The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-10-01


evening when Glare had been moved by
her gentle cousins lOveliness to speak w
never before Of her own soul, she had
learned that Glare, my noble sister Clare,
loved me with more than sisters love.
Yes, she told her all and she henceforth
shut up the fountain of her soul, and
laid stone on the mouth to keep back
the food forever.
"This was why she consented to 60
with her her father, and in this resolu-
ton she gave herself up soul and body
to hope that she might make her mis-
sion ON earth the reform Of her father,
and the reunion of all of liz in later years
in some happy home that she dreamed
of. But now the end came, and hope
was gone, and love triumphant. She
could not die without seeing me once
more; and spite of her fathers COM
mands, spite of NIL her agony, spite Of
all her wOman's shame, she told me MI,
and i'll the moment OF our parting knew
what | great food of love, pure, holy
love, God had forbidden to flow over the
gardens Of my life, but had commanded
into the channels that make glad the
eternal city.
"And then Clare came back, and We
sat down side by side and held her hands
IN ours, and the swift moments of her
| life ran out.
"She never told Clare her love. That
glorious creature never told Glare one
word, never limited to her of what we
had spoken in the hour that she had
been absent, and she never knew that
Lily loved me.
| "The doctor came in toward morning,
and was startled Mt the change he iound
in his patient. He told her that she was
dying, and she heard him calmly and
looked ut me with one long, longing gaze,
and closed her eyes on liz for II moment,
and opened them again with the soft
radiance of the band of angels in their
light.
"Once, only once, she took my hand in
hers, and drew me down to her and whis-
pered in soft whisper, Il love you,
Stephen! and light, ~ il of the great
glory of triumphant love flashed on her
comtenance; and then little later she
took my hand, and placing Clare's in it,
she said to each of us:
"'K Kiss me Clare; kiss me Stephen!
"And Glare kissed her, and touched
my earthly lips to her s,sntly ones, and
with the last kiss, the last breath of life
she whispered:
"Love Glare, Stephen!'
"And her life that she had laid down
for her friend, God took and made inn
mortal life thereof in the garden of His
land.
"Philip Phillips, for fourteen years
after that time Clare lay upon my breast,
my faithful, loving and beloved wife, and
then laid her glorious head low in the
valley dust down yonder. The snow to-
night lies deep upon both their graves
and am here. What am / that women
should have loved me? What am | that
God should have permitted such
treasures tobe poured out on me ? What
are these lips that kisses of such affec.
ton should have been pressed upon
them? These arms, that they should
have been permitted to enfold such forms
of beauty?
Sometimes when ask myself these
questions begin to doubt the past and
to think that the old rectory and its be-
loved inhabitants are all a dream. But
at such times l come into this room and
draw that curtain yonder, and then l
know that / am man, and that the
years have not deceived me. No, am
no dreamer now"
AS he finished he drew the curtain
from a picture that hung before us on
the wall. 1t was picture of two faces,
and if live thousand years l shall not
again see two 80 beautiful on canvas or
on earth.