The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-06-07
n WGek's Change,

They had gone down to the seaside
for weeks change. The day was a
perfect one, with now and then caDful
OF wind blowing out of the little round
clouds that swelled up over the horizon
zliiyp pbMbblus.---.,,.... y !, .,..l
'Will you go out with meY'' asked
Helena.
"With all these haws?" he said.
"Just as you please, tien viii go
alone"
"Alone! What in heavens name
could you do alonep"
II am not Grace Darling nor Ida
Lewis" she said, the laugh Frightening
all the rich color in her cheek; ''but 1
fancy | could pull a boat about in these
smooth waters"
"Life would be much more comfort
able, Helena, if there were something
you were afraid of in It'll Well, here we
co." and lie gathered up his lazy length
and reached his hat. ''If we drown it
is yonr fault"
'It doesn't much matter about drown
ing" she said, swinging her hat us they
went along the shingle, and unaware
that she spoke in otller than matter
of-fact Way. ''If we drown together.n
care you SO indifferent to life-in
such hurry to get through--n
"Oh, no, no, never But it is all 50
blest that am half the time afraid some
thing will happen-s'
"But the worst that could happen is
death, and
"No, indeed; the worst that could
happen would be that you might look at
some other womanl" and then they both
laughed, knowing we'll the habit of her
jealous rangs, and ran along TO the boat,
it signifying little that neither of them
knew much Of anything about boat,
and that they were running before the
wind directly in the track of the sea-
going steamers.
"Could anything be more perfect?n
said Helena, half recumbent in the stern,
sea and sky making a sapphire and lapis
lazuli ring about her. 1--WE seem to be
alone in this great hollow shell of the sky
and sea. 1t is like our old lover days
over again."
'Only BETTER" he answered her..
''Only BETTER" she repeated.
"We must come out at night, with the
sea and the stars and the freedom Of the
universe alone together" and as they
sailed, he told her histories of the old
craft that had ploughed these waters
fire-shils and phantom ships-and recit-
ed to her verses of his own indting, for
now and then he turned off a little song
as perfect as pearl.
'"That is the strangest thing,n she
said, "that you, who don't know what
music Is, should have the writing of
such verses, and /, who am music q
confidante, cannot write a melody.n
"You are melody" he said. And
just at that instant there was roar, a
rush, q ringing Of bells that sounded in
their ears like gongs, wild cries, a vast,
black hull towering over them, a crash,
a sweep of many waters, and then moth
ingness.
Half an hour afterward a fisherman
found a broken boat afloat, bottom. side
up, a man entangled in the rigging, his
head above water, unconscious, but
| alive. Trimming his sail speedily, he
took tho half drowned man ashore. And
| after thosickness and delirium of weeks,
as wretched and desolate a man as walk
ed on earth, Leonard Vance took UP
his colorless life, alone, as he said, tin
the sea gave up its dead. For Helena
was never folmd.s I scraped the moss
away, the other day, from stone set up
as a memorial without grave, and
overgrown with bramble roses, to read
the name upon it, Helena Vance, lost at
sea, aged 90, q