Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-03-03

startled senses, intensified by fear. are on
the watch. She listens: she turns sudden
ly round as if to catch some one in the act
of following her; and, seeing nothing,
walks on with eyes fixed upon the ground
From The doors of all the stores she knows,
before which she passes, the good morn
ings'' addressed to her seem full of mali
cious csnpassion.
She thinks she sees winks exchanged:
she hears the whisperings Of jeering
starers; she passes through gusts of mock
ing laughter which burst out III spite of
all efforts to restrain them; she fancies
there must be a host of eyes following after
her and mouths sneering at her. Punish
ment of her first fault! Magnetic attrac-
ton that in spite of all tertures magneti-
yes the feet and heart and drags you for
ward Irresistible vertigo of the forbid
den fruit, in which the first bite is bitter,
but to which one returns, and always fin
ishes Quick beatings of the heart
= tremblings on account Of a barking dog
fever of dangers braved-she beholds I'M
rolled behind her all the long odyssey Of a
lovers rendezvous, with its thousand
smarting details and its mysterious charm.
How, and how soon did she arrive at the
| quai2 She could never tell you that. She
! only remembers at last finding herself be-
fore dome. The dragons she had dream
ed of were there on the public square, in
| the shape of mounted dragons, motionless
more terrible perhaps in their reality than
they had seemed to her in her dream. On
I horseback, in full uniform, with white
leather hreeches, and drawn sabrss, they
kept the lazy rabble at respectable dis
lance, while a great crowd was staring
vacantly through gateway into court
yard, into which gentleman entered in a
hurried manner from time to time.
| The question now is, How shall she get
| through that gateway? The truth is that
! she has got thus far without thinking what
4 may happen-without ever wishing to
I think Of it. She has walked as though
\ impelled by some irresistible force-as
| though dragged forward by a leash-hav-
4 ing nothing in her troubled mind but a
faint vague hope, trembling like flame
| seen by night far off through fog. :.
4 After all, if they stop her. she will know
4 why! And, with sudden audacity, she
gathers up her skirts and closes her eyes
\ silently recommending herself to her pat
i ron saint as though she were about to rush
4 through the enclrcling flames of confa-
1 grafton.
4 Nothing has moved. Is it possible
I There is detachment of soldiers stack
| ing arms. She passes behind them and
walks right forward to the steps Of the
\ peristyle. An usher advances with frown-
/ ing brows-all suspicious on account of
/ her woollen Internationally assuming
( patronizing airs, and bending down to
bear her stammering her story with a
| grlmace of Impotence.
"Yes, yes'' he growls out, pushing her
4 toward the door: but you can come back
! again, you know; it is too late to speak to
him now; the proceedings have commence
/ ed
4 She murmurs gently:
''Then L shall wait.''
And with the cold tenacity of those who
risk their lives for the acquisition of
! right, she instals herself upon bench,
thenceforward inexpugnable.
She waits long, long time. Far off the
thunder of applause comes to her at inter-
walls in gusts of sounds whenever door
al
back and his head covered by black vel
vet cap, the usher walks backward and
forward. without uttering word; and she
only heats the disagreeable creaking of his
shoes upon the pavement. Every ten min
utes he goes to the windows, stares into
the courtyard with an air Of man bored
to death, and yawns as though he were
about to give up the ghost. Three hours
pass away. The unhappy woman does not |
notice it, buried as she is in the stupefac- |
ton of that endless waiting.
Suddenly the dead building becomes an
mated. Doors bang; the noise of great |
crowd disgorged rushes out and mandates
the vestibule. In that luxurious high-tide !
of human life, she finds herself surround !
ed and hemmed in-she, poor solitary ami
NAL of the good Gods great flock. She
shrlnks against the wall trying to hide
herself before all the pillows of silk and |
jet and fur, which brush with their aristo-
cratic trains against her poor calico dress.
But she-allowing all that fashionable
world to pass her unobserved, although it
tramples upon her feet unceremoniously-
raises herself upon tiptoe, straining her
neck IN her eagerness to catch glimpse of
one face, the hero of the occasion. What
it he should have left the building by
another door? What if she should be I'm.
able to recognize him? 1t is all she can
do to keep herself from crying OUT, ''Thy
Ninette is here!'' A group approaches
old gentlemen IN three-cornered hats, all
sparkling with decorations and crosses, all
wearing the green-faced coat and swords
at their sides. A gush of blood, as of
spring-time sap, leaps from her heart to
her cheeks-vermilion tinging for mo-
ment that complexion withered like the
color of some little apple forgotten upon
a cellar-shelf and long unkissed to rosiness
by the sun. Well! but whele is he? She
only sees little old man, with wart I'M
der his nose. all withered and wrinkled.
whom everybody is complimenting, and
who replies to their congratulations with
a pallid smile and a dull glance of the eye
Poor Loulou! Nevertheless it must be he!
y Lord how he is broken down.
He passes by, only three steps from her.
oy simply extending her arm she could
5ouch his sleeve-yet how vast the distance
'hat separates them! Lo he is imm ortalI
And shell.
1t passes, the ghost of love; and the
memories Of happy times pass away with !,