The Russellville Democrat., 1880-12-23
RUssEILyIILE POPE COUNTY ARKANSAS THURsDAY DEcEBE
presently that was the one theme of con

presently that was the one theme of con- l yersation.
 It did not need much urging to cause
 exploring parties to range up and down
 the shore; and as djS; flot s.,s.ssss ;, straw l for what any one saiti, did not hesitate to urge. But by nightfall they had all l returned, unsuccessful, and the rain was still flashing the panes, the wind howling
 round the house, while the roaring and l pounding of the surf made it impossible 1 to hear any other sound f one put e;3e's l head outside the door. And the storm and darkness did not diminish the anxi- l ely about Mir. Raymonde, when those who knew the region stated that there was no shelter on all the shore, except it l should be some casual gunner's tent, and as for that, no tent could have resisted | the gale, and the danger was in the
 marshes, into which he might have wan dered i'll the sudden shutting down of night and mist, without light of any kind to guide him, and where he might perish with exposure.
 Marion had sat calmly at the window of the drawing room, with her silk knit | ting, ever since she came in, for we none of us kept our rooms; once she played a part of sonata when some one asked 1 for it, and once she took up book and 1 turned it's pages slowly--not too slowly. | By-and-by she laid the book down and sat there, motionless as a statue, till the
 dark fell
 What gloomy nightlp sighed Char
 lotte. "It will certainly do no harm if
 we go into the great hall and amuse our- selves
 And have drift wood fire therel'
 cried Marion. < monstrous one"
 "A drift wood firels echoed I, for knew where the sun-soakcd timbers of the old wreck had been slowed away, and diyined instantly what the light of
 the great uncurtaiDed hall windows
 might be to any lost wanderer. When we returned from the tea table, where Mir. Trquhart, the last arrival was testing with Marion quite as if nothing was the
 matter, although I fancied that repeated
 motion of her hand across her face was to brush away some trouble, but could not tell If 1t were anything but fancy, knowing she well deserved to feel the trouble of memories never to be brushed
 awav--when we returned. say. fire was cracking and rolling up the big chimney place, and transfguring every thing in the room with its rosy illnmina- tion. Marion sat down in one corner by the heap of old wood, tossing every little while, with her white hands and ieweled fingers, another splinter on the blaze. Young Maybank sat on 2 hassock at her feet, Arthur Santley leaned over the back of her chair and kept up the testing with Urquhart, since the latter would have it, in the pauses of the rather dull game
 that went on, all in way that allowed Marion to be silent. She sat erect and
 strangely still, like one listening for life or death, her only motion being now and then to bend and throw on billet that sent 2 shower of sparks up the chimney,
 and then 8 great wallowing flame, sap
 phire changing to an emerald glory, or
 burning away in ruby rad glow of
 strontium, according to the salts of the
 sea with which the wood chanced to be
 saturated. .The splendid colors seemed
 to roll through the windows wide and
 high, and lay great beams of beauty on
 the storm, and we imagined the flames to
 be the risen spirit of the old shipwreck,
 and as we clustered about the hearth we
 fell to telling stories of the dangers of the seas till we could talk Of Huthing else.
 It had come to be past midnight, but no-
 body thought of sleep; and while they talked l sat conjuring darker fancies vet: and l wondered, as l remembered his melancholy, if there was any possibility of Raymonde's haping sought his own destruction. And glancing over at Ma
 rion l felt assured that she, too, had no other thought She stopped mechanical ly, for she was not gazing at the fire. but at the windows, and threw another piece on the biazp, and ssntiey stopped too and heaped an armful there erhe last of the rudder post said he. It was bad guide once. But such are the me- tempsychoses of nature, let. us hope that It has now become beacon starr As the fragments caught the flame and kin. dlnd t atresh tha great chimney place seemed to burst into a gigantic blossom OF as If a holocaust of rainhows took flight up and into outer darkness, and We all exclaimed at the wonder of it-all but Marion; and as turned to bid her look l saw her face white even in all that immense ruddy gtow and glare, white and fixed in < tnnor, while her lips seemed vainly striving to move. And then, in a moment, restraint, doubt, de- epalt, horfoE had given place to a wild joy, and she had sprung to her feet with cry, scattering us to right and left, was thioNiiS up tht WililbW tlIlQ ICttlllN Tn a gust that swept the hall, was stepping to d,ag ,n af,vn 1, something that had just fallen against the sash.
 It was Raymonde, who, wandering all night and day in the marsh, had found his bearings at last only when reason was almost fled, and tha darkness and fog Mere faintly penetrated by the blaze of the drift wood fire. As he slowly opened his great gaunt eyes she was kneeling on the floor, her arms about him, his head on her breast, her lips warming his frozen lips to life, while Santley and the rest, in their huyay for brandy and hot blankets, forgot even to be amazed,
 q had better die now" he whispered, with the smile glorifying his sons.
 "Oh, no, no, nop she cried, regardless who heard "Oh, we have just begun to live" And l can see Mrs. Mercer's speeches. horror and petriiaction al this moment,