The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-09

assembly. Even her full pink gauzs dress,
| from which her fair young shoulders
slipped as from a sunset cloud seemed, only
the perfection of virginia. simplicity; her
girlish length of limb and the long curves
| of her neck and back we're now the outlines
of thorough breeding. The absence of color
in her usually fresh face had been replaced
| by a faint magnetic aurora that seemed to
| him half spiritual. He could not take his
| ewes from her, he could not believe what he
saw. Yet that was Cressy Mckinstry-his
pupil! Had he ever really seen hers Did
| he know her now! Small wonder that all
eyes were bent upon her, that murmur of
unspoken admiration, or still more intense
hash of silence, moved the people around
| him. He glanced hurriedly at them, and
was oddly relieved by the evident participa-
| ton in mis- emotions.
She was dancing now, and with that
same pale restraint and curious quiet that
| had affected him so strongly. She had not
even looked in his direction, yet he was
aware by the same instinct that had at
| first possessed him that she knew he was
present. His desire to catch her eye was
becoming mingled with a certain dread, as
| if in q single interchange of glances, the
| illusions of the moment would either vanish
utterly or become irrevocably fixed. He
| forced himself, when the set was finished, to
turn away, partly to avoid contact with
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
| him, and whom politeneSS would have
Obliged him to ask to dance, and partly to
collect his thoughts. He determined to
| make a tour of the rooms and then so
quietly home. Those who recognized him
made way for him with passive curiosity /;
the middle-aged and older adding conf
Dental sympathy and equality that posi-
lively irritated him. For an instant be had
an idea of seeking out Mrs. Trip and claim
| inc a show at
he danced.
He had nearly made the circuit Of the
room when he was surprised by the first
strains of a waltz. Waiting was not
strong feature of Indian Spring
festivity, partly that the church
people had serious doubts If
| David's saltatory performances before the
ark included round Dances" and partly
that the young had not vet mastered its diff
| f1culties. When he yielded to his impulse
| to look again at the dancers he found that
| only three or four couples had been bold
enough to take the floor Cressy McKinstry
| and her former partner were one OF them.
In his present exaltation he was
not astonished to find that she had
evidently picked up the art in her
late visit, and was now Waiting
with quiet grace and precision, but he was
| surprised that her partner was far from be-
ing equally perfect, and that after few
turns she stopped and smilingly disengaged
her waist from his arm. AS she stepped
back she turned with unerring instinct to
that part of the room where the master
stood and raised her eyes through the null
titude of admiring faces to his. The eyes
met in an isolation as supreme as if they
had been alone. 1t was an attraction the
more dangerous because unformulated-a
possession without previous pledge, prom
Use, or even intention-a love that did not
require to be made"
He approached her quietly and even more
colly than he thought possible.
will you allow me trial? he asked.
She looked in his face, aud as if she had
not heard the question but was following
her own thought, said:
81 knew you would come; | saw you
when YOU first came i'm
Without another word she put her hand
| in his, and as if it were part of an instinct
| i've action of drawing closer to him, caught
with her advancing foot the accent of the
waltz, and the next moment the room
seemed to slip away from them into whirl-
| ing space.
| The whole thing had passed 50 rapidly
| from the moment he approached her to the
| first graceful swing of her full skirt at his
| side that it seemed to him almost like the
embrace of a lovers meeting. He had
often been as near her before, had stood at
her side at school, and even leaned over her
| desk, but always with an irrtated Instinct
of reserve that had equally affected her,
and which he now understood. With her
conscious but pale face so near his own,
with the faint odOr of her hair clinging to
| her, and, with the sweet confusion of the
| half-lingeriDg, half-withheld contact of her
hand and arm, all had changed. He did not
dare to reflect that he could never again
| approach her except with this feeling. He
| i 4 To Of baa oh
doned himself to tho sense that had begun
with the invasion of her hair bound myrtle
| in the silent school room, and seemed to
| have at last led her to his arms They
were moving now in such perfect rhythm
and unison that they seemed scarcely con-
scious of motion.
Once when they neared the open window
| ne caught glimpse of the round moon ris-
| ing above the nights of the opposite shore,
and felt the cool breath of mountain and
river sweep his cheek and mingle few es-
| capped threads Of her fair hair with his own
| With that glimpse and that sensation the
vugarity and the tawdriness of their sur
roundingS, the guttering candles in their
sconces, the bizarre figures, the unmeaning
faces, seemed TO be whirled far into distant
space. They were alone with plight and ma
ture; it was they who were still; all else had
receded in a vanishing perspective Of dull
reality, in which they had no part.
Play on, 0 waltz Of Straussl Whirl on,
| o love and youth For you cannot whirl so
swiftly but that this receding world will re-
| tura again with narrowing circle to hem
you in. Faster, o cracked clarionet
| Louder, o, too brazen bassoon! Keep back,
| O dull ana earthly environment, till master
and pupil have dreamed their foolish
dreaml
They are in fancy, alone on the river
bank, only the round moon above them and
their linked shadows family fiuttering in
the stream. They have drawn so closely
together now that her arm is encrclIng his
neck, her soft eyes uplifted like the moons
reflection and drowning into his; closer aud
closer till their hearts stop beating and
their lips have met in first kiss. Faster,
o little feet swing clear, o Cressy's skirt
and keep the narrowing circle back
They are again alone; the judges dais
and the emblazoning of the state caught in
a single whirling flash of consciousness are
changed to an altar, seen dimly through
the bridal veil that covers her fair head.
There is the murmur of voices mingling
two lives in one. They turn and pass
proudly down between the aisle of wonder
ing festal faces All the circle is drawing
closer. One more quick whirl o keep them
back, o flying skirt and dainty winged
feet Too late The music stops. The
tawdry walls shut in again, the vulgar
crowds return. they stand pale and quiet,
the center of a ring of breathless, admirng,
frightened or forbidding faces. Her arms
fold like wings at her side. Tho waltz is
over.