The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-06-06
CHAPTER Y.
Our life is but a pilgrimage of blasts,
And every blast brings forth fear,
And every fear Al death

a And every blast brings forth fear,
And every fear death.
The 1st of September had arrived. but
neither at the Towers nor the Red Hall
was any party assembled, though, al
Mr.. Eyre's urgent request, Frank de.
parted for few days to neighboring
house, where he bewitched the women
and enraged the men, by the simplicity
with which he wore his honors as q
modern Loyelace.
The women'S inuendoes s, and the
mems open congratulations on his sue
cess, sent Frank home with such a sick
feeling of the powerlessness of calumny
that for three days after his return he
could not bring himself to approach the
Red Hail. "a a..
But Mr.. Eyre. who had watched his
wife narrowly, thinking that she droop-
ed in Franks absence, sent him pri-
vate word, begging him to come over
next day. and, himself unobserved, was
witness to the scene between them
when they met.
Madcap was sitting in her favori tie
nook OF the garden with scrap of
needlework in her hand, and nursery
book Oh her knee. out of which she was
teaching the children to spell, when,
looking up, she saw Frank coming. and
started up all rosy with delight. And
first Doune threw down his book, and
rushing to the young fellow, got hold
of his hand and shook it man-fashion;
then Dody got his other. and must kiss
his dear, beautiful Frank" and SO
reach his shoulder; then Madcap adj.
vanced and placed her little hand and
thimble in his unoccupied one, so that
unconsciously they made one Of those
most beautiful pictures that the gazer
may be permitted to think so much the
finer because it never painted. Mr..
Eyre looked on contented.> This was as
forces decaying within him, he thought
he had resigned himself willingly to
death, seeing happiness for Madcap
with Frank in the future.
In that curious sense of dual exis-
tence that had long possessed him, he
seemed at that moment to be looking on
at something that had been, or was
about to be, no sense of outrage to him
self piercing the insensibility that en-
wrapped him; but Frank. catching
sight of that face beyond, and as though
glance had power to dissolve the
gr CUP, Madcap and the boys were left
behind, and the two men brought face
to face.
"All well, Frank?" said Mr.. Eyre,
brought back to realities by the grip of
the young fellows hand. ~.
"All well. said Frank, with sigh.
1.-THE Dukes white washing has taken
effect, and am accepted by the county.
But what does it matterY" he added
quickly. 'Madcap is out of spirits, and
you are looking ill.,"
i've not slept slnce yestel day" said
Mr.. Eyre. I'VE will 60 out, and you
shall take us through your wood" and
he stepped through the open window
with Frank beside him. He noted, if
he did not inquire into, the blush with
which Madcap met them: but as they
took their way to the Towers curious
sense Of unreality possessed him, and
an odd idea occurred to his mind. He
thought that he was dead, and that
these two, whose happy voices and
laughter sounded in his ears like echoes
from great distance, were living, and
he, all unseen, a spirit who kept pace
beside them, and of whose presence
they were ignorant, as his memory by
them was forgotten. He seemed to
walk on air, his head light as his shad-
ow cast before him, down long, long
arcade that had no ending, and in
which he was doomed to walk with
these two who knew him not, forever,
though with it all he had vague sense
that he was asleep, and dreaming over
again something that had happened to
him yesterday, or the day before.
. Air, sky, and earth were lulled to an
exquisite calm; the very birds; cheated
into the belief that spring had come
again, poured out their songs as sweet
ly as in that brief time of love and hap
piness. 1t was the hour of the years
repose, the quiet folding of its hands as
il sank peacefully to sleep, its prepare
tions over, its fruits garnered in, like
one of those sanity lives whose even
ing is even more satisfying than its
vigorous, striving youth.
Half way down the avenue Madcap
paused suddenly, rs the regular blow
of woodman's AK sounded in the dis
lance.
"Harkl" she cried. "You are cutting
down these trees!" and she turned to
Frank with eyes of reproach.
ut is only the wookpecker," he said.
"No," he added in a lower tone, mot
one Of these lofty glorious heads ever
fell at my bidding, shall as long
as live. There is something appal-
ling, even blasphemous to me, in the
sight or one OF these monarchs, that
have weathered so many storms, crash
ing to earth at the bidding of man, not
God. TO be rent by thunderbolt is
grand, but to he hewn down 10y the ak
a degradation"
ut is like q human life," said Mad
cap, looking wistfully up at the inter-
laced boughs overhead. ''How much
better to be struck down by one blow
the short sudden pang quickly over,
bearable because OF the happiness and
vigor lasting to the end, than to die
gradually-frst ones illusions, then
hopes, then perhaps love, then, by and
by youth, and ones soul and heart dy-
ing last of all"
Franks eyes sank; he supposed her
to be thinking Of Hester, but Mr.. Eyre
looked up, while Dody, struck by the
word die, exclaimed
Don't die. mummy: don't de- and