The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-08-07

mother. He had great blue eyes and
curling brown hair, and the brightest
color, and the sweetest smile. And Isa-
dore was like him, only far more beauti-
full. You have seen her portrait down
stairs.''
"What! that lovely, that angelic
childP" cried Elfrida, wonderingly. 81
thought that was an artists ideal pic
ture!"
"It was the image of our Isadore at
nine years of age" replied Miss Mil
bred, trying to cover the sudden break
and tremble in her voice by loud
"Hem!"
"And at 16 she was far beyond that
painting for beauty" continued Miss
Mildred. " Strangers used to stop in the
street to look at her, and to inquire who
she was. But she appeared to know
nothing and care nothing about her Won
derful good looks. She was good and
gentle, and always amiable, without the
least apparent sign of vanity.
"Ripe for heaven, our good old min
lister used to say. Iwish she might have
gone there then!" said Miss Mildred,
with stifed groan.
"She did not die then!" exclaimed
Elfrida. 81 was so afraid you were going
to tell us of her DEATH
"She did not die, God help her!" re-
piled Miss Mildred, with sigh so deep
and sad that it was almost a groan.
"Here in this very wing chamber, my
brother Oliver thought of it, she said,
after long pause. "Here he called
me to help him decide how to carry out
the plan. You see, girls, Isadore was
like your friend Evelyn-she possessed
great courage. She seemed to have no
fear of any thing on earth. Oliver
knew this SO did I. And neither of us
expected any thing more than hearty
laugh at her expense, or at our own,
when the evening frolic ended.
" 1t was Hallow Eve. Isadore and
her dearest friend, Miss Nancy Bruce
(who lived then at the farm just below
this one), had agreed to try fate with
'spells, on that evening. They dared
each other to one thing and another,
and finally Isadore pledged herself to
60 into the lonely old north rooms, with
a candle, at nine o'clock that evening,
and eat an apple before Grandmamma
Thorne's great mirror that had been
stored away there for safe-keeping for
fifty years or more.
"You see, girls, the idea was, that
her future husbands face was to appear
to her, looking over her shoulders, in
that mirror, as she stood before it, eat
ing her apple.
"Well, Oliver overheard the girls
planning this that afternoon, and he
told me. And, as said before, 1 helped
him, here in this very room, that even
ing, while he disguised himself in long
white dress, and painted his face all
over deathly white, with heavy, frown-
ing black eyebrows that met, forming
a black arch across his forehead.
cit changed him terribly, and he
looked so like corpse in that shroud-
like dress, that was haf-scared myself
at him. But neither of US thought of
Lsadore being frightened.
"And so we stole into the north room,
and contrived to get the mirror out of
its frame. Oliver put his face into the
vacant space. hunga drapery around
it, and charged him to keep perfectly
still, and then stole away to watch for
Isadore in the hall.
sIn few minutes she came down the
stairs, with her candle and apple in her
hands. She was smiling roguishly to
herself as she opened the door of the
north room and went in"
"And what happened?" asked Elfri-
da, eagerly, as Miss Mildred paused.
"Where was your mother P How
could she let Isadore 60 into that dread
full roomp" breathed Marian Hurst.
"Father and mother were both stay
ing with sick neighbor as watchers
that night" said Miss Mildred; "and
watched and waited, in the outer hall,
till Nancy Bruce came, crying, down
stairs, to tell some one what they had
planned to do, because she thought
something awful had happened to keep
Isadore so long in the north room.
"When Nancy saw me she caught
hold of me and dragged me with her to
the door of the north room. We went
in. The candle was burning on the
table. The apple had fallen to the floor.
Beside it my brother Oliver was lying
ScuSclcSS, Ill q III. Ills litCc lOOhCu ike
white fire, in the half-darkness. The
poor foolish boy had rubbed phosphorus
all over it, after L left him, to make it
look still more CHASTITY and ghost-like.
"And Isadore-where was IsadoreP"
cried Marian Hurst, beginning to SILVER
with nervous dread.
'We found her huddled down in
heap in a distant corner, with her face
turned to the wall. She knew no one.
Oliver told us, long afterward, that she
stood gazing at him in silence so long
that he advanced his face toward her,
through the mirror, meaning to play to
offer her kiss.
"The light, the life, the intelligence,
all went out of her own face at that mo.
ment," he said. "She fled and crouched
down in the corner; and he, believing
that he had fatally injured her, fell
fainting to the foor.'
"Poor fellow p" sighed Elfrida.
"Where is he now, Miss Mildredp"
'In heaven, hope! He was one OF
our first volunteers from this town, and
one of the first officers whe was killed in
the last war. They told me that he ex-
posed his life in leading his men into
action. did not mourn for him, girls !;
l knew hon glad he was to 90. Our
parents died heart-broken, one year from