The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-03-26

! IL Is ItliC " II dtlI Lblhlit lupus
ible-t put into accurate thinking and
tangible words the loveliness of thai
evening scene. Looking due south oveI
the apparently perfectly level of Oakland
and Alameda, The southern arm of the
bay, which CLEANS under the morning sun
like narrow silver ribbon that a boy
might Jump across, was a river of indigo
with scarcely visible ripple on all its
} surface. A wall of smoke arose above
the houses of the city; its base in gloom
its coping lighted with yellow flame
81 like it, Agnes; do your
Agnes turned at the sound of his voice,
and there was trace of dissatisfied sur
prise in her tones of welcome.
The young man would have been dull,
indeed, if he had not noticed, and spirit
less if he had not been piqued. "YOu
surely don't wish to keep the picture
quite to yourself, do you?'
"No, it was the immediate foreground
only that cared to monopolize."
Cared is past tense, Agnes"
Care, then
"'Care then isn't grammar"
She looked at him disdainfully for an
instant, and then looked another way.
"You will be sorry for this some
time," the young man said, quietly but
very gravely. ''If | have offended you,
let mo know how; I'm always ready
enough to apologize, am | not?'
"Too ready"
''Too ready?'
eyes. am as tired of this intermina-
Bile scene-making As yOH can possibly be
this kiss and make up condition of
affairs. We are engaged we have ex-
changed VOWS and rings and sophis-
tries"
"Sophistries ~
eyes; have we not declared over and
over again that We love each other above
all else? 1t is a-en error Each of US
loves his own way better than sweetheart
or lover Is it not SOP
''For you, possibly; not for me-"
If she had loo ed more closely at him
as she spoke, she would have noticed
that his face wore an expression she had
never before seen. John Vandor's fore
head carried a frown as black as the
shadows Of the forest hillsides above
San Pablo, and there was the precise
sort.of glitter in his brown eyes that the
usual fctioniSt describes as "baleful."
But she did not notice; and when he
said, slowly and painfully, as if every
word cost him moment of physical
pain; 'EDo you want your freedom back
again, Agnes? she answered him with
the defiant ring of assured proprietor
ship in her lark-like voice:
"Why, yes, for awhile, if you please"
"It shall be until you please to tire OF
it" was all he said
l. -, l., l. yln
without a single goodbye, and she con-
tinued to stand with a scornful smile,
while the afterglow faded out of the sky.
But the smile faded with the waning
flush in the western skies. and with the
darkness came sudden dread-a dread
she had not known or dreamed of.
"Will he ever come back p she thought.
will heT she said aloud. An obtrusive
hoot-owl screeched shrill reply, and the
poor girl found it anything but reassur-
ing.
She had been so sure of Jon Vandor'S
love. and had taken it for granted, that
no daring seemed too great. She had
thought it did not greatly matter how
courtship Jared, since marriage would
be master on the morrow. She was
prepared to be to her husband all that
wife ought to be; but t. abate one
iot of her freedom in compliance to
her betrothed ed-that was another mat
ter.
The morrow came, and to-morrow's
morrow but John Vandor did not come
with them. One day Agnes went to her
fathers study. In her eyes were un-
wonted tears She told him everything.
He waited until she stopped crying;
then he said-and, though the words
were the words Of Richard the bear, the
tones of his voice had in them all the
tenderness of the father-'sIt viii serve
you right if you two never meet again;
but you will.
The whistle of the midnight loeomo-
tive startled the echoes asleep in the
MADEIRA freight-house: in the freight
house. because there was nothing else
in MADEIRA big enough to harbor an
echo. First-elass passengers, sleep
aboard trains on the first stage of the
Yosemite trip. Richard Earle had been
asleep in his section three hours. What
to him was the yellow moonlight that
shone on an ocean Of yellow grain7 But
for Richard Earle's travelling compan-
ion there was no sleep while that moon.
light lasted. It was to Agnes a new
glamour; and of glamour She had but
| little in the two years then past. She
was proud girl, and drawer than most;
but the prolonged and unexplained alb
sence Of her lover had been no passing
grief. II the world did not suspect--if
even her father did not fully know, the
brown ewes Of John NandOr would have
- L.
have looked into hers for a glance's
span. III she was not; sad she was net.
But in her eyes q weary look that the
world never noticed, and beneath her
vigorous health was nervous, craving
unrest that even her father never saw.
When the train drew up to the sta
ton Agnes still sat IN her open section,
peering with longing eyes into wonder
| land. Half an hour after the train had
settled itself for the night, tall girl in
brown linen and Cruikshank sunshade
was walking alone down the track
toward Merced. with her feet In the
| fairy lirht and the cinder dust Of the
uneven rOad- bed ], following the waning
moon.
~ wonder IL it would be impFudent ~
well IS improper 10 90 70 sleep ia the
wheat. Rnfh-like and romantic II
She snoke aloud, but nothing ii the
profound stiffness answered her. The
noon had touched the far horizon, sil-
lrerine the crest 0f the west side hills.
Despite herself, the girl Has Z tribe
tired and very sleepy
Are these p0ppies u tie wheat e she
asked herself, smiling. What Il 50
Is elesp for Just i've minutes, who shall
asy ne mayor care