The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-05-14

she had been adopted into favor by the
senator's family. 1t had been due to
their patronage that she had been aid
ed in her artistic Advancement.
Coming into the dining-room of the
hotel one day, she encounters the face
of the man whom of all others on earth
she most abhors and would avoid.
lie is, then, spending the summer
holidays in this hotel, and she must
daily. almost hourly, be reminded of
the painful episode of her Cousin Lcu's
death, which had smote SO suddenly
upon her youth aud freshness.
He has been there for a week or ten
days when Marion perceives falling
off among her acquaintance-they
shrink from her. she is no longer in
popular request at private and public
entertainments.
He is there seeking his only means
of revcnge-a mean one. indeed, but
one in which he is capable of succeed
ing. For Marion. poor, and an or
phan, knows she is not now in the po-
sitiOn she once was, when she could
oyerpOwer him.
She sees but one hope ahead-there
is chance of yet thwarting him.
In the midst of gay assemblage,
May Leonard reads the following brief
lines:
Farley Scranton is here He has
been here for a fortnight, and he is
succeeding in a scheme against me
which he has undertaken. Scarcely
person will notice or speak to me in
the town, when two weeks since was
in request among all the best people
here. You can surmise, like myself,
that he will stop short of nothing that
will drag me down into the mire. If
your plans, my friend, were such as to
admit of your coming here, that, in
deed. would be my only salvation, in
asmuch rs my uncle is absent and be-
yond the reach of communication"
May Leonard, ever quick to act, left
the gay company and showed this let
ter to her father and brother.
The next morning they were off; and
that night Marion had the qualification
CT seeing Farley Scranton pale beneath
the avalanche of cold glances which
fell upon him from Mr.. Leonard, his
son and daughter, as they entered the
dining groom in company with herself.
Thus routed, Farley Scranton depart
ed from the scene of his late man.
Gvres early the following day, and
Marion fondly hoped he would never
again cross her path.
The presence of her distinguished
companions served to reinstate her
speedily in the world of S, and
Robert Leonard became one of her
devoted attendants, and before long
society was whispering that the beauti-
full fayorite of the public was the pros
pectiye wife of the son of Mr.. Leon
ard.
One day Marion had taken a long
walk along the shore.
She had gone farther than was Gus
tomary with the occupants of the
town. but love for that desolate gran
deur which old Ocean bears in his
widest stretches of loneliness had al
lured her.
She was nearing the town, and had
paused upon 4 slight promontory whose
black cap hung well out over the
tumbling waters, when she suddenly
became conscious of a presence unsus-
pected in this isolation.
She had scarcely time to turn, when
she felt a strong arm about her a
fierce voice Kissing in her ears, and she
knew she was powerless i'll the grasp
of her enemy, whom she had, indeed,
long ago defied.
With the strength of the desperate
she esSayed to resist.
But on--on to the fatal edge of the
rock she felt herself going. The space
was growing less and less between
them and the precipice, over which in
another instant she would be tiung.
to lind a grave in the booming ocean
below.
The waves would close over her, and
no one Would know the story Of her
end.
Dizzy, faint. her senses were wan
ing; she scarcely knew whether the
fatal fall had oyertaken her, or wheth-
Ell that death grip had slackened.
At last she opened her eyes, to find
bending over her the familiar face OF
Robert Leonard,
She was saved, and by the hand of
the man who loved her!
She looked round.
"Where is he?" she asked.
II stole up behind him, and plunged
this weapon in his shoulders" as he
spoke he lifted from the ground a knife
dripping with blood. "But it was not
wound that killed. for he turned with
the speed of lightning and ran. ii he
do not bleed to death, he will yet es-
cape the justice which he deserves. "
II cannot believe that / have es-
capped the death that a few moments
since seemed so awful and so near.
And to you owe my escape"
Marion, you know not the agony |
endured for the moment when l saw
that Villains efforts to hurl you from
this rock. Promise me here, now, that
you will become my wife. Give me
the right to protect you for evermore
against tbs worlds injury"
'.Should consent to do this, Mr..
Leouard, you must remember that you
take to yourself penniless bride, "
said Marion.
But Robert Leonard, if he listened to
this worldly suggestion, evidently was
bent upon not remembering it, for, as
the weeks of their engagement flew by
it was patent to everybody that this
was a case of real love.
And when one day lawyer called
upon Marion, and informed her of hel
uncle's death, and the will which he
/ lau lell, WHICH Iliuo Hci HCIlCSS vi
all his property, she reioiced that he
who was about to become her husband
had wooed and won her before this
good fortune had come upon her.
What fortune could bring SO great g
blessing as this assurance of loy6 fol
loves sake?
As for Farley Scranton-he still
lives. But he lives unmarried, in {
foreign land. That he is making mon
ey there is little doubt, for when did &
cool head and unscrupulous conscience
ever fail to do that?
But cruel nature leads to its owl
punishment of bitter isolation.
The parching lees of old age anC
death await him, and within them lie'
the venom of contumely, far harder tC
endure than the prison walls from
which Marion Stallard mercifully pre-
served him.
''Will you please let this young lad,
have your seat?" asked a young maj
of hard-working laborer in crowde'
gtreet-car the other day. 81 don
think l will, sor. j see she's got pal
! -, ~roint fn fhi