Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-05-06

1
I hand into her pocket for her handker-
chief, to wipe the tears away, before she
remembered that she had hung it out as
a signal of distress; and she drew forth,
instead, a letter, one that Mr.. Wilston
had slipped into her hand the evening
before, and that she had crumpled up,
hardly glancing at it, and had then
taken with her in the morning, thinking
she would read it in the wood
| What did he write her such letters
forp Why did he want to love her?
Why dia he urge it again and again ?
She was only child; she had Just be-
gun to taste the sweetness of life. Why
couldn't he let her alone for little
while, till she had looked ON her sur
roundings and seen what the world
was; had had a little freedom and
pleasure-at any rate, till she needed
himp
! Till she needed hint the next
thought came All, Heaveni did she
not need him now? And a storm of
Gears answered for her. "Oh. if he did
love me, if he really did love me, he
would know what / am suffering; he
would come and help me and save me.
1t would break his heart to see metz
she sobbed. 1t would break mine to
see him So" And then all at once she
paused in her crying and exclaiming,
and opened her brimming brown eyes
wide to the sunshine. What! Would
| it really break her heart to see Mr.
Wilston suffering SOP Would she carep
Did she-could She Oh, if she never
saw him again at all! Was it possible
that, after all, she really, really Was
it possible that she-she loved Mr.. Will
| stOnp
And ifhe never knewi-if he never
knew! How good he had been to her!
how patient with her! what noble
fellow he was! how tenderly, how pas
sionately, his eyes had followed her! If
he was ugly-well, she had never
thought so. Now that she should not
see his face again, it seemed beautiful to
her. 1t was the first face she should
! look for when they both woke at last
in the life beyond this. And what a
| for ward and perverse child she had
been! What had he ever seen in her to
lovep But he did-he did love her. And
she hugged her little hands over her
heart, suddenly conscious that the fact
was precious.
Well, if she must die, she must. But
here was mercy in the very act of
seemed as If the Angel of Death had
touched her heart with the living fire.
| This great Joy, this great rapture had
buoyed her heart over the abyss. There
was first moment for everything, and
the first moment of her awakening love,
of her recognition of her love, had been
like a winged spirit soaring over death,
the seraph springing from the grave
MY love is my soul, she cried, ssa and
my dying sets it free"
should know. Some day they would
And she refolded that letter, took her
pencil-case, and addressed it to Mr.. Viii
ston, and wrote with her trembling fin
gers underneath: 81 never knew /
loved you. You must forgive me. But
do-indeed / do. | am going to die
presently. If had lived, would have
tried to be good wife to you" And
she signed herself his angel, and lay
back in her nest. half content.
She lay there little while, looking up
at the blue of the sky rising from the
red and purple of the rocks, with the
white flashes Of wings across It, her
mind so made up to the inevitable that
softly singing hymn to herself If
mans love is SO precious" she was
thinking, swhat must Gods I've bepn
In the midst of this tranquil moment,
however, she was reused by singular
vibration running through the stout
vine ropes of her cradle, and quite
another line of thought as instantane-
ously suggested itself She had been
fully prepared for this fainting, pain
less passing away, high up in air, al
most in the blue sky itself; but falling
on the jagged rocks and boiling water
all that was horrible, and she felt her
heart shaking.
Ah, yes, certainly the vine ropes were
shaking, too. Were they loosening?-
were they falling? Oh, what was this?
And some great tapping object was fly
ing over her with scream-an eagle
startled from its perch-and rope was
following it, great moose, and then q
hand and arm had suddenly closed round
her from behind, and voice was curtly
telling her to 'sobey, and spring back
ward.n And Mr. Wilston was drawing
her out of the nest of the grading vines,
and she was standing, trembling in his
grasp, on the shelf of rock where he
leaned, with rope round his waist
made fast to a tree above-a shelf of
rock, she thought, with swift pulse of
chagrin, that had been there all the time,
in a crevice round the corner of the cliff,
and leading narrow way up to the sod
and the sapIings above, if she had only
had the sense to turn her head and look
for it.
Mr.. Wilston did not speak word.
He was white as ashes, and she thought
she could hear his heart beat. Still
holding her and his rope, he crept slowly
up the narrow shelf; then he set her
down before him, united Lis rope, and
slowly coiled it away, looking at her all
the time. with her downcast eye and
reddening face halfhidden under all the
bright brown blowing hair.
Now, ifyou please" he said, ,gravely
at last, I" / will take that letter which [
saw you had addressed to me.D
"a letter addressed to your she said.
looking up then, spark of the old spirit
half ec1ipsing that new light which had
dawned in her face.
Angel, how much longer"
Longerl wish you would tell me, .
she said, "how long | have been here
already, and whether it is to-day or to-
morrow, and what"
How much longer" he cried again,
do you want to torment me? could
claim you as my property by all the laws
of salvage" he said, stepping toward