The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-04-02

dlnOSI ike dnOUDer sister. one was
staying with them, and upheld Ken
meth whatever we might say.
Mrs. Vernay dined that night with
the Lamberts, coming in like some
beautiful being from another world,
jewels glittering in her dress, and in
her hair a snake that glittered with
diamonds and rubies.
We all came and paid court to her,
Kenneth included. She looked with
interest at him, saying:
"Ah! The Hermit brother. / have
SO wanted to see you. Have you left
your seclusion?"
Eyes, as we all knew he would"
quoth Marie Lambert. '"The cold
weather on that moor could not be
endured"
"My sister is mistaken" said Ken
meth; 81 left for other reasons, and
did not particularly like coming away
from my solitude"
eve will teach you the pleasures of
society" Mrs. Vernay cried. "Soli-
tude is horrible. Man was not made
to live alone"
Did / see Kenneth vince? / could
not tell.
Then Grace came, asking Mrs. Yer
nay to write in her birthday book.
And the beauty inscribed Lilly Ver-
nay" in a clear, beautiful writing,
matchless as herself.
Kenneth read it over Grace's shout
der.
"Your name is Lilith," he said to
Mrs. Vernay.
"Who told you that2" she asked,
and he replied:
81 know it," without offering any
explanation.
"Lilith! horrid!" murmured Grace,
as, with Frank, Mrs. Vernay moved
toward the piano.
81 think it pretty; why horrid?"
Marie asked.
"Do you know about LilithF@ her
friend replied. "She was Adams first
wife, and for transgression was turn
ed out of Paradise. She is the enemy
of all little children, and when Jewish
babies are born the nurses write
Lilith, avauntp against the wall, lest
she should come and kill the child,
And tradition says that she still
haunts the world as O beautiful wom-
an, who entices men to marry her,
and then strangles them in her golden
hair"
"a tradition" said !, something
like the legends of the Greek Lamia."
How do you know that there is
not truth in traditions and folly in
rejecting them?" Kenneth asked.
Meanwhile Mrs. Vernay was singing
song after song, and with every note
stealing away a bit OF Franks heart.
And her music won Kenneth to her
side, for he took his brothor's place
at the piano, and stood there turning
over her pages-I believe N all the
wrong places, for he looked more in
her face than at the music.
Iconfess that In those days / was
vexed with Kenneth, for he seemed to
have taken a sudden and inexplicable
plunge into the society which a few
months previously he had abjured for
ever. There seemed only one explana-
tlon-his ideal life had proved dull
and irksome. Everywhere | met him,
chiefly with Mrs. Vernay; often Frank
was with them, a woe-begone, unde-
sired third party. And the girls de-
clared that it was a shame Kenneth,
who rallied against marriage, should
come and steal her away from his
| brother.
A few women there were who dis
liked Mrs. Vernay. My wife was IN
of them, and we'll enough we all knew
the reason. For when, with maternal
pride, she one day showed off the chill,
dren to the pretty widow, Mrs. Vernay
turned from them with q cold look of
disgust, saying" / detest children
Ar insult no mother could forgive.
s'That unnatural woman" my wife
from henceforth called her.
How lovely she looked at the Christ
mas ball when, radiant with delight,
she crossed the rooms to say to me,
Look at the progress o. my CONVEX
sion. Here is Hermit Kenneth in this
frivolous scene"
81 wish / was at the chapel" Ken
meth himself remarked; and certainly
no man looked so unsuited to a ball
room. He had grown pale and thin
during his solitary life, and wore q
thoughtful air / never before had NOS
ticed in him.
.sWhy on earth don't you go back?"
said I. Nothing has surprised me
more than your appearance here"
~ knew Il would be So he an
swered. III had to come"
Then in that incongruous place he be-
gan telling me his experience in that
wild solitude.
I began to think my life there use
less, q mere indulgence Of my own tastes.
I yaod aud thofl0hf but4tha mysteries
OF life seemed as unfathomable as ev-
err. One evening | felt myself no long
er alone. / saw nothing, Iheard Moth
ing, vet / absorbed this command into
my being: go into the world, for
there is a life you must save, q demon
you must vanquish, and the life you