The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-10-12
WHO WAS SHE?

Come, now, there may as well b. an end o
= fhlsg Every time meet your eyes SQUARED.
detect thequestlon just slipping out of them
If you had spoken u, Or even boldly looked it
Il you had shown In your motions the leas
eign OF o flssy or tldgety concern on my nc
count; Ii this was not the evening OF m,
u Birthday, and you the only friend who re
membered ID: IL confession were not good fol
= the soul. though harder than sin to some PEG
ple. Of whom am one--I should keep my
fxouble to myself.
The documents are all In this portfolio
1 under my elbow. had just read them again
Gompietely through, when you were an
uounoed. You may examine them as you like
afterwards for the present, fill your glass
take another Guiana and keep silent until my
-:ghastly tale has reached its most lamenta-
BILE conclusion.
The beginning OF 1t was at Wampsocket
Springs, three years ago last summer. /
f suppose most unmarried men who have
reached, or passed. the age of thirty--and I
was then thirty-three- experience q milder
return OF their adolescent warmth. a kind OF
iainter second spring, since the first has not
fulfilled it, promise. or course / wasn't
clearly conscious OF this at the time; who I'd ?
But had had my youthful passion and my
= tragic disappointment, as you know.
The fashionable hotel at the Springs holds
DO, and II was packed. / had meant to
lounge there for fortnight, and then finish
my holidays ut Long Branch but eighty, at
1east, out Of the hundred. were young and
moved lightly Ia muslin. With my years
and experience, / felt so safe, that to walk,
talk or dance with them became simply a
luxury, such as I had never--at least so
freely possessed before. Ny name and
\ standing, known to some families, were
1greeably exae gerated BY the others, and
an.oyed that supreme satisfaction which a
man always feels when he discovers, or i'm
u 1&ines, that ha IL popular In society.
#s You have never been ut Wampsocket? Well,
i Che hills sweep around crescent On the north
3 side. and four or live radiating glens, descend
Ing from them, unite just above the village.
The central one, leading TO a waterfall (cnlled
If Mine hehe' BY the irreverent young people
because there ID so little OF 10, Is the fashion
able drive and promenade; but the second
Eavine on the left, Steep crooked and cum
bered with powders which have tumbled
from somewhere and lodged In the most ex-
y fradlflonary groupings, became my favorite
walk OF morning. There was a footpath in
+. ll-trodden ut first, but gradually falling
out Us II became mere like ladder than a
path, and soon discovered that no other city
1eet than mine were likely to scale certain
rough slope which seemed the end Of ravine
With the aid OF the tough laurel stems 1
climbed to the top, passed through Ia cleft as
4 narrow aS doorway, and presently found
myself In little upper dell, as wild and sweet
i and strange as one Of the pictures that haunt
~ on the brink OF sleep.
There Yves pOnd-nO, rather q hoWl-of
water Ia the centre; hardly twenty yards
Z Aoross. yet the sky In II was 50 purple and far
down that the circle OF rocks and summer
foliage ine!oslng 1t seemed like little plane
fary ring, floating off alone through space /
cant explain the charm Of the spot, nor the
6elfishness which instantly suggested that I
should Keep the discovery to myself. Ten
years earlier should have looked around for
some fair spirit to be my minister" but
now
One forenoon--I think It was the third or
Fourth tlma had visited the place. was
startled to find the dint Of q heel In the earth,
during the night, and the earth was still
naOl6t and soft. It was the mark or a womarl's
boot, only to be distinguished from that OF ].
walking stick by its semi circular FORM A
Ne small as to awake an ecstacy, but with
suggestion OF lightness, elasticity and grace
am not sure whether wanted to find the
unknown Wearer OF the boot within my pre-
zee her while passing through the rocky Gre
vice, and yet was disappointed when / found
no one.
But On the Hat warm rocl, ovarh. no,n,, 80 |
farn my special throneYlav some wthasr nas
Wild ftnvvera and hnni 1o1lIrod %i ',
down rirht and left0there was M ~ III s au
est Sign Of another human life than nine
liataned. there was univ tha noise ~ hjr1i an ~
squirrel "a before Al iast tnnE M tba I'LL Iu
the hat breadth of which smr1astad nnIn
sketches. There were inda.d aosnas toiaro hi
ftt1ies az rocks and treaa IN The re-
few not very striking caricstnras p sgh;,,a
seemed TO have been commences az nortraita
but recalled no faces knew; then 4 numherr
III fragmentary notes. written IN nanni
found no name, from the first to Last. univ
under the sketches, q monogram SO oomnii.
Gated and laborious that the initials nonla
hardly be discovered unless one already Enaw
them. -"
The writing was woman's but II had sure-
~ taken Its character from certain features Of
her own; 1t was clear, firm, Individual. Ii
had nothing OF that air OF general debility
which usually "a arks the nIlscrint ~ vnnn2