The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1879-06-07
CHOICE FICTION.
AFLOAT AND ASHORE.

Nobody was in the habit of calling Emil y
Travers a beauty, and few ever gave her &;
second glance i'll passing: yet When yol
happened to linger at the gate for any rea
son, and saw her standing there On TN
grass plot feeding her doves, you would n
once declare that Il prettier sight than tina
You never saw in your life. \ tall, 1.-the
shapcly figure, Il face full of sparkle an,
color, fair hair blowing on the wind gar
ments flutterilg, lips chirruping, and hand,
tossing, while all about, flashing and turr
bling, and whirling and wheeling, flocket
and fell cloud of white doves. maxim.
lightniug> with their wings, and filling tn,
air with whirs and COOS and cricS-it Was {;
charming picture: and having once seer
this pretty sight, something Of its beauty
always seemed to hang about Emily after
ward: if she wis not the rose herself, shi
had lived with the rose. But it was moi
Emily who ever gave such Il subject sec.
ond thought; busy, bright, and happy a>
she was, the whole world seemed beautiful
and that was quite enough for her, without
stopping to consider whether or not she was
Il part of that world. Nor did Norman
Macpherson ever stop 10 think on the sub,
iect; Emily had been Il part OF his world
ever since he had had any, and W hat the
world would be to him without her was
something that never entered his head. He
remembered the day when, Il little chubby
urchin three years old, he had been taken
to, In l,.,1,,
there, and had asked to see her wings: ne
remembered when lie dragged her up and
down the garden paths i'll his cart, and spill
ed her out, and she refused to scream: h;
remembered when he WAS fight Ing with
Saunders, and getting wcrSted, how she az
rived upon the scene with stone between
her two arms that would have been Saul-
der's death if it had happened to hit him
in fact, he remembered no time when she
was not Il part OF himself, when he had not
sat with his arm about her waist, when he
had not kissed her ut meeting and parting,
when he had not left every other girl for
her, and would have been amazed if she
had not welcomed him as Il matter of course.
-hitSl I' Ntiit away " tiIt -NttN
Einily's letters We're something that he
looked forward to twice Il week as unflil-
ingly Us TO Wednesdays and Saturdays
themselves; and when he made his flying
visit home. it was to Emily that he went
with the recital of all his hopes and angers
and joys. Emily" he said once, in a
startled way, 81 believe l say my prayers
to you.
Being in this state of mind about sweet
Emily TraverS, You can imagine his wrath
full CONSERVATION, when, on returning home
from his first cruise, having been for some
time without letters, and coming in by the
long window instead of the door, he saw Il
fellow leaning over her chair-a tall, dark,
across his misunderstanding over her chair
and holding her hand, while her backward
and upward gaze WAS as brightly fond as
his manner was devoted. For Il moment
Norman stood spell-bound, and as he stood,
he heard Emily saying:
ooh, how can you ask me, Howard dear?
You know we never, never can I've parted
To think was something to which Norman
Macpherson never condeSccndcd. He rather
excelled in feeling. And just now he felt
rs if the only thing in the world to do was
to knock this varlet down: accordingly he
took one step and did it. And then, Seizing
E,nily's hand himself only to throw it from
him with a wild and angry cutlery at her
,,ar+il,- h,, ,;,l,-
knew again where he was, or what had
happened, till he found himself on blue
wafer for Il three years cruise, with plenty
of time to eat his heart out, and profoundly
convinced that he was a victim of the
blacklist treaclIery, and that if Emily were
false, then all the world WAS false Six
months of that bitter diet, with the swift
mad scene before his eyes, changi ing only TO
show the man falling, Sophy running for
ward with Shrek, and Emily standing
frozen to stone as she had started from her
chair, and the open-hearted and gay youth
had become Il taciturn and gloomy man,
without :: word to spare, ready for any dam
gcrous service, and never half SO pleased us
and the thick darkness shut them in like
the curtain of death and judgment that
they We're just about to lift.
Yet when Il twelvemonth had passed, his
bitterness began to be something less in
degree: occasionally ray of sense would
break upon his gloom, and the thought
would come to him that, after all, he had
never once spoken of marriage to Emily
Travers in so many words: he had taken
every thing for granted he had left the
way open for any beggar that chose to come
along. Why, he asked, had he ever doubt
ed Emily: She loved him to-day like a
brother, as she had always done Loved
him like a brother. Not she, he would re-
ply TO himself, when he had frlled her
lover to the ground, and had flung her from
him like a snake. She had reason to hate
him. he said: of coarse she did hate him.
Life looked dark enough to Norman Mae
pherSon at that time, and you may be sure
he made no effort to set things right: but,
with the per>iStcncy of his Scottish race, he
fitted his back to bear the burden: and
when the three years cruise was over, he
made no visit to his home at all but got
another term of sea service, much to the
relief of some one else who wished to stay
ashore.
AS for Emily. she had not been sure that
she was not beside herself Talking to the
young naval officer who was going to marry
Sophy-a secret she had kept at Sophy's re-
quirement and concerning which she had
often drawn ON her fancy for Norman'S
pleasure and surprise when she should be
allowed to tell him-addreSSing him atftc
be her brother, and answering his threat of
taking Sophy away by begging him not to
part her from her sister, suddenly white
maniac with blazing eyes had appeared in
the window, IN uplifted arm had fallen, the
Shrieking Sophy had run to lift the head of
her senSeleSS lover, and Norman was gone
What it all meant she could not conjecture,
and she was too stunned to make the effort.
She Went about as if she We're Il moving
statue: everything seemed to 20 on Il long,
long way beyond her view: she was wait
ing for word that did not come: and when
day after day and week after week crcpt by,
and no explanation came from Norman,
and she knew nothing of his whereabouts,
except the official statement, she realized
that her world had collapsed like Il prickcd
bubble, and she collapsed with it.
When Emily came un from that sickness
it was like one EN- .rging from the DIX val
ley of the shadow of death, ard some of