The Penn's Grove record., 1888-09-01
AN EVENTFUL DAY.

1t was in the very first days or the
Franco Frussian war. Little else was
spoken OF or thought of in this small
German town, as IN all others. But
one letter being written by a young
girl bore no reference to the stirring
events Of the time. "My dear friend,
do not fear for me-" 1t ram. "If any
such instance should arise in my life
as you have pictured to yourself. i
shall have, L trust, the sense to meet
it. Nothing yet has come to me that
would tempt me to forseJ my position
In this house,"
Nothing? The writer held her hand
m instant suspended. We'll, SO let 1t
stand. She must not grieve her one
friend by leaving her with sven one
fear concerning her.
She finished her letter, closed and
stamped it. Then she sat a moment
with her hand pulled through the
rebellious waves of her hair, staring
out Of the window at the houses OppO.
site. In most of them the shutters
were tightly closed. There was some
thing reckless and disorganized, some
thing unusual, about the appearance Of
the most familiar objects. The streets
had been filled all that morning with a
restless crowd, gong and coming,
forming into knots and dissolving
again. An unwOnted agitation and
suppressed clamor rose from near and
far. But Cecily was scarcely conscious
of the disturbance. Her thoughts were
far away. The face IN which the light
struck had a delicate paliOr, which
recently had become consistently more
and more emphasized. 1t was at all
times a face more remarkable for
nobility, for intellectually, than for
beauty, though 1t was not deficient In
the least. But of late Its ex~pressiveness
had become still more sentient; almost,
one would have said, more sensitized
She was looking out at her future,
and it was black. Miss Da P0er had
said in her last letter: III v your
life turns too bitter to you, my dear.
you know that there is a place for you
here" Yes, God bless herl Cecily
knew that, in Truth. She pondered for
a moment on the strange fatallty-it
was like intentlon-that had caused her
old friend to write her those words just
at this time. Had there been some
undercurrent of which she was herself
not conscious in her own letters, and
had the old lady's fine perceptions,
rendered acute by suffering and
long, if silent, sympathy for others,
seized q shadow of the new element in
Cecily's life? However that might be,
the girl had a deep certainty Of the
welcome she would find in one spot on
a,rth Rpf a1cn ON ouual1y CLAIR ROM
viction that never could she avail her.
self OF the privilege held out to her.
Miss De Poer's' meagre little income
wa barely sufficient to keep in a few
common comforts for the still majestic
old woman, who In days gone by had
known all that riches give. And
Cecily was willing to work. She had
never looked forward to anything else.
To renounce, to refrain, had always
seemed the law of life TO her. And
yet-and yet -,
She started up abruptly. She could
not have told whether the roar OF
many tongues, the surging tramp OF
many feet, beneath the windows, had
been growing slowly, or whether the
tumult had reached suddenly its pres
cut CllIudAs obO wac q 6hh vi AdtSh
presence of mind, and she discerned
instantly that something serious I'M
pended. This was not the mere aimless
turmoil. the fermentation OF political
and patriotic excitement which had
filed the normally somnolent streets of
the little German town with wildly
gesticulating men these few days past.
This was something more and beyond.
Cecily threw the window open and
one moment looked down. A man
with brawny arms, from which the
shirt sleeves were rolled, looked up
and saw her. Beyond the c0rner of
the house, on the small square on which
Frau Won Ulrich's residence fronted,
the crowd was denser, and there every
unshaved, turbulent face was turned
upward, without exception.
ssTell us where he's hiding, that -
FrenchmanI Tell us where we can
get our hands on him" cried the man
who had seer Cecily.
She fastened out OF the room and
across the wide, dim vestibule. At
the same moment there was a violent
crash, a many-throated shout, which
sounded like the reverberation OF dis
tant cannon. and a nearer shrek Of
meIciless alright from behind one Of
the doors opening out on the vestibule.
The door was thrown open, and Louise
Won Ulrich's mother, pallid as a spec
tire, precipitated herself into the arms
of her daughters governess.
"Thou good Heaven!' she cried in
German. "Do you see what these
tends are doing, Meess Leroyp They
are mobbing my house. They are
breaking my w~indowsi"
Another missile went crashing
through a pane OF glass. and shivering
its fragments right and left wbizzed
past the shoulder of a y0ang girl stand.
ing within, and struck a mirror on the
opposite wall. Louise o UIrfch gave
q piercing cry. and she chung ITO the
ahouldar of the vOunR MIN beaiE. her.