Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-05-06

will make mp to her for the pain he has
cost her in the past, and she will not
grudge the tears she has shed. Mothera
never de, I think"
She is the dearest, tenderest, best t-,'
said Ruthven.
81 am sure Of that. Tell her that she
does not seem like . stranger to me, but
like some one I have known and loved,
and suffered with. / have thought 80 much
about her since l knew her boy that she
has seemed to grow quite near me-"
Millicent lay there like waxen image,
80 white, SO still, with closed eyes and
lips gently moving.
And Ruthven watching her, felt old
memories rise and surge in his heart like
the waves of troubled sea.
All at once she locked up at him, eagerly,
intently.
a knew Cuthbert for your son the mo-
ment saw him, and I took him straight
into my heart"
"You put me away from your heart in
the old days, Millicent.
A slight spasm crossed her marble feat
ures.
"DidI! Well, have made up for it
now. have kept you in my memory all
these years..
"Why did you never answer my last
letter"
81 always was one to do things thor
oughly, you know; even my enemies
allowed that; and SO 1 sent you away
thoroughly"
He thought the hand that still lay in his
was growing strangely cold, and had half
. mind to call for some attendant. But,
as if divining his intention, Milly gently
shook her head.
ting all my cotton bobbins !" she said
presently with a faint smile.
"But was very sorry, and picked them
all up again you counted them, you
know" he answered, humoring her mood.
She muttered some words he could not
catch. Surely, the hand in his was grow
ing colder still.
Her mind was wandering back to the
old home.
Once more she saw the river stealing on,
whispering through the sedges. gliding be-
meath the alder.boughs; and Ruthven, not
the life-worn man who stood beside her
now, but a slender, dark.eyed boy, with a
smile like sunshine.
Hearing her breath come short and fast,
Ruthven would fain have sought some aid,
but the feeble fingers held him fast.
"Do not GO" she said, seeming to battle
for moments fresh strength "there is
something else / want to say; put your
head closer down to me. 1 am not strong,
you see-and my voice fails me-"
H. fol1 ,,ao,, ~, Hpaoo hocido ho cornh
crushing his lips against her hands.
Ruthven," she said, softly, "you say
1 put you from my heart, and it is true,
dear, butt loved you all the while.
Silence no sound but the ticking of a
clock hard by. A life's secret had been
told, and the answer to its telling the
sound of a mans weeping.
81 knew it was best 80, for you and for
me-and l was right, you see, wasn't l :?
1t was passing fancy, that love of yours.
1t was lads love, dear, and nothing more.
Such as it was, you gave it to me in all
truth, and, Ruthven, it has lasted me all
my life"
She drew one hand from the clasp of his,
and for moment gently touched the bowed
head which almost rested on her breast.
Ruthven's hair was thickly lined with
gray, worn from the temples almost white
just above the brow.
But the eyes of the dying woman were
dim. She noted noue of these things.
To her that bowed head was dark with
clustering locks as in the olden time, the
dear dead time whose last knell was quiver-
ing through that silent, shadowy room.
How long Ruthven knelt there he never
knew. When at last he raised his head
the face of the woman he had once loved so
we'll was still-the hands he clasped were
cold-in death.-[A the Year Round.