The Newtown bee., 1879-02-18

not fattering to MT. Richard Clifford's appetite you would have thought they were providing for an q Eating Tom, or some other gastronomic celebrity; chick ems and ducks, ham, every imaginable vegetable, six different desserts enough for three or four of the largest-sized giants.
 But it continued to cloud mp. Poor Miss Dinah peeped out and upward every five minutes; but the weather was horeless-at half-past one the sky was dark, with faint flashing and rumbling in the distance; and he was expected at two.
 As the minutes went by the thunder grew louder and nearer and the light ming fercer, and after awhile down splashed the big, round drops which al ways precede summer storm.
 At five minutes of two Miss Dinah stood on the balcony looking down the road. The rain was terrific; the fash ing and roaring overhead, as she re- marked to old Teresa, busy within giv- ing the last touches to the table, sbe- yond anything in her experience"
 "Ain't you afraid, miss, to stand there ?"
 "Nonsense. I must see him as he gets out of the carriage. Have an um- brella ready"
 In her excitement I doubt if she thought of the uproar about her. Sud denly she cried, with her hand to her heart, and her face pale as death:
 'tHere he comes r
 It was quite true. The buggy was rattling up the avenue; but nothing could be seen of its occupants on account of the apron which had been stretched from top to dashboard. The horse was dripping.
 And now it wheeled and drew up at the door. Poor Miss Dinah stood with white, trembling thirty long years her love, her darling-so long lost-now to see him again
 don't know how it happened; but at that instant there was flash from the sky, followed instantly by dreadful peal, and every living thing was for a few seconds shaken and stunned.
 When Teresa came to herself she glanced out, terribly bewildered, and saw her mistress lying on the porch. She ran out, with dreadful cry of " God ha' mercy r. and lifted the pros- trate woman.
 An old gentleman had by that time got out of the carriage and was ascend ing the steps.
 Is she injured ?" he asked, stopping to take her pulse.
 Poor Miss Dinah heard his voice-in thirty years she had forgotten many things, but not that-and the sound re- vived her even from the coma in which the thunderbolt had cast her.
 Richard" she murmured, with a pale smile.
 They made her sit mp, Teresa propping her back with her own stout knee. "Are you hurt, Dinah ?" asked Rich ard Clifford. She moved her head with strange helplessness, striving for something, they could not tell what. Then she said:
 [" I can't see-I am blind. I shall never see you again, Richard. The lightning has done 1t ;" and from those sightless eyes came two or three great | tears that rolled down on his hand and hers, locked together in greeting, after so long.
 | They took her in, and gave her some stimulants, and very soon she was quite herself, in all things but one but that was never to be any more-never. He remained but the great dinner went begging. A doctor came and cx- amined-ss No use- sight quite gone smitten and effaced by that fiery shaft. 2 Poor Miss Dinah cried. Her VOW. Was it a iudgmenta
 | Richard Clifford fingered there many weeks, and she became more resigned. One day they went quietly to the village church and were married. "I am so changed, Richard" l "Not to me" he said. l But there was disenchantment fol him, although he thus denied it, which the poor thing never knew. Perhaps that was some compensation for hel great loss. To her mind Richard Cliff. ford was not as to others-gray headed, wrinkled and bowed but the proud and I splendid lover of her youth-the bril- liant apparition she had looked on fol the last, last time thirty long years before.