Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-05

head. was gay and all alive myself, and
Mr.. Lowering was all devotion. knew by
some other senses when those two left the
room, but not by my eyes Or ears.
Who il that going out !" asked Mr..
Lowering. If his looks were burning.
glass, you would be in fames.
"One of the walters ?" asked. There
il French Count among them, you know,
and a Polish refugee"
"Margaret !" exclaimed mamma, show
should yOu know anything about such peo-
pie ?"
sob, mamma, am interested in them |;
and since I joined the Internationalists,
and the Nihilists, and the Marianne, and
the rest, know all about such people" l
saw Mr.. Coverings hair slowly begin to
rise on end. "That old rag picker" l
added, "told me yesterday that"
But Mr.. L1verings head looked more
and more like an electric hair brush, and
mamma cried " Margaret !"
Why, mamma, we are all human be-
ings together"
81 really must insist" began mamma /;
and then Amy giggled and mamma looked
as if sire thought had gone out my head,
and Amy was Historically sympathetic.
"You silly little mother" Amy laughed.
" Il is our boating club at home, the In
ternatienals, our charity school, the Mill
lists, our sewing club, our book club, our
Il really thought you meant secret So
ciety," gasped that old goose OF an elderly
lover.
"And what if had ," said /, my native
vigor returning. What if ! were own
cousin to Vera Sassalitch ~
"Do have her name right, said the
doctor, :" / was afraid that our young ladies
would be following Nasalushka's fashions
as soon as Mr.. Black made her SO charm
ing ]"
''Charmirg ?" said his father. &C girl
with such ideas charming?"
81 am rejoiced to hear you express your
self 3d." said mamma.
.sAnd l, said / because they are my
ideas"
(Which are your ideas ?" he asked.
Mine, or those of that young Russian
girl and her like .''
"Hers, certainly" said. "The ideas
Of humanity and brotherhood" And my
heart began to beat like an engine one
hears in the night with wild sort Of ex-
ultation that now, no matter what had
happened to Loring Richards. had made
it impossible that / should ever marry Mr..
Coverings stocks and bonds, for the temp.
tation was out of the way he would never
ask me.
Your daughters advanced opinions,
said Mr.. Lowering stitiiy, are a surprise
to me.
But it had all been too much for me. And
| saw that mamma was compromising the
situation, and growing angrier and angrier.
Oh, how angry the dear soul was " You
look very pale, Margaret, she said, Are
you not well? see by your conversation
that you are not quite yourself. You had
better 60 to your room, Oar friends will
excuse You l am sure" And l bowed to
them all, and caught the doctor 8 twinkling
eye-the doctor who wanted no young
mother in law-and arose and slipped from
the room before either he or his father
could offer me an arm. | could lot have
held out through another five minutes.
The elevator was just coming up from
the lower hall. l stepped in. A gentle.
man took off his hat, as usual. seated
myself, the boy closed the door, and we
softly slid upward. We assembled half
way to the next floor, when we paused with
slight jar. The boy looked up at the
bell signals pulled one string and then
another, pushed open the door against the
blank wall, and then, before he had shut
it, there came sudden sense of breath.
lessness, and we had shot up toward the
roof like catapult the boy had flung
himself out as we passed one of the open
spaces of the flying floors and all at once
we stopped again with shock, suspended
by some unknown agency between the two
upper floors, with some seventy feet OF
empty space under US, and nothing that
we knew OF between US and destruction.
The light in the elevator had gone out,
and only dim glimmer from the jets in
the upper hall made darkness visible. For
moment closed my eyes and leaned
back, half lifeless. "It's horrible" l
gasped. For thought of the fierce shock,
the crushing of body and bone that was to
follow at any moment, if we fell to the
lower pavement or if we were driven up
into the timDers of the roof. Then came
the thought it was but for moment after
all, and with it would end all that was so
unbearable. Loring Richards wife and
Loring Richards himself would be nothing
then to me. No more torture, no more
heartbreak, no more tears-just peace
And there came with that a certain glad
ness over all the immediate horror. "Are
you afraid 2" l said, turning to the other
occupant of the cage, at whom had not
glanced.
Afraid, Margaret Here. alone with
you ?" came the answer.
"Loring! Oh, how dreadful And
your wife"
"My wife There is only one wife pos.
sible for me, Margaret, and you have kept
me away from her for five years.
"Do you say you are not married to
that lovely creature at the table"
Married? To my cousin Rose? And
you ask me that Margaret? You?"
raised my eyes to look at him. He was
standing directly before me in the half
shadow. "On, Loring," l said, 1--WE are
in the face of death. Can you forgive me
now, when there is nothing left for us
but to die!"
He bent and caught me in his heart.
At any rate" he said, 1--WE die together
There is no greater bliss than that.
"Oh, yes" cried-"t to live together.
have just found each other after all these
bitter years? Were they bitter to you,
Loring?"
And just then the ropes began to slide
softly over the pulleys again, and we went
easily slipping down and gently alighted in
the lower hall as if nothing had been the
matter. Talk of total depravity of mani.
mate things! 1t is sacrilege. believe
that elevator knew just what 1t was doing.
But you ought to have seen dear mammals
face when Loring told her that he should
not let me out of his sight again until he
had legal claim upon me, and he would
De glad of her company and Amy's in the
church of Heavenly Haven in exactly one
half hours time
A HORSES LOVE FOR HIS OLD MASTER.
Seven years ago, while Major Stark.
Al