Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-04-24

neck, clHSlug W Hill auu eiy'nS "P"
papa!' as she kissed him again and again
with almost hysterical delight.
"My darling and how do l find you :" he
asked as he returned her caresses.. Mamma
wrote you were not we'll are you better now r
ooh! !yes-I am pretty we'll. Have you
come to take me home, dear papa?"
eff you wish it, my dearest, certainly"
Fright off? Tomorrow, can we startS'
He assured her that they would leave as
soon as practicable. And then they went in
to find Mrs. Courtaine. All that evening
Daisy seemed brighter and better than usual.
Her fathers arrival had cheered her wonder
fully, and he, for his part, began to think ne
had been needlessly alarmed. But in the night,
after they were all in bed, the parents were
aroused by a faint, appealing cry from the
room where Daisy slept, and her father hur-
ried in to find her flushed and i'll, tossing and
moaning on her pillow.
She was so weak-so much weaker than
any one knew-that the excitement Of her ia
theirs arrival had proved too great for her.
She had high fever, which steadily increas'
ed for some hours, and by morning she was
delirious. Mr.. Courtaine and his wife were
terribly alarmed. A physician had been
summoned Immediately, and did not hesitate
to pronounce the case serious one. Many
anxious days followed-days Of terrible ago.
ny and suspense to the parents, who now real
lied fully for the first time, how entirely their
hearts were wrapped up in this one child. And
in those hours of feverish wandering, broken
words often escaped her, ofsigni6cant import,
revealing to the stricken listeners the exist
ence of feelings which she had all along so
carefully concealed-telling her love, her
grief for her destroyed hopes, in brief pathetic
sentences, which the very unconciousness OF
her selfbetrayal made doubly sad to hear.
And the two who had held her happiness in
their hands, and cast it away, meaning to act
rightly, and not guessing the evil they were
doing, looked at one another with eyes that
said, "We never dreamed of this" And long,
perhaps, before either spoke Of them, thoughts
were awakened in the mind of each of the
means by which the past might be atoned for
if only their darling's life were spared.
And it .uas spared. Slowly, very slowly,
after time, skill and careful nursing, under
Gods providence, prevailed, and she began to
come up, with feeble steps, from the Valley Of
the Shadow of Death. But she was terribly
shaken by her illness, and it would be many
weeks, perhaps months, before she could trav-
ell again; so that all idea Of returning home
before the Fall had to be given up.
Mr.. Courtaine had not failed to fulfill his
promise of writing to Wilfred, and from time
to time, had sent him brief tidings Of Daisy's
welfare. Sparing him, however, the extreme
apprehension which her condition had caused
in her attendants minds,
One evening the father and daughter were
alone Mrs. Courtaine, at Daisy request, hav'
ing gone out to refresh herself by short walk.
The invalid lay on couch, propped up by
large pillows, amid whose downy depths her
slight, attenuated form looked slighter, and
her pale face smaller and thinner than ever.
"Papa," she asked, after silence, during
which her gaze had been wandering wistfully
over the prospect visible from the open win,
dow, "will it be very, very long, before we can
start for home ?"
"You are very anxious to 60 home, Daisy,
dear. Are you not comfortable bere?"
"Oh ! yes, quite comfortable. But it seems
so very long since we have been away"
The father looked at her closely.
"Is there any one at home, whom you want
particularly to 81"
She turned her lovely eyes upon him.
Something in his expression made faint flush
rise to her face, and quickened the pulses Of
her heart
Tell me the truth, my own pet" said her
father, bending forward and encircling her
with his arm. "Have no reserve with me-
my only wish in life now is to see you happy
have made a mistake-l feel it now-and
will rectify it, God knows how gladly, if you
still would have it SC"
She looked at him still, wonderingly
doubtfully, the pale rose deepening on her
cheek, and visable tremor stirring the folds
of white drapery that lay on her bosom.
"Tell me what you mean" she half whis
pered, putting her frail little fingers into his
strong, warm hand.
He was afraid to agitate her by evading
her question. He yearned besides, to sci
her doubts at rest, and say the words that
should make her happy.
eff there is one nope which you have cher
ished in your heart, my preciohs-a hope
which you were forced, from certain opposing
causes, to abandon, some time ago-a hope
concerning yourself and another person who
used to be very dear to you-and if that
hope is ready to be renewed, anxious to be
ful6lled-it shall be granted now, at one
word, one sign from you. Do you under
stand me?"
She nodded slightly, and hid her face or
his breast.
as that other person spoke of dear to you
still ?"
To this there was no answer.
Because" he continued, II have good!rea
son to know that you have never lost youl
place in his regard. He cares for you
as much as ever-did you know that?"
Papa"
"Did you think he had forgotten you, lit
tie one? All no, he could not forget-he
could never forget but he is good and homo