Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1882-02-22

1
then asked Olympia if she was enjoyin,
herself.
Miss Osborne smiled languidly.
''Oh, yes-thanE you. Very much
The music is delicious, and have bee
pleased with good partners. 1 didn'
see you dancing, Mordaunt, after tn
Lancers. Oh, doesn't Miss Verne lool
exquisite tonight? She Is the very frs
who has worn cardinal and navy blne
and how it becomes herl How unfor
tuna.e that am not dark"
She was coming toward them alone,
faint suggestion of the odor of VIC
lets heralded her, and Leslie felt hi
pulse quicken and his breath come il
short respirations.
MISS Osmond met her with the efru
sion that it was the proper thing t,
show the beautiful young heiress.
my dearest Miss Verne, we were al
admiring Won in the trois temps wren
we, gentlemen? Oh, Mr.. Helvernton
that is orlr quadrillel Excuse us pleasel'
For second Mr.. Leslie wondered a
Olympia's unwonted excitement: ther
he remembered he vas alone with thi.
girl, with her violet eyes and droopine
lashes.
The temptation was fiercely strong OF
him-shonld he ask her to go for 6
quick walk on the sands? He knew II
was he height of mad, presumptuous,
objectionable folly, and yet, only to
feel her slight form on his arm, to looI
down in her eyes, to hear the tones OF
her volcel
Should he commit this folly, this
heavenly imprudence? And fate took il
In her own hands on the spot, for Miss
Verne gathered up her silken train III
one hand, and looked up Lalf-smiling at
him.
"Would you be bored if l asked you
to take me little stroll on the sands:
The moonlight is so delicious, and the
air so crisp"
And so Violet Verne took his arm, and
they two sauntered away from the
music, and the lights, and the crowd,
and the dancing, down the softly-lap-
ping waves and the numerous songs they
chanted to the white moonlight.
There We're only a few couples lolter-
ing there. arm-in-arm, soft-voiced, lag
ging stepped lovers, and every nerve in
Mordaunt Leslie's frame thrilled to the
mockery of the time the scene, and the
influence of both.
The girl on his arm was SO passing
far to see, with her flushed cheeks so
temptingly lovely, her long, dark lashes
sweeping them, her dainty hand lying
like a snowflake on his arm, and her
sweet vibrating voice coming to his ear
like some melody that enchanted him
that made him feel he had forever for
feited all hope of ever hearing it intone
love words to him.
They walked along, close to the wa
ter's edge, silent with silence that was
more eloquent than language, while
Mordaunt Leslie felt his whole soul ris
ing up III CONSERVATION at the blissful
happiness he was enjoying. He felt a
paradoxical sensation of reveling in
what he knew was not lawful, and Nor
damt Leslie. was a man of honor to the
hearts core, despite the slip he made
himself make that seductive night in
moonlight on the sea-sands.
That was how he came to lose all
thought of Olympia Osmond, all thought
of duty, all thought of anything but the
wltching creature who leaned on his
arm, and whose dropping lids were as
eloquent of her feelings at the time as
was her silence
That was how 1t happened that. in a
moment of ungovernable feeling, Nor
daunt Leslie who all his life had con-
scientiously thonght himself heart
less, indlfierent-Mordau Leslie sud-
denly stopped in their slow promenade,
and snatched Violet Verne to his heart
with a fierce, abrupt passion in the act
that was so indicative of the equal fer
vor and hopelessness Of his love.
He kissed her mouth, her forehead,
her lustrous hair, her flushed cheeks,
like one whose heart was starving for
affection. Healed here. name over and
over in a perfect agony OF passionful
longing, then, as if suddenly aware of
the wickedness of his behavior, he drop
ped her quivering hands and stood away
a step from her.
Miss Verne Violet, have mercy on
me, Pity me-forgive mel As there is
a God in heaven deserve only pity and
pardon from you--you, the only woman
ever loved. Oh, Violet, Violet, my
darling. my sweet"
His voice fairly vibrsted with pain,
and Miss Verne looked up in his white
face, half wonderingly, with little fiushes
and pallors alternating ON her own. with
all the sweet, shy light of answering
love in her eyes.
"Please don't talk SO Mr.. Leslie
Don't tell me TO pity or forgive you, be-
cause se-because-"
She hesitated, and the warm blood
suff'lsed her very hands.
Leslie groaned in almost deathly an
guish at her evident love and trust, and
happiness. What had he done, brute,
fiend that he was?
She must know the truth, all the
truth that comprised his objectionable
sin, and her own heart-soreness she must
know, and at once, and then-well. after
she had once turned away from him, in
the Just wrath and horror in which he
knew she would turn away when he con-
fessed his rascality, then it mattered
little what came to him.
He nerved himself, in all his weak
ness, like a man might nerve himself for
a death-blow. He felt his heart growing
heavy. icy lump; he heard the roaring
of the sea, as If it were thousand miles
away; he saw the look Of CONSERVATION
on the girls face, that changed to fear,
to horror, to such mortal woe, as he
rushed like a doom through the confes.
sion he was bound to make, and told
her, on his knees, how he was to marry
| Olympia Osmond how he had learned
the lesson too late how he cursed him
self for blighting her sweet young life
that had never before known a cloud.
She listened, with deathly ashenine
on her face, with a hopeless pain in hel
eyes, whose patience almost killed hln
to see.
Then after q silence of several terrible
minutes, her low, strengthful, yet ago
nized voice answered him.
''Mr. Leslie, it is not in my heart t.
hate you for this. How could whel
you love you me SO, and Love youjus