The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-04-23

eyentless story of her own years; and
then the sweet bell notes were blown
from the distant town, telling the hour
of midnight
They were singing again now. Agatha
had forgotten about her trouble and APP
prehension. She no longer remembered
to care what her aunt would say, or to
dread Mrs. Julians' sneer ut Helen's
eyes; let her aunt turn her adrift, she
should. atany rate, have this night-tl is
unavoidable, this innocent, this happy
night! She listened to him with thrill
after thrill of pure Joy, and now she
joined him, and now she sang again, and
AZ she paused both her hands lay in one
of his; his arm was about her; his face
was close upon her own. sob, my
darling, my little darling!" he was say
! ing, and she was letting him say it.
odd you think that from the moment l
first heard that voice did not love the
! singer-did not mean to make her mine
if mortal power could do it? You have
been hard, hard, hard to win, but at last
/ have done it ?"
The moon was rising now-just slant
| ing her red horns over the dark tips of
the woods; the long level light stole
| slowly from reach to reach of the river,
from the shore of island to island; the
great dropping elms rose and fell like
weird fountains of shadow; the stars grew
pale. They sat bathed in the full luster
of the waning moon as she rode low and
filled the heavens with her strange glory,
"Well," cried u voice below them,
"as you couldn't return to me, have
come to YOU" And looking over the
side of the step rock they saw Roger in
his boat. You have no idea of the
effect of your appearance" he cried.
Memnon was nothing to it. Throned
there Oh the rock in the moonlight, the
whole thing about you is like the grand
transformation scene at the theater."
sit is a grand transformation scene"
said Mastineux. cit changes the thea
ter OF both our lives. Up with You,
Roger"
Easier said than DONE" answered
Roger. "No; the tide will flow in an
hour or SO, and bring me nearer your
level. And then, between the two of us,
Agatha can be let down, down, and you
can follow. Immediately l shall take
the floor of my boat for a nap.
But although it was two hours instead
of one that passed, it was little more
than breathing space to Agatha before
she found herself suspended in mid-air
moment, and then dropped into
Rogers grasp, and seated III the stern
of his boat. Roger lift his oars to turn
the boat about. "Wait bit, said Will
Mastineux. "Do you remember the
stone parsonage and chapel in the village
up the river? Head for that, if You
please, Cousin Roger"
"Aha!" said Roger, with Il low whis-
tie; "is it that? By George, Masti-
neux, you're not a great fellow for put
ting a thing through! Agatha, my
child, have you consented to this Sabine
business?"
- don't know-I don't understand
never thought"
up the river!" cried Mastineux.
Wedding songs the birds are sing
ing!" cried Roger; for now the birds,
whose faint pipings had stole across the
deeper dark, were filling the dusky air
on either bank with music. Wedding
bells will soon be ringing! declare, it
makes me break into poetry as if my
name were Wegg." And he headed the
boat up stream with the flowing tide
that began to brighten from the slowly
frightening and mysterious east, where
a great morning star was hanging.
! 1t was the full, rich, golden atmos-
phere of sunrise in which they rowed
down river at length, after the brief call
ut the stone chapel, lettering along the
way and slipping, as they went, over
Table Rock itself, that now again was
hidden by the tide. The breakfast bell
was ringing and Mrs. Odiorne came
bustling out on the piazza where the
others had collected-Mrs. Julian, with
wide-open, insolent eyes, Miss Harvey,
with her most simple minded abstraction,
and Helen and the girls, and Judge Old
field, who had come to spend the night
and turned to survey the scene just as
the boat touched the garden steps,
Agatha went up, trembling between her
two companions, with the bushes
streaming over her face.
Agatha Agatha Odiorne" scream
ed her aunt, as she stepped on the piaz-
"a. SIS it possible you dare"
"Stop, stop, mother !" cried Roger.
Gone moment, Mrs. Odiorne," said
Colonel Mastineux, in that voice of his
that always commands everybody.
Please forgive our escapade for the
short time we remain. We leave on the
noon train for our own home; and in the
mean time All, Oldfield, is that you?
Let me have the pleasure of presenting
you to Mrs. Mastineux !"