The Morning herald., 1878-04-06
nTbe Hour Before Dawn"

IL their perfectlon-days "neh 'no P"i0s
oo, air seemed Ike all elixir of life and
.ntb-when there was the first suggestion
~ ,he exauisitely sad days of the dying
INNER time in the hazy, red gold atmos-
rhere that hung silently over the hill-tops'
and brooded like some palpable blessing
over low-land and lawn. 'a .a.
blanche Carroll sat on the low door
step Of the farmhouse that had been her
home that summer, looking out through
no twilight with wistful eyes that were
h1us as Heavens dome. Thinking-always
t,;okipp, it seemed to her, since those
o,ber days, not yet a year gone by, when,
instead Of being, what she was now, Mrs.
Iomberton's half assistant in the duties
| ~ tbe fanily-half sister, daughter, friend
uhateyer one choose to call the intimate
.oation that existed between them-when,
;nstesd of this, she had been belle and
beiress whose sway was undisputed, whose
r.iou had been as magnifcently triumph
ont as its sudden ending had been pitifully
sharp and bitter. .
She had never, in all her eighteen years
Ofeay joyous life, known what it meant
TO Lave wish ungratifed-a want, how
ever imaginary, unfulflled. r ...
There had never been any lack of
ready money; there had been horses, and
carriages, and servants at the girls signal,
and trps to the Continent whenever the
fancy seized her.
Then had come the terrible financial
earthquake, and a week after, Blanche
Carroll had learned from the lips of her
distracted father that everything must go,
even to 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 possible days,
some one had come to her, and added the
very blackness of darkness to her woe by
telling her of how Mr.. Carroll was found
dead in his Office chair - apoplexy or
paralysis which, was not yet decided.
Blanche almost collapsed under that second
blow. Never having remembered her mother,
she had loved her father with double inten-
sity, And when he was dead and buried,
the world yawned before her, with no pro-
tnoting 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's defec-
ton 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 without. ,. g.. .,
But Elmer Westcourt? He had been
oil that was most noble, most perfect,
grandest 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 appro-
baton, and his peculiarly masterful way
had taught the girl for the first time
in her life how sweet it was to be gov
erned. ... u, 49,. ...
There had never been an engagement
Letween them, and yet Blanche had been
go positively suro 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 cas-
ties of their future together, and had been
only waiting lis pleasure to speak, when
Lei LTOuDle came tO uer.
And with all other summer friends, he,
too, had left her, without word, without
sign, to think what she chose, to suffer
Or not, as the case might be. Then, in her
distress, her sorely- wounded pride, her deso-
lation of soul, Blanche had rushed away from
London-away up among the cool, green hills
Of Cumberland. where she was not mls'
taken in supposing she had one friend left
Mrs. Pemberton, who, although per-
sonally str anger to her, Blanche knew
had been dear, warm friend in glrlhooa
days of her dead mother. ...
And SO it came to pass that Blanche Car
roll made her home in the tenant farm
house, where, with light, womanly duties