Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-09-20

to the carpet and pick ny paper Press.
ing her hand quickly to her breast she
found Allan's note gone!
Sick with terror, she leaned against
the wall, and saw her father, slowly un-
folding the note, pass out one Of the long
windows of the supper-room upon the
piazza. Then she went, almost blindly,
to her own room.
As soon as the first shock of alarm was
over, Clarice hastily penned a note to
Allan forbidding him to come, and sent
it to him by one of the housc-servants.
"Get it to Mr.. Larrimer within half an
hour, James, and I will give you that for
your sweetheart" slipping q ruby ring
from her finger.
The mulatto showed his teeth and
slipped alertly away.
But Claricc's hands trembled 80 that
she could scarcely thread out the great
braids of her fairhair. She was glad her
maid had been pressed into other service,
that she might hide from the girl her
white face and shaking hands.
At last Lucille came hurrying in:
"The people are coming, Miss Cline,
and your father wants YOU"
Dropping on her knees, Lucille looped
up, with clasps Of dead gold, her mistress
misty skirt; and, catching up fan and
bouquet, Clarice fastened to take her
stand ut her fathers side, rs the first bevy
of laughing guests trooped up the broad
steps, under the moonlight, among the
flowers. Not once dared she look at him,
and he did not address her.
When tho last guest had arrived, he
covered his face with domino and Gu
tered tho crowd.
And Claricel She yet stood in the
great arched hall, under garlands Of
roses, faint with apprehension, and anxi.
ously watching for James return.
1t was eight o'clock. 1.-THE man should
miss seeing Allan, the latter was liable
to appear at any moment, and her sink
ing spirit told her that itwould be at the
risk Of his life.
Suddenly her lips broke apart, her eyes
dilated. In the very thickest Of the
throng, in the centre of the principal
apartment, stood figure in tronbadora
dress, pink ribbon on the sleeve. A
domino concealed the face, but the sunny
hair, waving under the plumed cap, was
Allan's very own.
Like one transfixed she stood. The
transparent nails of one small hand into
the soft palm, yet she seemed in some
horrible trance. She dared neither ad-
vance nor address Allan nor retreat from
view, yet she knew some instant measure
must be taken to prevent her father and
lover from coming into collision.
She looked down the rooms; the former
was not to be seen. But the next instant,
a door swinging wide, she beheld him at
Allan's side.
She turned, and would have fed in
very terror, but the sudden sound of her
fathers voice transfixed her. The terri
bic temper Of Hartley Cline was aroused,
and forgetting all else, he covered his
unwelcome guest with maledictions.
What taunt flew back she could not
guess, but a hercnlcan blow suddenly
felled the troubador to the ground.
A score of hands seized the mailman,
for he was little else, so terrible was the
supremacy of hispassion, and forced him
aside, while others tenderly raised the
PROSTATE man literally weltering in lis
blood. HIS head had struck the project
ing arm of a bronze statue as he went
down, frightfully gashing it.
Aphysician pressed through the crowd,
and his hand removed the domino. A
white boyish face was revealed, one that
had lately come far over the seas, to be
met cruelty indeed. No other than Leigh
Cline.
"Your sou, sir" said a voice, sternly,
in Hartley Cline's ear.
"My SOM"
He pushed them all aside, with a rude,
irresistible force, and bent low over the
senselcss face, like one growing blind.
Leigh, Leigh-my boy, Leigh!
thought-no matter what thought
God, he is dyingw
For trelnor shook the PROSTATE form;
then it lay very still.
They lifted the young man softly up,
and bore him to his chamber, the physi-
clan shaking his head as he followed.
The guests dispersed ; the crowd melt
cd away. Hartly Cline stood alone in
therebuking stiffness of the lovely rooms,
and lifting up his voice, wept.
What sob echoed his7 His daughter
fitted through the hall, speeding Oh
some Grand of tho physicians orders.
Then all was still, until the latter came
quietly down the stairs.
81 can do nothing moro, sir"
He, too, was gone.
Hartley Cline believed that his only
son lay dead in the chamber above.
That terrible night whitened his abun-
dant hair. All through its hours he
walked the floor. At length, in the still
dawn, Clarice, white as a spirit,
touched his arm.
Father, Leigh brcathes. We think he
is little better"
Hartley Cline sank into an armchair.
ooh, thank God thank GOdw he
cried