The Penn's Grove record., 1883-09-29

CiidtlHcu my HcdI5 iuOO IcChiCoouCoo,
pouring forth its UNDECIDED treasures at
his feet.
My excitement in representing all
this, and seeing the seal set upon my
misery, brought its own punishment.
For a week my life was again despaired
of.
Then, because | did not wish the boon,
strength came slowly back. Every day
he came /; every day he sent me flowers,
or fruit, or some sweet message (; but it
was all an added torture.
At last, when 1 grew better, the
| physicians said | must have change,
and s they sent me TO the seaside, to
! visit an aunt who had house at Worth
ing.
| was glad to go. Had | stayed at
home | should have gone mad. Alic5
and Mr.. Branscombe went with me to
the train. l bade her good-by, and the
train was just about to start, when he
put his head in through the window.
"You will let me come and see you,"
he said, and | had only time to answer;
mo, no, you must not conn ~
Only time for this, and to note the
swift look 81 like pain, which swept
over his face ere he moved away, and
my last glimpse was of them both
standing side by side, as they should
henceforth stand through life.
Notwithstanding my injunction to
the contrary, he came. | had been in
my new home a fortnight, and some of
the color was stealing back into my
cheeks, when III afternoon, as l sat
alone, dreaming, as | dreamed all my
idle hours away, | saw the face which
a moment before had 1oated in my
fancy.
For a moment l was happy, supreme
ly, ecstatically happy, and springing up
l held out both hands with a rapturous
cry of welcome, then | sank back cold
and stern again.
Bat that cry had brought him close
beside me, and my hands were so tightly
held in his strong clasp, while his great
brown eyes look d into the very depths
of mine, that l trembled and was still.
Merciful heaven what was it that /
read there? Could it be that he loved
me, and that he had wooed and won
Alice for her gold
| should have said before that my
sister was an heiress. [ had no dover
not even that of beauty but Geoffry
B~ranscombe, l would have was
not a man to be bought and sold, to buy
and sell and yet, if not, his eyes had
lied, for they had told me that it was
me he loved.
| don't know just what came to me
in that hour, that moment, but though
[ realized or thought l realized, his
baseness, yet l Gould not snatch from
my lips the cup whose sweetness slaked
their thirst. | held it there and
drank.
We spoke no word of love, but every
day found him by my side. I was no long
er listless / was brilliant even merry. |
laughed and sang, as one might laugh
and sing at the feast Of death.
And so a fortnight passed, and still
he fingered but his return was fixed
for the morrow. On that last evening
we wandered down upon the beach,
silvered by the moonlight. Standing in
its rays, he turned and faced me clasp
ing his hand over mine as it lay uponhis
arm.
"Mabel," he said, Il love you, child
You are but a child, and | am a mar who
has outstripped you in the race of life
by twenty years. But will you give
yourself to me, dear ? Has it been my
W blind fancy which has given birth
to the sweet hope that | alone might
make your happiness 2"
He paused then, waiting for my
answer. Only a minute passed, but l
had awakened from my dream. l had
not thought his baseness ever could
find words had not thought my sister
would know his perjury.
Only a minute, but l had torn out
my heart and trampled it beneath my
feet. l turned upon the man with hot,
fierce passion !; 1 forgot that l had led
him !, 1 forgot my OWL baseness, my own
love. What burning, scathing words
I used, l know not, but when l had fin
ished he offered me again his arm, from
which | had withdrawn my clasp, and
| we walked back in silence to the house.
Yet, as he left me, still without
a word, / felt strange to say, only
my own guilt. He had not borne
| himself like one convicted of a wrong.
The next week | went home. Alice
was the first to meet me, and that night
she erept into my room, and knelt
down beside me as she had done once
before.
"Darling I" she whispered, next
month l am to be married, and
you are to be my only brides
maid.n
II cannot - | answered. Don't
ask me, Alice 1t would kill me !"
"Do you really love me so well, dear
But you will not refuse me this? 4
would mar all my happiness, Mabel
and l am so happy. When you have
seen Harry-when you learn to know
and love him for himself-you will un
derstand.n
"Harry ~ / gasped. "Who is hep"
"Harry-Harry Stretton the man
am to marry. Why, Mabel, you toh
me you knew it all. Is it possible yoi
did not know 7"
| An1 than cha told ma nf the anOQOp