Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-05-24

band of his brooches clrcled: and ha etood with his legs wide apart sucking q straw at the gateway of his yard, wherein. under sheds stood his rolling stock when Mr. Strangfield breathlessly came to him and besought him, with clasped, entreating hands, instantly to order out one of his coaches. that she might be driven to Win ston.
 Now, fortunately for her, Franklin was a prompt man; and reading urgency in tbe poor woman's desperate face. he gave . shrin whistle. and out from a little off,ca tumbled a kuock-kneed hostler.
 aNumber Two, Jeremy, and Sarah's vour gal Let Thomas scrape hisself. and fell him the leddy's waiting" said MT. Franklin: and with dispatch that would pleasure th;s electric age to experience, a coach rattled up to the gate.
 @To the Greyhound, at Winston, as quick as ever you can gallop," cried Mrs. Strang- field; and in a trice the heavy wheeled vehi- cle was scattering loungers in the roadway on to the pavements, and making the shop windows clink to the thunder of it's progress.
 Still, it was a half-hour's drive, and a ter ribly hustling one.
 At last the village hove in sight; a little row of cottages swept by, and the coach came to stand in front of the glass door of the Greyhound inn. The man descended from the box of the coach, though already she was spraining her wrist in desperate efforts to open the door for herself; and no sooner was she liberated than she flew into the arms of Sally, who, having caught sight of the coach from a window, was running to the door.
 "Are you the mistress?' said Mrs. Strang- field, in a wild way.
 "Yes, be, ma'am," replied Sally, with a civil courtesy.
 "Is there lady here!"
 "Ay; an you be her mother, I reckon"
 "I am her mother. Take me to her at once"
 Though Sally had been fortified with a dozen scruples, they would have been help lessly swept away by the peremptoriness of this command
 "She's just where Mrs. Mead left her, ma'am. This way, please" and she went to the parlor door and threw it open, saying: "Here be thy mother, mistress"
 Jenny was standing at the window over- looking the green space of garden at the back of the house With stupeied face on her she turned, and cry left her lips, and she stepped back pace when her mother rushed to her. Then, like a flash of night at the sight of the beloved face, an impulse of love and joy leaped up in her; and in close, sob bing embrace were they locked as Sally, looking away from the sacred sight, closed the door upon them.
 "Oh, Jenny, why are you here? why didst thee leave mel" cried Mrs Strangfeld, re- linquishing her daughter to gaze at her, with eyes in which rapture and sorrow were strangely blended. "Never was mothers heart wrung as mine was when this morn ing beheld your bed untouched and you were not near to answer to my call"
 "I could not stay. Father would have taken me to London to-day; and see what a mad journey it would have been, and how cruel my ignorance would make him!" the girl said, pushing back her hair, and stand ing in half defiant, half dropping posture before her mother.
 "Thy father! Oh, Jenny! not only is it my love for thee that has brought me here in mad haste-thy father is dying! Ay, he may be dead before we can return to himp
 "Dying!- Mother, what do you say?" said Jenny, taking, so to speak, a firmer hold of the floor with her feet. and drowning. while sickly hue of pallor overspread her face. ss ~
 "Oh, Jenny! for the sake of God who hath brought me to thee, put on your hat and come with me quickly. I tell you your father is dying-he fell to the ground when Dr. Shaw brought him proof of your marriage with Cuthbert Dost not thee know that the doctor has proved thee his sons wifea An, my poor heart, how should she know!-and that the cause of thy husbands missing, as the doctor believes, is that he was seized by rne press gang and carried away to sea! Down thy father fell, and we bore him to his room, and the surgeon fears for his life; and all the while he lies grooming and crying upon thy name. Bring Jenny to mel bring Jenny to s>1r1 or you'll see him no more in this world"
 The girl stood transfxed and overwhelmed by her mothers news. Then you could have seen her battling with the rush and surge of tumultuous emotions a whole minute ere she spoke.
 Do you tell me that my darling is carried away to sea?" she said, in a febrile whisper.
 "'Tis what his father believes"
 "And that pr. Shaw hath proved me his sons wife to my father"
 "Yes indeed. He came with paper, and the sight of it hath killed thy father. His heart is broken for the wrong he has done his only one!" walled the mother. "Oh, Jenny, do not delay! There is coach at the door. Make haste to put on your hat. You would not let him be moaning for thee in dying sorrow and not comeW
 She looked at her mother with a wonder full expression of troubled amazement and incredulous horror in her eyes, then took up her hat, and in few minutes was ready tc depart. As she left the room she met Mrs. Walker, into whose hand she slipped a guinea, giving her sweet, strange smile as she did so, but quite powerless to speak
 The woman, much affected by Jenny's munifcence, put the little trunk into the coach, and low and numerous were the courtesies she dropped as it drove of.
 The rattle of wheel and window, if not 6 prohibition to speech, was decided obstacle to the hearing. But Mrs. Strangfeld had too much to say to hold her peace. With hel child's hand locked in hers she poured he, heart into Jennys ear, and all the story o1 Dr. Shaw's visit told her, and the medica mans judgment on Michaeps condition, with whatever else that her head was giddy witf sometimes approaching and sometimes breaking into passionate exclamations o rapture, which thoughts of her husband would inevitably choke; silent scarcely ever and of the matter of her volubility leaving