New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1881-07-27
A CRUSHED HEART.

A CRUSHED HEART.
t*What lovely FACET And Sir Au-
brey Trevclyan turned in his saddle
that he might have better look at the
| young girl who had just passed him.
He had seen her coming when. she
was a long distance down the road,
and had noted admiringly what enviablc
youth and vitality there was in her
springy step and carriage.
And then. as she came near him, and
looked up, he realized that he was face
to face with the most glorious eyes that
ever had been lifted to his-and he was
thirty-five, and felt forty-five, and had
travelled half over the world, and been
presented to charming women Without
number, and had broken more hearts
than he could remember.
Handsome, distingue, wealthy, aris-
tocratic, disguised with life, wearied
| with the safety Of good things. that had
all his life been laid at his feet for his
taking; he had rushed away from town
and had shut himself up at Saxenham
Towers, his ancestral home, with his
books, his horses, his thoughts, deaf and
dumb to the score of letters every post
brought him besccching his return
| even cruelty negligent Of Maud Brcre-
toms coaxing notes-who, certainly of
all women, had the best right to COM
mand him, seeing that he had been her
most devoted worshippcr for tho past
three months.
But now, as he passed Violet Harland,
her dark hair peeping out in half-curl-
ing rings on her low, white forehead,
her cheeks flushed, her lips warmly,
lusciously red. and her eyes!-
Sir Aubrey felt as though an electric
shock had been administered as they
met in brief, casual glance, and act
ing upon his impulse-a thing he was
in the habit of doing, as all your hand
some, selfish men archie reincd his
horse sharply in, bringing it back upon
its launches in quivering subsection to
his low, authoritative word, his strong
wrist.
And then he turned round, more in
tercst in his face than anyone had seen
there in the last five years.
Just as Violet turned round-impelled
by that mysterious psychological influ-
enco we all have felt; and met his
glance, and-slippcd on treacherous
stone, and-did not get up.
Sir Aubrey was out of the saddle and
at her side in second.
care you hurt? Let me assist you to
rise. Miss
A deathly whiteness was on her face
that made her more startlingly lovely
than before.
II am afraid 1 have sprained nv
ankle-it was so stupid of mo to fall"
What voice-even through it's Vi
brations Of iu-concealed suffering.
81 hope not-surely such a little fall
would"
But while he spoke Violet tainted at
bio feet.
There was but one thing to do, and
in the name of common humanity, Sir
Aubrey Trevelyan picked the uncon-
scious girl up, as gently as woman
might have done, as only a strong man
could have done, and carried his insen-
sible burden through the gate he had
only just quilted, leaving his horse
where it stood in the road.
And when, ten minutes later, Violet
woke to find herself on the lounge in
the magnificent library, and DR.. Bran
don, her own physician, and Mrs. Hum
phreys, the housekecper at Saxenham
Towers, in attendance, while Sir Au-
brey, anxious, handsome, interested,
stood watching the proceedings, she
knew her life romance had begun.
And week from the time he and
DR.. Brandon had driven her home from
the Towers to her own more modest
home, Sir Aubrey Trevelyan was ready
for almost anything where she was con-
cerned.
Not day but he called at the little,
gray cottage where she and her silent,
sternfaced sister lived. Books, hot
house flowers, dollhouse fruits-nOth-
ing was too good, too expensive for
her, and to see her eyes light up at
sight of him, to watch her resolute eff
forts to hide from him the love for him
that was growing every day, was the
keenest pleasure that had come to him
for many a year.
For she loved him. How could it
have been otherwise? His gentle mas
terfulness. his caressing imperiousness,
swayed her as a strong wind does the
lily on its stem, and she was so essen
tally woman that she thoroughly en-
joyed being governed,
So much was crowded into that little
ten days time, and although Sir Aubrey
had by some unaccountable power,
quite astonishingly strange to himself,
refrained from direct avowal of his
passion for her, yet they both under
stood it as well as though the most ex-
plicit words had been used.
Violet was perfectly happy. Those
days when she was prisoner on her
lounge had been days fuller of rapture
than she had ever imagined life could
contain.
Proud, honorable, unsuspicious, she
never had o thought that Sir Aubrey's
love for her was not as loyal as hers
for him; and so when he came one day
and told her that he was called to Lon
don on some business for day or so,
but would come back at the very earli,
est moment, she never, for . second,
doubted him.
Nor did Sir Aubrey doubt himself
that he would return. Miss Brereton
had telegraphed him that he must come,
or one Of her entertainments would fall
flat. And--just . little ashamed Of
having buried himself in the country SO
long, and half wondering what he would
say, and more than q little fearful
that some one would fathnm the attrac-
! ton. be decided to obey his fair friend's