The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-06-26

% a kluu OF relnObe CONTACT VIII fefCiNdl
The bedroom where Percival had slept from
boyhood was in that house The books ht
had read were on the shelves. Here he used
to sit at dinner. There was the garden wall
where he was won't to saunter with his pipe
She knew the very peg where his hat used tc
hang Somehow he did not seem quite SO fal
away when she was in the precincts of hi
own home, and the rectors dispirtted tall
had certain liveliness for her, because he
was Percivafs father Occasionally, too, she
would get glimpse at her absent lad him
self. For instance, one day, as they were
walking together to the garden gate, the
rector said:
"Percy planted that rose"
Next week, as they went the same way,
Sophia stopped beside the rose tree to pluck
look trim. Mr.. Brent stopping with her,
said in his distracted way:
Il never told you; Percival planted that
rose
He never told her! Why, by that time she
knew how many leaves were on it, and could
spell its name and knew its prospect of life,
having become for Percival's sake perfect
horticultural actuary
Then another day the rector said listlessly
for he never joked with her about his son,
and indeed seemed to have only faint re-
membrance of that connection:
Il heard from Percy this morning; would
you care to hear his letter.
Sophia, who would have lived on bread and
water for week rather than miss one line
her darling wrote, said, trying with miserable
pffactptlnp 10 fh..r attpr'C bntif
tone:
YES, if it is not troubling you'
perhaps Mr.. Brent said, las YOU don't
seem greatly to care for it, we need not read
this one, but wait for the next"
He said this quite innoccntly but he put
Sophia in dreadful fix With the instinct
of true generalship, however, she resolved to
recover her lost position by bold stroke.
Il would not mis- hearing it for the world, y
she said audaciously 80, do read itn
And the rector looking up with a faint
smile, like a man who remembers something,
took the letter out and read it through.
In none of these letters did Percy mention
her name, until three Years after his depart
ure, when enc day the rector read this line:
If you erer see the girl teho ,Uos once my
little Sophia, gire her my ioUe.'
He read it mechanically, as he did every
thing now; then, holding the letter with
loose fingers it slipped from him and
SKINNED down under the table, and presently
he was called from the room Sophia dropped
on her knees and caught the sheet up, and
read the line again:
If you euer see the girl uho ,cds once my
ute Sophia giue her my fouc"
Bless me, how she kissed that sheet! 1t got
all the love kisses that had been ripening on
her lips for six and thirty months. Had it
been the age of Transformation, that sheet
would surely have turned into lover under
tho transmitting power of those kisses. And
then Miss Sophia, who had a terribly tender
conscience OF her own, looked at the letter,
and colored up at certain suggestion of her
Own mind, and wondered would it be very
wrong, and would the rector ever find it out,
and was it very mean OF her 10 do it in the
hope that be would never find it out' And.
deciding on action, she nicely tore off the
finest little morsel of the paper, where on the
last line these precious words were inscribed;
and she slipped the shred into her watch csse,
where she could look at it night and morning
The titti, gtri that scds my Sophia That
IS that shall tel until You bid L-r cease. she
aid thousand times, MS If that morsel OF
pa FER were his living spokesman Truly, the
girl was very much in love, and absence
made her heart grow fonder, which is not
usual with either male or female hearts, IN
less see the world wrongly altogether.
About this time Sophia-and not Sophia
only, but all of us-began to notice that Mr.
Brent looked paler than usual, walked with a
slight drag of the right foot, and sometimes
missed word out of a sentence without
being aware of it Again, he would observe
the mistake, and correct it with an appear
ance of irritation Brain mischief going
on old Sparker whispered And he was
right; for one Sunday evening, after preach
ing the rector suddenly became speeches. in
the yestry, and lost his power of motion.
He never spoke a syllable again; and even
when he opened his eyes there was no reason
in them. A dreadful storm of wind and rain
came on that night. and blew the golden cock
from off the church steeple. and some of the
masonry with it. The tempest ragged round
the rectory garden, and uprooted two great
elm trees and cast them across the lawn IL
gigantic ruin Meanwhile the rector Law as
quiet as if a summer breeze was blowing.
There was no storm that could roar loud
enough to disturb his sleep And in the
morning. when we awoke to see what the
wind had done In our gardens and parks, we
heard our kind hearted little rector had de-
parted from US forever just while the storm
was uttering its fiercest blast.
We said that we could have better spared a
better man, looked grave a moment, re-
marked how uncertain life is, and then
talked of the storm, and forgot the rector
But TO Sophia his death was a terrible scr-
row Somehow Percival seemed gone, she
would hear no more about him, nor have the
remote but still very actual comfort of talk
ins with his father and seeing his old haunts
She had borne trials already, and other trials
awaited her; but this was after all. one of
the sorest she ever felt. She grew lonely.
sad, doubling; began to think Percy would
forget her; tried valiantly to battle with her
fears; cried many hours when she was alone,
then wiped her eyes and went downstairs
smilingly; but it was an aching heart that
beat in her breast And the body of the rec
tor was laid to sleep in the churchyard, and
his successor came The king was dead, and
the cry was, Long live the king" for we
WIG al bi'tt0tu Nilh Jul IN" hhiS'ti lit
preached sermons shorter by five minutes
than those of Mr.. Brent. He kept two curates,
Hooking bachelors. He worked the
parish well So we confessed every one that
the loss of poor Brent was gain to us;
especially these last few years, we said, when
trouble overcame him, and this brain mis-
chief had been stealthily making its way
nearer to his vital part Very soon the old
rectors name was forgotten; but day by day
and week by week We noticed that over the
grave where his mortal part lay fresh flow
ers were strewn by some tender and unfor-
getting hand.
CHAPTER V.
THE LIVES OF OUR CHARACTERS ADVANCE.
Five years had passed away since Sophia
and Percival were parted, and time had left
its marks upon other personages OF our story
beside its heroine. Without any question,
Sibyl had greatly increased in personal at
Effectiveness Her dark superb style was de-
veloped and heightened as she Dire nearer to
the meridian of life No doubt the early
bloom of youth was gone; but her form had
become more finely rounded, and her carriage
had become more stately. She was beauti-
full woman of the world no man ever looked
at her once only. But her manner had be-