Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-10-09


made for the high-road and for home.
she was III no hurry to open these bud
gets of news. Such things came but
once in a while to this remote hamlet; and
when they did come they were leisurely
and thoroughly perused, not SKINNED
she got up to the high-road, she thought
she would Just pause there for Just sec
ond, and run her eye over the pages, lest
there might be some mention of Ronald's
name. She had heard of him but little
OF late and he had never once written to
her-perhaps he had no excuse for doing
SO. Ii was through Maggie that from time
to time she got news of him and now it
was Maggie's letter that she opened first.
Well, there was very little about Ron
aid. Maggie was at school Ronald was
busy he seldom came over to the minis
ters house. And SO Meenie, with a bit of
a sigh, put the letter into her pocket, and
turned to the other. But now she was
indifferent and careless 1t was not like
ly that her sister had anything to say
about Ronald, for he had not yet called
at the house. Moreover, Mrs. Gemmill,
from two or three expressions size had
used did not seem ANXIOUS to make his
acquaintance.
And then the girls breath caught, and
she became suddenly pale. "Drinkmg
himSClt to dcdth-in TIC lolccst o. Lo,O
COmpunU'-these were the words con-
fronting her startled eyes and the next
instant she had darted a glance along the
road and another back toward the inn,
as if with a sudden strange fear that
some one had oVerseen. No, she was all
alone : with the quickly closed letter in
her trembling hand: her brain bewilder-
ed; her heart beating; and with kind of
terror on her face. And then, rather
blindly, she turned and walked away in
the other dlrection-not toward her own
homeland still held the letter tightly
clasped, as if she feared that some one
might get at this ghastly secret.
" RoHuld i-Ronuid n'-there was
cry of anguish in her heart for tins was
all too sharp and sudden an end to certain
wistful dreams and fanCies. These were
the dreams and fances OF long wakeful
nights, when she would lie and wonder
what was the meaning of his farewell
look toward her, and wonder if he could
guess that his going away was to change
all her life for her and wonder whether,
if all things were to go well with him, he
would come back and claim her love--that
was there awaiting him, and would al
ways await him, whether he ever came
back or no. And sometimes, indeed, the
morning light brought a joyous assurance
with it she knew well why he had not
ventured to hand her that tPl-tale mes
sage that he had actually written out and
addressed to her; but in the glad future
when he could cone with greater conf
allow father or mother or any one else to
interfere On these mornings the Mudal
Water seemed TO laugh as it went rip
pling by ; it had a friendly sound she
could hear it.
Move the sweet forget -me-nots
That grow for happy lovers"
And at such time her favorte and secret
reading was of women who had been
hold nd mi I,,tp 1lt-n Il
she feared she had been tmid and had
fallen in too easily with her mothers
schemes for her: but now that she under
stood herself better-now that her heart
had revealed itself plainly to her-surely,
if ever that glad time We're to come-if
ever she were to see him hasten along to
the little garden gate-on the very first
moment of his arrival-she would not
stint her welcome of him? White white
were the mornings on which such fancies
filled her head and the Mudal laughed
along its clear brown shadows; and there
was a kind of music in the mOorland air.
" Drinhing himself to dCdth, in the lOlC-
est Of lO,C cOmpunUr '-black night seemed
to have fallen upon her, and wild be-
wilderment, and a crushing sense of hope
lessness that shut out forever those fair
visions of the future. She did not stay to
ask whether this might not be woman's
eXaggeratiOn, or the mere gossip of a
straight-laced set; the blow had fallen
too suddenly to let her reason about it !;
she only kney that the very pride of her
life, the secret hope of her heart, had been
in moment eXtinguished. And Ronald
Ronald that was ever the smartest and
handsomest of them all-the gayest and
most audacious, the very king of all the
company withersoever he went-was it
this same Ronald who had in so short
time become a bleared and besotted
drunkard. stunning the public ways, hid
al, l. -
creatures for his only friends And She
that had been so proud of him-that had
been so assured of his future-nay, that
had given HIM the love of her life, an(
had sworn to herself that, whether h
ever came to claim it or not, no other man
should take his place in her heart-she it
was who mad become possessed of this
dreadful secret while all the OF hers were
still imagining that Ronald was the Rom
aid OF yore she dared not 90 back to In
yer -Mudal- not yet. at least. he went
away along the highway, and then left
that for path that led alongside small
burn and by-and-by, when she came to
place where she was screened from all OBJ
servation by steep and wooded banks, she
sat down there with some kind of vague
notion that she ought more carefully to
read this terrible news; that presently
che had flung herself, face downward, on
the heather, in an utter agony of grief,
and there she lay and sobbed and cried,
with her head buried in her hands. Ron
aid !-ROn0Id ~ her heart seemed to call
aloud in its despair; but how was any
appeal to be carried to him-away to Glas-
gov town. And was this the end Was
he never coming back The proud young
life that promised 50 fair to be sucked I'M
der and whirled away in II black current :;
and as for her-for her the memory OF a
few happy days spent on Mudal's banks,
and years and years of lonely thinking
over what might have been.
A sharp whistle startled her, and she
sprang tU her feet, and hastily dried her
eyes A Gordon setter came ranging
through the strip of brentwood. and then
its companion; both dogs merely glanced
at her-they were far too intent on their
immediate work to take further notice.
And then itquckly occurred to her that il
this were Lord Ailine who was coming
n OnG, perhaI she might appeal 10 him
she might beg of him to write to Ronald
or even to go to Glasgow-for hal not
these two been companions and friends ?
And he was a mamie would know what
to do-what could she do. a helpless girl ?
Presently Lord Ailine appeared. coming
lesurely along the banks of the little
IL