The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-02-01
Her Last Request.
81 do not doubt YOU"

81 do not doubt you"
Esmerelda w. Pike spoke these words
in clear, ringing tones, but beneath the
resonance of her voice there was faint
quivering mere suggestion of a sob
that would have told an observant
listener the old, old story of love that
was shattered forever, of beautiful air
castle in whose halls stalked only the
grim spectres of dcsolation and woe. and
from whose turrets a great sorrow kept
silent vigil over a world that could never
again seem bright or joyous. Be girl
of the stoical, unyielding kind that can
bear disappointment and adversely with
out a tremor of the muscles or CULVER of
the nerves, there is yet one time in her
life, one moment Of supreme horror and
grief, when the sunlight of happiness
seems to have faded forever from the hOri-
zon OF her existence, and the black pail
of an agonizing doubt which has at last
become terrible reality, falls upon the
CHASTITY corpse of a dead love-a love
cruelty murdered by the one who above
all Others should have cherished and pro-
tected 1.-THE man at whose bidding it
has grown and expanded like beautiful
flower that needs only care and attention
to be forever thing of joy.
1t is Il solemn thing for any man to
win the love of pure and trusting girl
a love that knows no boundaries, that
exists only for the one man in all the
wide, wide world, at whose heart it is
offered up as from an eternal incense,
and that when turned aside from the OBJ
ject of its alteration burns with even
tiercer.. flame than before, and leaves
behind it only blackened ashes and the
charred corpse of dead and gone affcc-
ton.
George w. Simpson knew this. He
knew that Esmerelda's love for him was
not an ephemeral fancy, but strong,
unwavering. you can chew my gum
while.I -am-reciting passion that would
gather intensity and force as the Yeas
went by, and that when the autumn of
life had come would, like the ripening
grain, be even more beautiful and endur-
ing than in the days of its lustv youth.
1t was this knowledge that made the
task of parting forever from Esmerelda
such hard one. But in spite of his
tight pants George w. Simpson was Il
man in whose nature there was strong
element Of duty, and he felt that, no
matter what present sorrow might arise
from such action, it was best that the
tie which bound them together-the
solemn tic of plightcd troth-should be
sundcred, rather than that a greater
grief, more blighting misfortune,
should fall upon them later in life. And
so when he had told Esmerelda-
whispered the words to her softly as they
stood there beneath the linden trees that
soft, autumnal evening, the signing wind
that waited subtle aroma of corned beef
from the next house kissing the fair
check of the girl and toying with the
mass of golden hair that sat upon her
head like crown-there had been in his
voice certain something that told the
girl more plainly than could any words
that behind the studied calm of his de-
meanor, far back in the woodshed of his
soul, there was II secret-a dark, flynn
the-cream-pitchar secret, of which she
knew nothing.
"What is this terrible mystery that
enshrouds your action, daringl" asked
the girl, looking up to him in the dumb
agony Of an awful grief. Gwen though
we are to be separated forever, it seems
to me that | have yet a right to know
what it is that has desolated our lives
Can you not grant this, my last request. p
"No,' he says, in IA voice that is hoarse
with agony, Il dane not tell YOU"
'But | demand an answer to nv cues
! tion," she says, imperiously.
He regards her moment in silence,
and then, just as he turns to 60, she
clasps las arms and looks up to him with
Il pitiful pleading IN her brown eyes.
''For the sake of our dead love-" she
whispers, ''tell me-"
Bending over the frail form, George
whispers in her ear one little word:
"Chilblains. y ChicaQ0 Tribune.