Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-06-22
Behind a Panel.

DtuIuu al IdHtt.
4 wide, white, forehead; above, braids
knotted with a white aster; pansy-dark
eyes under curled blacg lashes. The love-
ly woman's face looking out of the oriel
windows held Captain Gordon Sommers
captive.
Come, Captain" called voice from
the water below.
he made no response to startle the girl,
for she had not seen him. The cool, oval
face rested on the slender hand, aud she
was looking dreamily over the water.
Il say, Cap, what keeps 20 7 What
have you fOund2"
de could have strangled Low, with his
impatient believing, for now the fair face
started and flushed, and. turning, Adelaide
Westerley saw the intruder in the garden.
Captain Somers stepped forth, but with
out his usual grace and ease, snd lifted his
hat.
81 beg your pardon. Could we get some
water herei"
''Yes, certainly. Knock at the south
door, and my man will give you all you
want."
She seemed startled out of an habitual
serenity, yet her voice had a strange soft
ness and sweetness.
'I-We" continued the captain, 'tare in
search of stray boat which got adrift from
the yacht Mermaid last night We have been
ebout here for three hours. 1t must have
got over the bar and gone out to sea-"
Low, lifting himself to leok over the bank
saw how things were, and settled back re-
slgnedly.
"a small boat called the DoIphin!" asked
Adelaide.
Yes
''With a book and spy glass in itl" she
continued.
Yes" confessed Somers, ashamed of
his seamanship. 81 let 1t get away from
me. have charge of the yacht. There
she is yonder." pointing to the offing.
'.You will find your boat fastened to a
post Just inside the breakwateI. My man
Stephen picked it up last night. He is in
the garden. Stay, will call him."
She came down to the garden door-a
beautiful young creature all In white-and
found Captain Somers awaiting her, cap in
hand. They went together down the over
grown paths, he holding the rose vines
aside to let her pass.
Il am giving you too much trouble" 4"
said he.
'.No. There is my man. Stephen!"
she called.
The old man came up with his spade. He
began telling how he had found the boat
for which the young gentleman did not
care two straws, casting desperately about
in his mind to learn how he was to meet
Adelaide again.
She had already Withdrawn TO the terrace
and stood awaiting his final bow. She lit
tie dreamed the truth-sweet Lady of Sha-
lot She was looking fixedly at the fine,
strong figure, the cool, sensitive blonde face,
the picturesque yzchtman's dress; she had
inhaled the faint fragrance of cigars, felt
the magnetism of this Strangers gentle
touch as he put her dress aside from the
thorns, and a feeling of pain she could not
express visited her pure heart as she reali-
zed that in o minute he would be gone from
her gaze.
And he went With one backward
glance from the fine blue eyes, with gay
and graceful salutation and a final call of
thauksio the young lady, Captain Somers
turned bend of the rosepath and disap-
peared, followed by old Stephen.
''A desperate venture!' he muttered,
''but nv only chance."
If, while unmooring the boat, he deftly
questioned the old serviIor of the Wester-
ley's old Stephen never tald. But when
he saw the two boats floating off shore, he
chuckled over the bit of silver in his hand,
and muttered, Good luck 10 you, sir"
The fair Lady of Shalot went slowly back
10 her bower. Perhaps the pretty chamber
dtd not then look quite beautiful. Perhaps
she, too, murmured, 81 am half sick OF
shadows" 1t would not be at all strange.
This girl of 20 lived strangely isolated
life. She was the last of her race, living
on the estate bequeathed to her In infancy
by her dying father. A half sister of her
mothers, an aged woman called Aunt Re
solve, was her only companion. She had
never entered society. She knew little OF
the world outside of the beautiful gardens
and shores of the jumpers.
But for old Aunt Resolve, the girl SEEM
ed to be wasting her sweetness on the desert
air. The devoted old woman idolized her.
From her babyhood she had dressed, wash
ed and tended her. Perhaps it was a mis-
taken fondness that relieved the hsiress Of
all care of her estate, for 1t required some
management to make 1t yield an income
for the family, and Adelaide suffered from
enpul. Perhaps little care would have
been good for her. But Aunt Resolve
thought differently, ana the girl knew
nothing OF the oyster-beds and the crops
that were hers,
The girl stood in the rosepath again the
following evening, her garden hat In her
hand, her eyes unconsciously fixed upon the
Yacht Mermaid in the offiing. She was IN
an unusually thoughtful mood. There had
come to her for the first time the thought
whittier her life was tending. To wear
away the seasons from youth to age In un
eventful monotony, her soul unsatlsned,
did not suit her. But spell, fate, SEEM
ed upon her. Probably it would never De
otherwise; and sadness no words could
express spread through all her conscious
ness.
A step upon the gravel. She turned and
encountered the gleam of two blue eyes.
Captain Semers bowed low.
.'Your pardon; more missing property,
Miss Westerley," he stammered-
'sWhat is it nowl" asked Adelaide, in
amazed tones.
"A ring / dropped yesterday. All, here
1t is" stooplng to hide guilty blush, and
immediately, with strange good fortune,
discovering a diamond ring at the edge OF
the grass plot.
He showed il to her-a diamond quaint