News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-10-26

lips with toast for her.
Still, spite of her faith, her heart felt
heavy. The night was long, and she
greeted eagerly the morning light as ii
came through her windows.
Several of her companions came IN tc
assist at the wonderful toilet. She was
almost pretty when all was completed,
and she sat with faint rose-fush on
her cheek, listening for her lovers step.
Surely he would not be late, she
thought, as the hands of the clock
moved with strange rapidity toward
! the hour.
1t struck at last, but Alex had not
come. The rose flush faded, and she
grew very pale, but her friends laughed
at her fears, until by-and-by their
laughter died, and an ominous silence
fell upon the little group.
Another hour went by, and then the
door of the little cottage opened, but
only the good priest stood upon the
threshoId-he who had held Marjorie in
his arms and baptized her, an infant.
He made motion that he should be
left alone with her, and then all knew
that something terrible had happened
yes, something terrible, indeed
Just in what words he told her, they
could not know, but the secret could moi
be kept secret long.
In the darkness of the night, Ale1
Winston had weighed anchor and sailed
away to sea, deserving his bride, while
the first faint dawn of his wedding day
was in the east.
How would Marjorie hear it? they
asked, one of the other, but none of the
lines laid down for her did she follow.
She simply ceased to live. and began
to eciSt. She ate, drank and slept, per-
haps, but did all things as in dream
but neUer did the name of Alex pass
her lips.
When others spoke of him she listened
silently. No one ever saw her weep
no one ever heard her moan. She
seemed a marble statue, possessed of
life in its essence but not in its soul.
A year passed, and all things were
unchanged. No tidings had ever
reached the little village of the recreant
lover, and the romance was almost for
gotten.
1t was the anniversary of her we'd
ding day, and Marjorie sat alone, when a
knock sounded on the cottage door.
She rose and opened it.
John Harwoodstood upon the thresh-
old. 1t was his first visit since the ut
terance of his fatal prophecy.
"Let me come in, Marjorie !" he
pleaded. "My hearts starving, but I
didn't dare come, for fear lest you'd
blame me that my words came true"
Silently she held open the door, and
he passed and took a chair.
Haven't you forgotten him yet ?'
he asked, and there was almost fierce
ness in his tone.
Hush T. she answered. "We will
talk of other things"
"Of ourselves, my girl, maybe. Oh
Marjorie, don't let all the folks see as
you're wearing the willow yet for man
that deserted you-that maybe had
another wife beyond the seas Haven't
proved my love and my faith, and
won't you give it its reward at last ?
I'll never rest till you're my wife. Oh,
Marjorie, don't deny me-"
Would you marry corpse" she
said, slowly, after minutes pause
"And what's body without heart or
soul but a corpse? No, John-I'd only
make you more miserable. Besides,
there is some mystery behind all this,
and one day shall find it out
ga mystery? Nonsense, girl |" he
answered, roughly. "You make the mys-
terry, like all silly women. Be sensible,
and show the world that Alex Winston
has not blighted your life. I'll try to
make you happy-indeed 1 will, my
little girl !"
But his pleading was in vaina The
only difference it made was that no day
passed now that she did not see him.
He did not speak again of his love,
and sometimes would sit in perfect ST.
lence by her side; but every day the
slight form grew more fragile and the
large eyes bigger.
The grief to which Marjorie would
give no outward vent was creeping like
insidious poison through her veins.
Her heavy burden she would soon lay
down.
This the man seemed not to suspect
until, one evening, speaking to her, she
gave no answer, and, bending over her,
he discovered she had swooned in her
chair. When she recovered conscious
ness, she smiled.
cit is nothing" she said. 81 have
grown used to it. Only when it all is
over, John, you will tell Alex, if you
see him, that my love was stronger than
my life."
"You mean" he gasped, hoarsely.
81 mean that 1 am dying, John. All,
you will forgive me now the wrong 1
never meant to do you -
But like one gone mad, John Har-
wood rushed from the room and house.
The next day, Marjorie looked for
him in vain, and the next, and next,
first with dull pain that he, too, had
forsaken her, and then in quiet apathy
as her own weakness grew upon her,
and she felt the end was drawing near.
Every day it was more and more effort
to rise, and at last she ceased to make
it, and lay white and still upon her pill
lows.
So she was lying one evening in the
twilight, when she heard the front door
softly open, and a mans step cross the
outer room. At her door he paused.
The twilight gray wrapped his figure in
its indistinct gloom, but she saw and
recognized it. 1t was Alex who stood
before her. Not a flesh-and- blood
Alex-that, of course, was impossible
but a spirit born of her great longing.
'My love p she called. "Ah, God
hassent me an angel wearing his shape p
But, lol as she spoke the figure
moved forward, and fell with groan on
its knees beside her.
Marjorie | Forgive mel" he muir
INJURED and then he told her all.
Flushed with wine, and exultant with
happiness, he had gone out that night,
from the nIaoa whara ba and his cOno