The Penn's Grove record., 1888-09-08

and life would take 1t, he could hardly
bring himself to say, Then let death
GOMEZ 1t takes much to give death
when he is asked for the best gift. But
yet, what a chance for two lovers to
have died together sol"
She drew rather a deeper breath, but
made no spoken answer
Down at the fair horizon the late
moon was rising, vague and cloudy. A
ghostly light, bringing in Its wake mys-
terious shadows. spread slowly as the
moon drowsily lifted herself and drop
ped the mists from her shoulders. The
man, looking down in this clearer
light to the water. started and said:
SIT is coming up much faster"
She stopped and looked. Then their
eyes, lifting, sought each other. Both
faces were pale IN the moonlight. On
both sat the human shrinking from this
upward crawling fate. Yet it was
something to see each other.
"How long is it to mornlng?" she
asked.
He drew out his watch, but there
came q cloud across the moon, and they
had to wait.
SIT is just past twelve" said he.
"Perhaps they will come out by
moonlight"
"Perhaps," said he. But neither of
them had any trust in the hope.
He had seen in the moment when
they looked at each other that she was
indeed younger than his first suppose
ton, though hardly so young as his
second. She might be five-and-twenty.
1t was not the face of a girl. She had
returned to her former position, and
now, leaning back against the Chin
ney, lifted up her face to the sky. Her
eyes were closed and her lips drawn in.
| There wa but time to look before the
lips curved again into a smile and the
eyes opened to a calm gaze.
The man sitting beside her heard the
changing and deepening ton of the
water as it came up and UP.
"YOu are too young for this" sail
he abruptly.
His voice had changed and %deepened
like the tone OF the water.
mo, no." she answered after a mo-
ment. "Don't trouble about me-"
81 do trouble about you. 1t is horri-
BILE! horriblel"
She again kept silence for a little
| space; then she said:
When l heard you say-that-in
the boat, and get up to stay, | felt,
suddenly, as if 1t wa a cruel thing not
to stay with you, too-as well as to
save them."
She had been obliged to speak the
last words loudly, for the wind rose
suddenly and iiercely, and the shock of
the water broke noisily on the walls.
And as she ceased came a terrible
crash; the whole building creaked and
swayed, there were heavy splashes in
the water, and water spouted over them
az they caught and clung to each other.
Long hair was blown before his face,
They b i each other fast, painting and
trembling. She freed a hand and
drew aside her hair. There was "a
sound Of water trlckling and dropping.
The calm moon. pursuing her ~lelsurely
pathway, passed out from behind Il
cloud and showed them that the plat.
form at the other end of the house had
given way, and the stack of chImueys
opposite had fallen.
"lf it had been thesel' she said.
They crouched nearer together, each
still holding to the Other. The fear III
each mind now was the fear of being
divided. of losing all human compan-
ionship. The waters were rising faster,
faster, 1t seemed, with a malignant,
hungry joy.
sit can't be long now," said the
man.
mo" said she.
There were a few mere lifelong mo.
ments in which they sat silent, breath.
ing hard. The wild gust of wind
abated; the moor found a wide, open
archway, among the clouds; the face OF
the waters grew by comparison still
again.
And So" said he." it was for me
you stayed, and even at the end | can't
go away in peace without pulling down
some one else. And you, who stayed,
are a stranger, and We shall die here
together, strangers. Oh, the irony OF
this world All my life 1 have been
solitary and deserted. 1t has been my
rault-no doubt 1t has been my fault.
and now life Is owe It's all too late,
and there's no time"
She renamed silent, and tire monOto,
nous pulse OF the water throbbed
below.
But if, by any miracle, we should
be saved, at lest We know each other
now" said he.
"Do we? Well, the depths, perhaps.
Of each other, but not the shadows
If we were to be saved we shoald fee
like friends till we came to land, auG
then you would go your way and
mine; and if We were to meet once I
week for a twelve-month vi should
speak to each other at first, and theL
We should nod and smile, and by-and.
by we should pass and take no notice
No, what knowledge OF friendship We
have does not belong to this life!"
you believe, then, In %anotherP"
''lt is hardly that / believe in an.
other life so much as that / can't be
lieve In death. We could not be capa
bic of so much, and DESTROYS of St
much and nothing come. We
have not half enough. l feel so nue.
much more. No, l am not afraid
There's more"
He in his turn was silent. Perhap,
he foretold, out of pity, to put forth
word against her hope. Perhaps in hi
oOul, lOOs q lihC hOPuS "AiSh hO iHA
taken to be long dead, began to stlI
and murmur.
The moon had put on, minute by
minute, a fuller glory; it wa Illunlnat
ing an arch of clouds, and beyond til.
arch lay measureless. liquid, lurit
depths. She looked and pointed up
ward. The full glow shone on her face
He saw in her dark eyes a slow, inef
fable softening; IN all the lines Of heI
features breathel a spirit of exultant
reception.
1.-THE open doorway of indnity." sale
he, fitting to this radiance its ap
poetic description, but without any
thing of the poets rapture of belief
Her lips moved to a recognizing smile
And can You lsOk up 10 that anC
despair" she asked.
That has no voice for me. 1t i
100 far of. too silent, too uumoved
That glory may come back as serene
to look down on my drowned face
But you hr.ve to die with me. Wha
hope there Is il life or death you have