Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-04-08
MADGE LAMBERT.
BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY.
CHAPTER III.


he dined by himself and went to the
theatre. He sat close to the stage, and
when she same on she saw him. and
sent 3 slight smile towards him which
stirred him with u strange delight. When
tie play was over he drove at once to
the station and waited till Miss Lam-
bert came. With a beating heart he
went up to her. She was carrying
bouquet Of dark red roses. Hamilton
had sent the flowers to the theatre, and
it gladdened him to see them IN her
keeping. Miss Lambert saw him, aud
held out her hand. "Isaw you in front
tonight" she said with smile as they
walked toward the train together. What
measureless happiness to besO near her,
to have touched her hand again, to be
within sound of her voice! MAY l
come into your carriage" he asked
hesitatingly.
''Of course" she answered, and he
got in and sat opposite to her. "Some-
body sent me some flowers tonight"
she said; fare they not lOvely?"
Hamilton felt himself blushing redder
than the roses as he bent over them,
but Miss. Lambert did not notice his
embarrassment. She was able to talk,
and to talk well, little to his surprise.
Even while he sat under the spell OF
her beauty for those nights when she
seemed as far away from him as any
planet that tried to rival the brightness
of her eyes, he had told himself that to
know her would be bitter disillu5ion,
that she would be surely stupid anu
probably coarse. He found her charm
ing, intelligent woman, with delicate
artistic feeling and love for all beauti-
full things. There was a pretty little
afiectation Of the antiquarian spirit
about her which was strangely attractive
in so young and so beautiful q woman.
She told Hamilton that she was very
fond Of old silver, and for several mInu-
tes their talk was Of repousse and niello
work, Of Cellini and MaSO Fiuiguerra,
Of the pineapple hallmark of Augsburg.
She collected old engravings too, AMI
they were deep in the consideration Of
the best set Of Hogarth prints when the
train stopped at Clerks Common.
MAY 20 on to the next%' Hamil-
ton pleaded; al can walk back to
Clerks Common" Miss Lambert as
scented, and poor Hamilton had the
felicity Of sitting opposite to his divinity
for five minutes more till the train
stopped at Bishops Green. There was
q hanson cab waiting outside the
station, and Miss Lambert got into it.
Hamilton was about to say goodnight
when she leaned forward and said,
I'Can give you q lift on your way?
My house lies between this and Clerks
Common, so can take you part OF your
road" At that moment the highest
gift that life could offer him-even the
Presidency Of the United States-would
have seemed pitiful compared with the
privilege Of riding q few yards with
Miss Lambert. In another instant he
Twas sitting beside her and driving along
Ia suburban road with the night air
blowing softly against him. Often in
long later years he will recall that
hour and that drive, and muse with in-
extinguishable regret upon the deep de-
light it gave him. 1t was only few
minutes in a clumsy cab by the side OF
a pretty actress, but Hamilton was
Young and in love, aud the night WAS
soft with summer. He will remember
while be can remember anything the
waving trees upon the road, aud the
still starry sky above him, and the fair
young woman by his side.
Miss Lambert was talking of some
engravIngs Of the actors and actresses of
the last century which she had in her
rooms in London, and Hamilton dis
covered the keenest interest in the play
ers who delighted the four generations
of Georges. II should like to see them
very much" he said Twill you show
them to me sometime?" Miss Lambert
seemed quite pleased to show them.
She would be in town on the morrow,
and II Hamilton liked he might call at
three; and Hamilton, thanking her,
asked himself what he had done that
fortune husshowered her favors on him.
The cab stopped before the old-fashiored
red house with sloping roof that might
have been q lonely country parsonage
lin the days OF Harley and st. John but
now it was closed in by smart suburban
cottages that aped and outraged the
forms and colors Of the architects of
Queen Anne. "GOOd night" said Miss
Lambert, as she disappeared into the
house; "con't forget-tO-mOrrow at
three"
AS he journeyed homeward Hamilton
Was feeding his soul with delightful
Ifaneies. Only last night he had never
spoken to her, TO night he had sat by
her side, and he was to see her again
Tomorrow. ais it q dream" he askel
himself when he got home at last. "If
lit is q dream l hope / shall not wake
from il too sOon;" and as he thought
there came into his mind some melanc-
holy lines OF DEAN Of his lady, and
asks the gods wny they did not let that
dream endure forever, or ut least take
his life before he woke and found that
lit was only vision.
Next day, as three O'Clock was clang-
ing and clashing from every steeple in
1.-The city, Hamilton stood looking at
the river from the window of q pretty
room in one OF the houses Of street off
1.-THE Strand. The walls were covered
with old engravings and few pictures
THE old-fashiOned ceiling was paintel
an the manner Of departed age with
I-Ome allegOricsl combination Of goddess
land cupids and warriors aud river
deities. There was a piano and there
were books about, and pretty things
everywhere; some fine Oriental pOrce-
lain in JacObean cabinets, and a little
silver statute of tAe Venus Of Milo in a
niche. The windows overlooked the
Thames. To the right, on the curve OF
the river, rose the gaunt elOck-tower,
and beyond the keen-sighted might
discern something of the gray walls Of
the old Lambeth palace. To the left
Waterloo bridge stretched its great Rp-
man arches across the rushing water
burrying through the dusky city to be
purified in the sea. Across the stream
lay the melancholy Lethesn whsrves,