The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-12-08

sharp disappointment that might follow,
How ieisurely those two horsemen
rode toward the BRIDGE They were
conyersing earnestly, and the animals
they rode moved close together, as if the
riders were intent on some subject to
which they feared giving full voice
even in that profound solitude. They
crossed the bridge at walk, and with
out seeming quite conscious how it hap
pened, the two men checked their horses
close by the willows, and continued
their conversation.
With one foot strained back and the
other just lifted from the turf, ready TO
spring forward, Zulima had watched
them coming, but somehow her heart
sank as they drew near, and without
knowing il she allowed that eager foot
to sink heavily on the turf again, and
shrinking timidly within her shelter,
she waited with beating heart for the
conversation TO be checked, that she
might come forward without intrusion.
"Zulimal~ they had used that name
once, twice, before her agitation per
mltted the fact to convey any impress
sion TO her mind. But with that name
was coupled another that would almost
have aroused her heart from the apathy
of death itself.
1--WE must convey it to her gradually
she must be subdued by degrees" said
Ross, smoothing the name of his horse
with one hand
"1es," replied the other-the same
man who had accompanied Ross on his
visit to DeGrainges' cell-"with her in
| experience and impetuous temper, there
is no Judging what extravaganza she
might enact. She might even start off
in search of him, and then"
Here a sensation of faintness came
over Zulima, and she lost few words
| When the mist cleared from her brain,
Ross was speaking.
He would not see her. You do not
| know the man-seep'
| Ross took a letter from his pocket
and the two held it between them, while
Ross once or twice pointed out para
! graph with his finger and commented
on it in voice so low that Zulima
| could only gather what he said from
the expression of his face.
The first words that she could distin-
guish were:
This silence has already driven her
| wild; you will have fine time of it
when she hears this gossip about a
| rival"
1T may not reach her; indeed, how
can it?'
'Tbese things always reach head
! quarters sooner or later" was the reply,
so far as it reached Zulima, for that
| moment the horse which Ross rode
became tired of inaction and shicd
around suddenly; his rider with diff
| ar1lfVy coasrral he -
| crushed in his hand, as he hastened to
draw the curb, while an envelope, which
had contained 1t, huttered to the ground.
LET it go, let it go. l have all that
is important" cried Ross, checking his
companion, who was about to dismOunt,
and refining in his impatient steed with
difficulty.
The next instant they were both out
of sight.
Scarcely had they gone when Zulima
sprang from her covert and seized the
envelope. 1t was her husbands writing,
| addressed to Ross, the post mark Phila-
delphia-a letter from her husband and
not to herl Zalima held her breath !;
she looked wildly around, as if in search
| of something that could explain this
mystery; then her eyes fell to the writ
ing again. Tears, that seemed half fire,
flashed down upon the paper; her lips
began to quiver, she covered the frag-
ment OF paper with passionate kisses,
and then cast it from her, exclaiming
| wildly, mot TO me-not to me-"
Zulima returned home that day as
she had never done before. The slow,
creeping pace, so eloquent of depression
and batfed hope, that had previously
marked her return home, was exchanged
for hurried tread and excited de-
meanor. She was fully aroused to a
sense of wrong, to a knowledge that
some mystery existed which involved
her own future. All her suspicious
we're vague and wildly combined with
such facts as lay before her, but not the
| less powerful and engrossing.
She found Ross in the hall, standing
by the back-do0r, which opened to the
garden, and talking to his travelling
companion. The conference was checked
as she came up, and she heard Ross say,
quickly, "Hush! hushl she is here!"
Then the two stepped out and sauntered
slowly along the garden-walk. Zulima
followed their footsteps, and with the
wild fire of excitement burning in her
cheeks and eyes.
Ross turned to meet her. His look
was calm, his voice compassionate.
"We have heard nothing. There was
no letter." he said, interpreting the
question that hung on her lips.
NO letter to any one?'
Ross looked at her keenly. 1t was
strange question, and startled him.
Could the young creature suspect that
he was in correspondence with her hus-
band? She might conjecture, but could
not know. With this thought he an
swered her:
"He seems to have forgotten all his
friends, for even upon business Mr.
Clark communicates with no one"
Zulima parted her lips to answer, but
checking herself, she turned away and
went to her room. Her previous dis
trust of Ross was fully confirmed by
the false answer that he had given !;
| henceforth she resolved to act for her
self
There was storm that night; the
orange trees and the thick lime groves
were swept by hurricane that rocked
the old mansion house like a cradle
The rain came down in torrents, dashing
against the windows, and sweeping out
with the wind in waves of dusky silver.
All night long the lightning and the
winds wrangled and caroused around
the house, kindling up the chamber of
| Zulima every other moment with a tor
rent of white fame. She was writing
always writing, or with impatient hands
| tearing up that which she had done.
dissatisfied that language could not be
made more eloquent.
She lifted her pale face as the light
ming came in, sweeping over her loosened
| hair and her long white robe, and longed
TO dip her pen in the flame, that it
might burn the feelings that were heav-
ing her bosom upon the paper, and
kindle like feelings in the soul of her
husband.
Sometimes the lightning found tears
upon her cheek, trickling down from
her long eyelashes, and raining over her
paper in torrents that would have
quenched the fiery words she so longed
TO write; sometimes it found a smile
parting her lips, and CLEAN of ineffa-
bleafection glowing in her eyes. Change
full as the storm was that beautiful face,
where the tumult of her feelings was
written plainly as the tempest could be
traced upon the sky.
/ At last Zulima became wholly abb
sorbed in that which she was writing
Her pen flew across the paper, her eyes
grew luminous with ardent light. She
no longer started at some new outbreak
of the storm; when the lightning flashed
over her, she only wrote the faster, as if
J inspired by the fame.
i A great magnolis tree near the win
dow, with all its garniture of leaves, its
massive branches and broad white bios
aI orl h.~IcI l-r--,