Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-10-26

me to my lmaglnlngS. But ne CnOugnG Iiit
course kindest to me was to let met think hin
a villain, and be healed of my hurt the sooner
And then, too-you must not think i'll OF mt
for saying it appeared to him so altogether
| lovely, and to be loved, that he could not bu
believe, cost him what pang it might, that
should speedily be happy in the love of one
should hold to he better man.
And from that hour his career began-tht
career of no commercial traveller, but that Of
the son of rich and powerful house, put for
ward for fresh honors all the time, now COVER
nor, now senator, and when the war came
unwilling to take arms against either hls
native North or his adopted South, going with
the others to the villa on the Mediterranean,
where life was long dream OF ldleness anc
ease. He was. good husband, l am glad tc
know. He never allowed himself to feel that
Adele had done him an injury he forced him
self always to look at the other side, and val
ne the advantages he received through connec'
tion with her father. She was a gentle little
being, always beautiful, never altogether per.
fectly strong in mind or will again, put hVeo
and breathed through him for twenty-five years.
He could be proud of her in certain way, at
Southern springs, in congressional life, as they
went through Europe il her exquisite grace,
her dark, large-eyed loveliness, the simplicity
of her always perfect ladyhood, if one may use
the word, were things always to admire, and
crowds followed her. He also admired her
he had tender care for her, gentle attach
ment to her, and if he never loved her SHE
never knew he did not. She hardly remem-
bered that he had ever had his poor pale pas
sion in the North. She died at last, thinking
of him as only her own, and thanking him for
the bliss he had given her in his long faithful
ness. But this poor pale passion had become
an ideal thing to him, sort of pole star round
which his soul revolved so entirely as to De au-
tomato and unconscious in it's motion. Hedld
not actively and at all times remember it, but it
helped to shape his course, and it was always
there.
And at last, then, Maskelyn was his own
master once more. But of me in his freedom
It did not occur to him to think as an actual
possibility in flesh and blood. He had never
heard of me ;he had never dared to ask for me
he took it for granted that was long since
another mans wife. And when, after some
years more, in manner unawares to himself,
the memory began to work in his heart, he
came to the old town again as pilgrim visits
a shrine and without dream of finding me.
And in all these years after the first one OF
unbearable suffering had staid there in my
home, doing the duty that came first to hand,
both since it was duty and since it might pre-
vent my pain. And the pain had passed at
length, had left only a soreness and sorrow,
had become sublimated as it were into some
thing would not lose for all its pang. One
by one, father and mother, brother and sister,
had left me but l still dWelt in the sweet old
house, and sat of summer evenings on the
porch among the honeysuckles.
At first thought could never breathe their
breath again but at last it had grown pre-
cious to me; it was was all of the love, of the
life, had hoped for. But the score or more
of years had not been unhappy to me; my
daily routine had taken much thought, the
poor children that l taught, and Belle and
Alice and the rest, served in some degree to
keep me young for, as l said, l hated to grow
old and if any one was kind enough to say
they would hardly know me for more than
the elder sister of the young girls about me,
my skin still so smooth, the color OH my cheek
so delicate, the pale gold of my hair still un.
touched by silver, it was apt to move my heart
with little pulse of pleasure, although knew,
in truth, and for all, that fifty years must
always count for fifty years. Now and then
1 heard of Maskelyn and his public life-1 had
not thought it wrong, once when went to a
large city to buy photograph of him with
those of some other public people; but kept
it locked away, and allowed myself to look at
it but once every year. And when did look
at it it was only the hurried glance of the eye,
one thrill and spring of the heart, lest sinned,
lest I made him sin, and / wrapped it the
closer away again. But the day after had
seen the face was always day of mourning.
And at last I knew that he had no longer a
wife and year went by, year and year, and he
had not come. Sometimes in wandering and
thinking, my heart would beat so loud that it
seemed as if only fasting and prayer would still
it, and blushed to think wasted throb on
one who had long ago ceased to care, who never
came to see; and one day took his pictures,
that of the boyish beauty and that of the stall
wart man, and burned them both to ashes,
and prayed that my love might burn to ashes
with them, and my heart be cold and at peace
in that my fiftieth year.
Butif | had not learned every line of the latter
picture by heart, whether would or not, might
have not known Maskelyn when he came saun-
tering by the gate that night, and gave look
at the porch, and started as if a bolt had struck
him, and stopped and leaned his folded arms
on the gate, and stared at me as l sat there.
He knew me- In the softly beginning shad-
ows of the twilight my face seemed hardly
changed, and air and attitude were still the
same. Heknew me but did not believe in me
he thought something had happened to his
brain, or else that he saw vision, in a trance.
He lifted his hat and rubbed his forehead he
half turned to 60 away, then he wheeled about,
opened the gate and came slowly up the path,
with his solemn gaze still fixed upon me. All,
how sweet the honey-suckle breath came, stir
red by his advancing motion.
olivia ~ he said.
''Maskelyn " l replied. And felt as he
did-impossible to say whether was dead OF
alive, whether it is this world or the next,
whether l really saw him, or it was as it had
been many times before, that dreamed did.
And then said to myself "The worst has
come l shall hear presently that Maskelyn is
dead" But he was saying to himself-and
vet heard him 'Can it be Is it so Her.
self In the old home My God If she
should yet be free - And then glad cry
and we were in each others arms. And we
were fifty years old. Too old for such JOY
and drew back all blushing and ashamed,
only to be taken in those arms again. He
broke off by-and-by branch of the honey
suckle and twined it in my hair.
"What would Belle and Alice say - l said:
'Who are Belle and Alice - said he. And
in the sudden jealous spasm that had, real
lied anew my fifty years and their twenty.
II am so DID," l said, "and they are sc
young'
''For me you have eternal YOUTH" he an.
swered. eve are going to live backward al
the years in which l have lost you, since you
are so good, my angel, as to love me still tc
refuse to reproach me, to forgive me.''
! And sometimes ask if they to whom fate
seems kinder, and gives smooth current OF
love in their early season, have half the deptf
of delight in it that they find who at later
day love with the concentrated force thai
spread out over all the intervening year:
might have been a shallow and stagnant pool