The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-07-25

broke reached us from the lawn.
 LioRelle, my imprudent darling, the night IS chill. Pay come in at once."
 CHAPTER VI.
 Twenty years had glided by-a goodly portion out of mans allotted span. The idler of thirty was an idler still. With travel, dilettante tastes-and, let me say at least this much on my own behalf some desultory work for the public veal l had contrlved to occupy myself so that the two decades were come and gone as a dream.
 Youth but thing of yesterday, and already age had come
 had never tallen in love again, and had remained bachelor.
 From the date of that moonlit night and reluctant promise wrung from me with kiss, Lionelle disappeared from my ken as completely as if we were deni- zens of separate planets. She ever re- ralned her old place in my heart and her hold on my imagination. Pickle and de- suitory in all else, here was constant.
 Perhaps my faitniulnesS had root iu vanity Perhaps remained true to the ideal of my youth because l had never found another woman 1 would fain have made my wife.
 It was superlative July day. On just such an afternoon twenty years before, lelsurely riding along country road that led upward from the sea, had first caught sight of Lionelle. And now, so strange chance would have it, visited once more the same pleasant seaside town and suburban country dotted with villas-the very scene of enchanted days so long past, yet untorg otten.
 l had been invited by rich Australian acquaintance, recently settled in Eng land, to join a party of friends about to assemble ID his country house
 We possess everything in the way of material comfort that the heart of mortal can desire" wrote my host. "A man. sion fitted up in what my uphoistereI assures me is the newest style; conserva- tories filled with tropical plants; tennis lawns; horses and carriages well-trained servants, the smartest page-boy, the most iady-llke maids, the most gentlemanly footmen imaginable. All that we want, and hardly know how to set about obtain ing, IS little good society. We are now going to muster few friends together, and shall try to give, with their aid, an out of-door pary y or two. So come as soon as you can, and stay as long as you will, in order to aid us unsophis icated bush. folk in this our first plunge into the vortex of fashionable life. My wifes S so- licitations accompany my own"
 There was a frank bonhomie about this letter that disarmed criticism, and having enjoyed my friends society during my bush travels, felt bound to accord him all the gool offices he asked at my hands now.
 accepted the invitation, therefore, and, by an odd coincidence, the date of my arrival exactly corresponded with the only unforgetaoie one l could boast of ln life's calendar-that day on which the vision of Llonelle had dazzled me for the first time.
 Having sent up my luggage, rode leisurely in the direction of Appleby house, As left the bay and the town doubled ia size and importance since visited it-I found that the destina- ton indicated to me by my host must take me close to the hydrepathic estab- itSutilCut Ol IOulduuC HlCiuOIy.
 True enough, there rose the solid old manson in gray freestone from its som- bre entourage ot veteran ilexes; there were the shrubberies in which had played hide e-and seek with Lionelle and there-I could not be mistaken-peeped out from the surrounding greenery the tiny summer-house in which had sealed my faithful promise with kiss. ii oc- cured to me all at once to pull out my friends letter, for .h,s seemed the very place described to me as Appleby house.
 found my conjecture perfectly correct. The hydropathic. establishment, then, had gone the way of so many other similar ventures The bath-nouses had been turned into stables-their original use the bright colored glass lamps had been and the old-fashioned country house in every respect had resumed Its normal aspect. Strangely enough, there. fore, l was about to spend few days amid surroundings ccnsec.ated to the one love and crowning sorrow of an every day mortal's existence And to the one l had no clearer conception now than then what Lionelle meant by those enigmatical utterances on the sub ject of undying youth and dual exist ence. And as the scenes of that last pas sionate episode once passed before my eyes l could explain to myself why had been able to keep my word, and consent to let Lioneile hide herself from me for ever. An, had her conduct been differ ent that night when we exchanged last should now be able to boast of a promise inviolably kept? l almost shuddeied as recalled her impersonal smile, her ice cold kiss. was content to believe that all was dark and myste- rious concerning her. hugged the mo- ton that once during my hu1ldrau., pro saic existence had touched the shores of the impalpable and unfamiliar. We accept mystery as one of the conditions ef human existence. Why, then, should