The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-09-01

Annie, Lawd help him! Lawa keep hln
from the reach o. NV hands,
As locked into his face, could not hell
echoing the prayer. felt certain at The
| same time. that his fears and suspicious haC
shot greatly In excess OF the truth [ knew
| that scandal was busy with poor Annie:
name. and that much of the scandal mus
have reaehed\ his ears; but / could not yei
bring myself 10 believe that Annie's flight
befokened anything seriously wrong. Oi
| one thing felt. nevertheless, certain-thai
| II wrong had been DONE George Redruth
| WAS in some way responsible.
| / stood and watched nv uncle as he wan
| dered away in the direction of our home;
then l turned my face again toward the sea
4 and wandered on. As | went the mool
| grew opener and wilder. strewn with great
stones and bowlders like fragments of the
/ wreck of some past world; some huge as
| menhirs translated thither in some prehis
toric period on wondrous foods-wben the
| ard waste on which trod was the oozy bot
tom of a troubled sea
Here and there fed wild cattle. black and
! horned. like those that haunted the woods
Of ancient Britain. In solitary places the
buzzard hovered, and by the brink OF lonely
tarns the heron waded, rising up as l ap-
preached, with sleepy watt of wing.
At last after a ramble of several miles, l
approached the sea margin. My path was
now on the stony edge of low-lying cliffs, at
! the base of which the waters thundered for
ever. Here found lonely promontory of
black gnnlte stretching out into the sea, and
Yhitened at its limits by the ehalky drop
pings of innumerable sea-birds. On rocky
island few yards from the extreme point of
the promontory, sat flock of cormorants;
as / approached, they turned their snake
like necks, but did not rise
The sun was warm and bright, the sea calm
and shimmering like steel. l threw myself
down ON the rocks, and, with face-upturned
to the clear skies, closed my eyes. A large
black winged gull wheeled, screaming over
me, and then sailed slowly away. All l
heard was the low murmur of the billOws
breaking sadly Non the rocks beneath me
that sound which "deepens silence" and has
such solemn meanings for the troubled hui
man soul
Suddenly another sound broke upon my
ear. / started, and listened. The sound
seemed to come from the sea itself, and was
like mermaid singing. rose quickly. and
crossing the rocks, walked in the direction
from which the voice came.
Approaching the edge of the crags, look
ed down, and saw beneath me, in the very
shadow OF the pTomontory, a quiet creek
The rocks fell asunder. leaving a space of
sandy beach, some twenty yards broad, and
closed by the still waters of the sea, which
broke in thin fringe of white foam on
sunny slope of white pebble and golden
sand.
1t was nook Just such as the tabled meT
women or sirens might have chosen when
the world was haunted, and such fair erea-
tons frightened the sunshine. But whatam
l saying? 1t was haunted still, and by one
far sweeter and more winsOme than any
mere creation of poets fancy
Lying like a basking seal on the loose
shingle just under the rocks and looking up
at me with sparkling eyes, was the coloreG
girl from DeInerara; and standing on the
waters edge, with her face looking seaward,
was Madeline Graham.