloom, l rose to my feet As did O, r | caught sight of 6 female figure advancing tO- ward me. It was she. She saw me, and in- mediately turned and hurried away. In two | minutes was beside her.
 Miss Clifford, one moment, Ipray, T cried. breathless with haste and agitation. | had caught her hand In mine; could feel it shake, and could see her face was more than There was huge fragment of stone at our feet, upon which seated myself, and drew her. little resistingIy, beside me her hand. perhaps unconsciously to herself, still clasped in mine. s i. --gfs, sass.sss -ss cannot remember the words in which my passionate, incoherept declaration was made, nor would they be worth repeating if did She listened with averted head and al a-tre1a- ble, and when the torrent of my speech was exhausted there was silence. s.a was upon my knees, imploring an answer. ventured to steal my arm around her waist, to draw her toward me, to clasp her in my arms, to kiss her sobbing lips. What need Of words now Her soul had answered In the ai- lent thrill of our meeting breaths.
 And you will be my wifeg" I murmured
 She started from my embrace ct that word as though it had recalled her to her recollec- ton.
 No, no, mo-" she cried, shivering: s1hat would be to bring shame and misery upon you ! love, for do love you, love you too much to sacrifice you to my own weakness"
 
 ly, ''so that possess you in your arms shame and misery have no terrors for me, for the boundary of my world will be therei The shame is not in you; you cannot look me in the face and tell me it is!'
 Shame is like a contagious disease-it is not content with one victim it does not only strike the wrong-doer, it affects all who sur round him." she answered.
 My conjectures were correct, then; there was something in the fathers life that had blighted hers.
 T guess your secret" cried, and stopped. silenced by the look of dismay that flashed up on her face.
 Impossible cannot: no one can have told yo,l!" she exclaimed.
 No one" answered.; ''but we sometimes instinctively divine"
 ''You could not divine that" she answered. shuddering.
 'sNor do I wishto," exclaimed ''To know that you yourself are pure and good is an wish to know. What is it to me that otheB have done evil of which you arc the suffering victim? 1 have no tiesto bind me to England. The world is wide; we can make our home thousanfls of miles away, and cast of the past and it's associations as completely as though h had never been."
 l could feel her soften beneath these words as though they pictured new idea to her mind. and for the first time she turned her white fearful face toward me. clasped it between my hands, and covered 1t with kisses. until it dropped down upon my breast.
 1 knew that had conquered
 Darkness was creeping on apace but the mist had dissolved, and the grim fantastic out lines of the mountains stood clear and stark against the purple sky, out of the calm pro- found of which glittered here and there a star, silver spangles upon the robe of Night. All beneath was shadowy gloom, breeding over the Stygian blackness of the sleeping lake.
 And SO we sat motionless in the dim gray light, alone with Nature, portion of herself, like some love story of primeval time carved in stone, upon which the grim mountains had drowned and the stars looked pityingly through countless ages.
 I avoided meeting Mir Clifford that night. I could not endure that he should read my hap piness and offer his vulgar congratulations. that would have cast me from my cloddland into the very mire of earth. 1 was almost de- Iirious with the preternatural exaltation of my soul my pulses thrObbed at fever pace; could neither sleep nor rest. The next morn ing l was out upon the mountains, where I wandered the whole day, waiting impatieutly for the fall of the twilight, when we were to meet again upon the margin of the mere. h came at last, calm and serene as that of yester- day, and with it hours of never-to-be-forgOtten estasy For us there was no past no future only the all-absorbing present
 And 30 passed a week of Summer twilghtR, and the day of our marrage was fixed, and had undergone the ordeal of the fathers con- gratulations. All our plans were arranged se- cretly betweenIourselves We had told Mir. Clifford that we should spend our honeymoon at a southern watering-place; for we found him watchful and suspicious, and feared. .h we talked of quitting the country, he might placp some espionage upon us; but, nevertheless. such was our intention-to quit it forever. and leave no trace behind.
 One night, as we sat upon our old seat ai the lake-side-it was two days previous tO that fixed for our marriage-she told me all It was quite different from anything had im- agined, and gave me great shock. She had been unusually silent and thoughtful, and I had been urging her to tell me the cause.
 Do oou think it is justifiable to break aB oath imposed upon you against your con- science ?" she asked-''an oath which makeA your whole life lie, deceit:'
 would not venture an opinion upon 30 del icate point but 1 answered.: f. If it has aught to do with me, let it remain unbroken. Remember the beautiful words of Vivien's song:
 Tn love. if love be love, if love be ours,
 Faith and unfath ne'er be equal powers;
 Unfaith in aught is want ef faith in all.
 No, trust,
 'not at all, or all in an.'"
 She put her arms round my neck, and laid her face against mine looking up at me with grateful fearful eyes
 . ''It is this very trust, she answered. ''that urges me to tell you all, that makes me feel s' base Surely God cannot be sngry with me for casting away deceit: 7"
 ''Let the past be as though it had never been," said hastily; for her words filled me with dread; l feared to learn their meaning.
 "You say so now" she urged; 'slmt a time will come when this secret will raise a dark cloud between ms. Bettereventhat we should part now, though that would be worse than death to me, than that eoldness should come between us in the future"
 felt that her words were wise, though 1 still continued irresolutely to oppose her wish; and So she had her way. But when it was 50 decided she paused, as if to gather strength for that which was tn come and could feel