Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-06-30
CHAPTER III.
CUTHBERT's SECRET.

pIeSSloiiS.
CHAPTER I'LL
CUTHBERT's SECRET
Utter silence falls never on boys school.
Not even on the dormitories, wherein the
snoring of dull stomachs and mutterings OF
Young sumber, and the restless sprawling of
limbs that makes the bedsteads creak and the
bed clothes slide, are sounds audible through
out the night.
But there should be peace at prayer time.
That hour is arrived, and now we certainly
find tolerable stiffness on the benches, young
knees and fitful tendency toward laughter
notwithstanding.
The resident uShers at the corner Of each
form, their fingers to their eyes, stand erect.
Cuthbert kneels near his father. A breeze
from the sea keeps the chestnut leaves at the
windows shivering, and through the twink
ling of them the faint gold-shine in the west
comes and goes, with the large stars in the
nearer sky and the growing whiteness of
moonlight on the fields.
Then to bed decorously, as becomes the re-
cipients of the benediction.
AS the boys file out through one door, Cuth-
bert walks out behind his father through an
other door.
Though watched on the whole by his father
more closely than he merited, seeing that he
had long ago abandoned petticoats, Cuthbert
enjoyed every evening ali hour and a half of
liberty, what time the doctor, having dis
missed his scholars to bed, withdrew to his
study to relax his mind in all ways that
pleased him after the tension of the day.
His little spell of evening holiday was
come, and as the tails of his fathers coat
nuttered through the study door, Cuthbert
swung down his hat aad left the house.
In the young moonlight, and the glimmer-
ing memories of crimson over the dark line OF
the cliff, the ocean breeze, snatching land
fragrance from the nesting crops, was sweet
as honey.
Down the broad white road Cuthbert went
swiftly, pausing once to pull watch from
his fob
The road led straight to the town.
Coming presently to the brow of the west
ern slope, the town lay in a fog of moonlight
at his feet, the lamps threading it in veins of
fire sparks, and the sea creaming wash of
white foam on the semicircle of beach.
And so forward and downward, his shadow
growing smaller in his wake, and the dusky
level with his shoulders, until row of noble
wayside elms bury him in their heavy gloom.
Here he halts.
It is weak-hearted love that is not pune
tual in it's promises; and what should excuse
delay, when the lover waits and the summer
moon shines out her sweet invitation, and the
soft wind sets the trees bending stately heads
to behold the coming of the tardy one?
But 10! figure steals around the bend Of
the road from behind the plumage of the
fields, and in moment lips are meeting.
The embrace is warm one, wanting in
coyness, and the richer in tenderness for the
want.
Something to stiffen Dr. Shaw's frill into
ferocity, and to rob the finest Scotch of all
flavor in his nose.
at is barely the quarter" the girl said in
low voice; and she cIasped her hands upon
his arm and strained her eyes at his face.
awe are both before our time"
"Both impatient, Jenny"
"Ay; but I will take most credit, for the
way is all up hill for me, dear"
"How long can you give me, pretty!"
"Not above five minutes"
"Indeed; then those minutes shall be long
ones"
"Not above five minutes I say, Cuthbert;
and feel the pity of it this lovely night,
when the moon is so pretty, that l shall
cry to 60 to bed"
He kissed her hand.
"Mother thinks am gone to see Kate Oil
ver," she went on. "So I must not stay, for
fear she should ask father to fetch me. There
are troops of fishermen in the market place,
and the streets are full of people, and mother
does not like me to walk alone"
"Would she think you safe with your hus-
banda"
"Ah, would not she! If father had her
heart"
"Put away your hat that you may lay
your soft hair on my shoulder Here is dry
cushion of grass with streak of moonlight
on it for me to see you in. Have little pa
tience while talk to you. Mother will not
be wondering yet.
So they seated themselves on the verdure,
where the moonlight fell in lance of trem-
ulous silver, and she, dutifully removing her
hat, bent her cheek to his shoulder.
Thus they sat, with no other sound to dis
turb them than the moaning of the sea and
the rustling of the leaves over their heads.
In the moonlight lovely woman's face
takes sad and moving beauty.
Not a sweeter face ever smiled in the love
of mans eyes than Jenny's, though marred
by the moonlight as a mirror for the emo
tions, which, in the glory of the day, gave it
color and archness, and hundred turns OF
grace.
"My little wife," said he in his gentle voice,
81 have been closely pressed to-day by my
father. put him on a scent that puzzled
him; and really he went down to it greedily,
for his anxiety to find out the meaning of
what he chooses to call my altered behavior
is perfectly wonderful. 1 hinted-merely
hinted-that the news of our sea fights, and
our battles ashore, had set my heart beating
for higher feast than examining boys with
learning. Well, it was time he noticed some
change in me-"
Jenny counted with her fingers upon his
shoulder, softly smiling and listening to him
the while