Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1886-09-10


Milly gave a haf-pained glance at the
flower. "That was just like you,
Stephen" she said, softly, and
Stephen frightened for the first time that
day.
1t seemed to Stephen, looking back,
that his love for Milly had begun when
he was boy Of five and she was baby
intho cradle. lie could not recollect
the time when he did not prefer her to
all other girls. At school he was her
knight, his sled, his jaek-knife, his help,
always at her service. Stephen taught
her to skate, to row. 1t was he who
brought her the first maple sugar, the
fifst arbutus; he who took her on sleigh
rides, and walked home with her from
church and the village tea parties. lIiIly
absorbed these services not ungratelully,
but as a matter of course. She had been
used to them from her babyhood, and
could have almost as well dispensed with
sun or air out OF her life; but sun and
ar being never withdrawn, are rarely
noticed or alluded to. "Dear, good old
Stephen" she called him. Now, it is
not well for man to lavish himself on a
woman who thinks of him only as "dear
old Stephen" 4"
And now Stephen was doomed to
stand by and see stranger appropriate
the object of this lifelong devotion He
had sown, and another was to reap his
labors. Day by day all that summer
long the glamour grew and deepened.
Captain Hallett's leave of absence seemed
Of the most elastic description, permit
ting him to stay the entire season at Bay
mouth. His mornings, his evenings, his
Moons, were spent with Mily. Stephen
sickened at the inevitable gold banded
cap that met his eyes whenever he enter
ed the house, and proved his rival in
possession of the field. MiIly greeted
Stephen kindly always, but there was
sense of interruption; he felt himself
. third party. Then he tried staying
away but that was worst of all, for his
love did not notice his absence beyond a
careless "What ages is it since we saw
you, Stephen2' This state of affairs, of
course, set people to talking, but MiIly
was blushingly indignant. ut was hard"
she declared, 'if girl couldn't have
peasant friend without having such things
sid" But her pretty poutings and pro-
tsstings made little difference, and it was
gperalIy understood that the affair, if
III an absolute engagement, amounted to
N Understanding, whatever that may
mean.
AT last The long, lovely summer came
t' an end, as summers will. Scarlet
lOughs famed in the forests, golden-rod
hrned along the brook-sides, the birds
fly, and with item Captain Hallett pre-
pred for flight. His orders had come to
rflort in Galveston, Texas, and his leave
tkings were hurried The last moment
vas Milly's, and though no one knew the
elact situation of affairs, it was taken
for granted that another year would bring
Gange blossoms aud a wedding.
Milly's own expectations were not so
definite. No definite promise had passed
between her and her lover; but she
trusted him and waited brightly and
hopefully Letters came and went; the
scarlet boughs burned into ashes and fell
to the ground in pale heaps; then came
snow and the winter, to be in turn
scourged away by the whip of the fierce
New England spring. Still Milly
waited; but not so brightly now, for the
letters came less regularly than at first.
By and by they ceased altogether.
Weeks passed without word. Milly,
with visions of yellow fever and Indians
chasing each. other across her terried
brain, wrote and wrote again, but no
presage Of the real danger which threat
ened glanced over until one day,
opening the newspaper, this met her
eyes:
AT Galveston, Texas, by the Rev. Pierre
St Cloud, assisted by the Rev. Thomas Dix,
Captain Edward Hallett, U. S. A, and
Blanche Emily, only daughter of the late
Pierre St Cloud of Pilatki, Florida No
cards."
Mrs. Graves upstairs heard no sound,
but when she went down Milly lay on
the sofa white and rigid, the newspaper
still clasped in her cold fingers. 1t was
long before her senses came back.
Her mother famed with anger,
but the girl hushed her with weary
sob.
1--WE were never really engaged, you
know
''Not engaged! Oh, Millyw
But Milly turned her face to the wall
and said no more.
Baymouth was stirred to its depths
next day by the news that Captain Hal
lett was married to Southern lady, and
Milly Graves was down with typhoid
fever. Everyone wanted to help to
nurse, above all, to know the particulars.
Such masses of blanc-mange and jelly
were sent in that poor Mrs. Graves was
at her wits end to know how to dispose
of them. But no one could readily aid,
not even poor Stephen, who scarcely left
the house day or night, or ate or slept,
till the crisis passed, and Milly was pro-
nounced out of danger.
Out Of danger, but it was weeks be
fore she could sit up, and weeks longer
ere she came down stairs, thin, white,
shrunken--a mere shadow and wreck of
the blooming little beauty who walked
so gayly up Love lane at Ned Hallett's
side not quite a wear ago. She was