Middletown transcript., 1881-10-28

| up! l couldn't believe my eyes when ~
| walked in here yes terday / was SO amazed
never asked him where or how. He askcC
after you right OF, and said, for all the wa!
| you'd treated him. he had come back just U
see You. What he meant perh1ps yoa I,l know ,s,,
l was too amazed to ask. But told him yot
| were engaged-I was very thankful ia JUS
heard. He didn't say anything, only laughed
! If | were you, If he comes, woulon't set
him I'm ufFaid of Il man that laughs llkt
that.
The sea had given up its dead
Perhaps it was not strange. A less
woman than Dare Winter might have
thrilled to hear it ; perhaps not strange
that she, hearing it so, should tread the
past to the exclusion of the present.
for this little moment should quite for.
get Wilfred Hale.
Her past Two lovers who had been
lovers from childhood, so long, Sc
early, that loves sweet beginning was
mystery to both two lovers growing
up each day to greet with a love strong
er, deeper-a hope than which hope was
never more assured.
Her past Two parting on thesands
but for little, to meet no more this
side the grave.
This, until this morning, with all its
sad and blissful shadings, included
Dare Winters past. From the day her
lover left her she had had no word
from him two years she had watched
and waited whilst the silence gave no
sign.
Two years John Graves lay among
the dead, of which the jealous sea tells
no tales. And now
"He has come back just to see you,
for all the way you have treated
him.
Alas, for Wilfred Hale in the pres
ent she had no thought for him. The
way she had treated him-what strange
words on her lovers lips How had
she treated him but to watch and wait
and yearn for him all through the
dreary days! How but to cling to him
each hour more fondly with hope that
would not be denied
The way she had treated him ?
How
But suddenly the hard truth pressed
down. Some jealous fate had stepped
between them--some little acci-
dent which had made waiting unto
him a bitter draught far beyond wait
ing unto her. What hard thing, what
a needless thing
AS suddenly her face frightened. 1t
mattered not, it never would matter
more he was coming back just to see
her, coming back despite it all. Pre-
science was upon her she knew that,
ere the evening, he would come-the
man she had loved so long,. so early,
she never knew when love began.
Never in all as she loved him in this
moment when, by chance,
her eyes fell upon the little line she had
cast aside.
Alas, for Wilfred Hale Sherecalled
it all, Gll-her love, her sworn love,
with faint cry of amaze.
HI did this-I did this - she muir
INJURED. CATER all my love for him, I
could do this Worse, I could think,
I could say that if the sea gave up its
lead, would not be even glad. Oh,
John my true, my only lover, what
shall 1 say to you of this p
Alas, for Wilfred Hale mo pity, no
thought even, that moment, for the
grave she was digging in his heart
One came, ere evening, with hard
laugh upon his lips, with swimming
brain and an aching heart-came des-
he knew not why, to woman's
sneircling arms and lifelong happi-
ness-came despairingly, to find moth
ing between them save the miscarried
letters he had sent from the distant
and. To know not, to care not why,
and to smile only dreamily at the sweet
confession Dare Winter made to him.
One came as never man came before,
nasting with winged feet to his beloved,
to hear a strange story ending thus:
81 always liked you, Wilfred, but
never thought to love you till the night
you asked me to be your wife. Some
thing drew my heart to you-some
painful consciousness, perhaps, of my
useless yearnings, some sudden hope to
find refuge in your tender love.
loved you then then when I believed
him dead. That love grew to mighty
passion, and delusion, too. [ even
ceased to regret the past came
But I cannot speak it selfish as may
seem to you, it makes me shudder now.
Wilfred, surely you must un-
1erstand Since the dead has arisen
what heart can 1 have for you !? A
little thing-I say not to wound but to
comfort you. 1 would go with him to
The ends of the earth, but what you
limited at-that it was decided you were
to go for two years to China-when I
read your note, realized it sharply
Wilfred, could not have gone with
you gladly, not even after the love I
swore yOu-not if the sea still held its
dead. Is this the love to satisfy your
soul Oh, think of it, and
be comforted -
The strange story he read, pausing
in his mothers home, the word sent
by the woman that loved him-she who
had sworn that she loved him as never
woman loved man before
The little moment had dawned, the
first of the eternity that was to separ-
ate him from her. But he barely re-
allied his eyes looked out dreamily,
where the waves were moaning dream
ily, down to the sunny waste where his
5o,I;,,r. 1,oJ ,o1;oI,+ad hos. 4-of1, - H.,