Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-04-29

hard drudgery can hope to get on, fol
Ruthven Dyett was q civil engineer.
Already he seemed marked out for q
successful career, for, though hardly three.
and.twenty years had passed over his
head, his name was associated with clever
discovery in electrical engineering, and
among his earthly possessions he reckoned
letters patent for this discovery.
So much for the moil and toll of life, as
Ruthven Dyott had met and wrestled with
it. As for all life's poetry, that had con.
sisted in the friendship borne to him by
Millicent Warner.
For the last year or so his weeks work
was frightened, any disappointment that
met him in those six days of toll and
thought was softened, by the reflection
that on the seventh he could, if he chose,
make his way TO the red rooted, many.
gabled house down by the river, enter
the pretty room that looked into the
garden full of sweet, old-fashioned flowers,
and there meet gentle, kindly greeting
the clasp OF cordial hand, the light Of
welcome in a woman's soft, grave eyes.
Not only so, but he could talk Of his
plans, his work, his hopes, his fears, to a
listener whose sympathy was so assured a
thing that he almost ceased to be grateful
for it. Later ON, Millicent would sing or
play-songs that old Sir Godfrey knew by
heart, and to whose melody he loved to let
the hand on his armchair rise and fall
compositions by those old masters of music
a haunting undercurrent OF pathos.
Truly, these Sunday evenings at the
Hermitage were pleasant things to look for
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tie and smoke of London town, and week
by week, and month by month, they grew
dearer and sweeter-sweeter than Ruthven
could say, dearer to his boyish heart than
he himself knew.
Millicent Warner had grown to be the
music of his life, and it was grand and holy
music, too-music which lifted his bright
young nature into clearer, purer atmos.
| phere than that of mere earth music that
kept his life clean and his hands honest,
and fed the lamp of ambition in his soul as
oil feeds the flame that burns before a
shrine.
And now, on this glowing summers day,
Ruthven had come out from the busy hive
| of the town to this peaceful country home,
with heart full of pride and joy, and yet
with an aching pain deep down in it, for he
| had only told Millicent Warner the half of
his news yet.
He had said that the Government of
far off land was willing to utilize his discov-
cry. What he had not said was that the
terms upon which they would agree to do
so were that the inventor should accept
office under them and superintend the
working of his own scheme.
He was conscious, indeed, of strange
reluctance to communicate this last piece
of intelligence Just yet.
He was a bit of mental epicure and
wanted to enjoy the full flavor of this
sweet womans pride in his success without
alloy.
1t had seemed terrible thing to him all
along-the idea of parting between him.
self and Millicent Warner. He had said
to himself that the loss of her would make
him feel the same sense of sudden empty
silence as had more than once come over
him when her cunning fingers dropped
from the ivory keys and the melody they
had been weaving in an exquisite welt of
sound ceased 1t had seemed to him like
this, thinking of it.
Now, watching her by the soft simmer.
ing light, listening to the tones of her soft
low voice-a voice that was capable of con-
veying an intensity of gladness, though
never raised into outward show of passion,
to Ruthven Dyott the thought of this pos
sible severance from all part or lot In her
life brought with it an overpowering sense
of pain-a shuddering foreboding of lonely
days and months and years to come.
When they had talked over the good
fortune that had befallen him, when they
had, as it were, set in their midst and
looked at it from every possible point of
view, it suddenly struck Miss Warner,
that for man who had had greatness
thrust upon him" by the hand of fate, her
companlon was somewhat distract, not to
say moody.
You are not half as glad as l thought
you would be, not half as glad as yeu ought
to be !" she said, shaking her head, child
ing, yet smiling, too.
"Glad % he echoed, passing his hand
across>his eyes, as if the sunshine from the
burning world without had suddenly
streamed in and dazzled him. How can
be glad, Millicent, of what must take me
away from you?"
Take you away T she said, and then
stopped.
She did not choose to question him. She
of mind. He had been keeping something
back. 1t was strange; it was not like
Ruthven Dyott at all events, not like
him in his dealings with her.
eyes" he said, rising from his seat and
taking his stand close by her side, "take
me away from you. How, then, can l be
glad ,"
"Do they want You to go out there and
set the thing going? and, if they do, are
you likely to forget the friends you leave
behind, or do you fancy we shall forget
you, that you put on such a tragic air,
Ruthven?"
"It is not a case of going away, it is a
case of staying away"
If he had not been standing somewhat
behind her, she might have noticed how
pale he grew as he uttered the last two
words words that meant so much. As it
was, she only noted thrill of pain in his
voice. She bent closely over an ear of
barley to which her needle was adding del
icste finishing touches.
"They want you, then, to settle down
there to take the management of the
affair entirely into your own hands"
Eyes"
The ear of barley was now daintily CON-
pleted, fringed with feathery beard she
looked at it with complacency, her head
little on one side in the prettiest pose
imaginable.
81 think the idea an excellent one, she
said, speaking slowly, and as if full of In
tent thought; most excellent in every
way"
81 Even to leaving you p
There is always some little drawback
to everything, isn't there? ?" she answered
lightly.
Do you call it little drawback to lose
all that is sweetest in life, to lack all that
has grown most dear ?" he said passion.
ately, his young face pale and wistful, his
dark eyes full of pain
She turned slowly round in her chair
and looked up at him.
Ruthven," she said, "have you been
devoting yourself of late to the reading of
romances, you foolish boy p
NO" he answered, and she felt the
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