The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1881-02-18


she must protect her money.
A pale, grayish atmosphere about
them lasts an instant, then out they
fash into the clear, bright day, upon
which the laggard, wintry sun has just
poured welcome food of light, show
ing clearly to her own Mortified vision,
and the deeply meditative gaze OF her
companion her little right hand thrust
deep into his coat-pocket, which closely
adjoined her own, and clinched with all
the force of its pretty pinkish fingers
around his quietly imprisoned digits.
There are some things that happen in
everybody's life of which the one most
nearly concerned knows nothing. Lily
Courtney never could tell till her dying
day how her hand got out of her neigh
boris pocket. She somehow came 10
herself by-and-bye IN a dazed way, her
forehead resting against the window
glass, and a succession of crimson
bushes chasing each other over her
burning cheeks. Covertly and by slow
degrees she looked around. The seat
was empty, the suspected pickpocket-
of whom she would never think with
out heartfelt shame-had left her TO her
ruminations.
They were not very agreeable ones.
She had been taught that we could not
be too suspicious she was ready hence
forth to deny the assertion entirely.
81 wish / had been robbed rather
than have put my hand" she could
go no further even in thought. A no,
blush always interrupted her. 81 hope
| may never, never see that gentleman
again !" she declared, energetically;
yet even as she said so, she knew she
did not quite mean it. There was time
for no further mental connict-thank
goodness, there was the city 1t was
two in the afternoon.
Lily was just in that mood when one
ceases to be confidential even with ones
self. She would not acknowledge that
she saw the stranger as she crossed the
depot; she would not admit that she
WAS dubious about the direct on she
should take 10 reach her brother; in
fine, she was vexed and chagrined, un.
certain and excited, and could not re-
cognize herself as the resolute young
heroine who had left Greenville that
morning, relying on store of good
counsel, backed by her own sagacity.
At a little distance from the station
she hailed a car, after hastily reading its
lettered sides. When she consulted the
conductor, she lesrned she was being
carried out of her way, and with a
shouted line or two of directions ringing
after her she descended and took an
other with a varied but unsatisfactory
result. She wished that she had not
imbibed prejudice against hacks and
their drivers as being the accessories OF
mysterious disappearance she had read
of in those awful city papers; but, tired
and distracted as she was, after two
hours aimless car-charging and mis-
taking OF points of the compass, she still
could not trust herself, with night ap.
to one of those conveyances.
She resolved rather to go on foot, ask
ing her way block by block, and she
swallowed back her tears and set out
sturdily despite the cold. She forgot to
be hungry, and was at last fairly on her
way.
Then she saw-she could not tell lust
with what feeling-directly in advance
of her the gentleman with the sable col
lar going the same way. After time
she ceased to ask and followed him
blindly. She was half-benumbed now,
and she murmured to herself: 81 be-
gan by suspecting him-now am trust
ing him in the dark" True enough,
night was coming on; they were turn
ing into mean little streets, having come
back in the neighborhood OF the depot.
A handsome carriage-whose driver
seemed to have waited for the stranger
stood at the corner and received a ges-
ture of direction from him. All three
be, Lily and the carriage, paused at a
narrow door. 1t bore the number, and
was in the street Lionel had sent to
The gentleman knocked
then stood back for his companion to
euter; the door opened into close, dirty
little room, where poor Lionel lay, on
an untidy settee, in the act of being
made ready for removal by kind and
genial old gentleman, little hasty in
temper, it seemed, for he called out at
sight of the young man whose pocket
Lily had explored: "Well, you've got
here at last, have you,' Frank Bentley!
I've waited long enough, l should say,
and this poor boy suffering from a frac-
Lure and fever in place like this. The
people who picked him up insensibe off
The ice out beyond in the next street,
have been very kind" he added, to the
German shoemaker and bis wife who
stood by. "You found him with his
head cut by his fall, his pocketbook lost
or stolen, and carried him here where
he wrote homeland this morning got
his senses sufficiently about him to send
for me, winch was whathe should have
done at first" The doctor-for he was
The doctor with whom Lionel had it in
mind to study by-and-bye-talked on in
this strain TO relieve an evident en-
barrassment.
Young DR.. Bently, his son, explained
(while the sister and brother INDUCED
in a singularly fervent embrace, consid-
eTing that they had been but two days
separately that he had received his
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