St. Landry democrat., 1888-05-26

thoroughfare of a strange city, Carl Burton
came into her life and found it swept, gar
nished and prepared. That one year of
love- which followed, seemed year OF
more than human joy. Perhaps, though
happily she could not know it, longer ex-
perience would have shown her that, as
the sunlight makes even common things
beautiful, so she owed to the glamour of her
own love-its abnegatiOn and intensity
much of the beauty which she found in her
lover Perhaps she might have slowly
learned that her ceaseless prayer to be wor-
thy of him was needless, or even that his
embrace was parasitic, drawing on her life
to nourish selfish existence. But all such
thoughts were far from the mind OF Kate
Wilton. Life seemed royal progress. She
moved through landscape bathed in sun
light, radiant with color, sweet with song.
As her religion was love, so her love was
religion, and no sacrifice that love could
ask but she would have gloried in making
it. It is comparatively easy, oftentimes,
to make voluntary offering of that which,
if withdrawn from US by sovereign power,
would stir us to angry mutiny against the
supreme authority that " orders all things
after the counsel of His own will"
All this dream of love was to fade,
the sky become overcast and the
birds cease their singing. During
all this year of first love, Kate had heard
| the roll of drums, the good-byes of friends,
and Rachel's comfortless cry of grief for
| her children, as if it came from an outside
world When Carl spoke of taking his
place in the ranks, she had put her arms
| about him and said: NAY, dear; we are
| betrothed You shall give me this year; !;
for of cid they granted to the soldier newly
wed his one year of exem. tion." And
Carl was too 10th to turn his back upon
| this paradise, to make remonstrance. 1t
was Kate's prayer and hope that as the
year sped, an end might be made of the
cruel strife and her lover be spared
| the descent into 1.-The mouth OF
hell'' with it's belching flames and
sulphurous smoke, from whence so many
never returned The year wore away, but
the war went on. The village streets grew
quieter, the mourning weeds were abun-
dant, and the news of slaughter yet more
terrible Carl's face grew troubled; at last
he spoke again: g Dear, if you hold me
back by your love, and into our after para
disc of home should come this serpent
| Shame, to writhe about me- neither thou
nor could escape it's sting" She heard
and knew his resolve was taken. Her lips
grew cold and tremulous, and lay still and
unresponsive beneath his kiss. carl, F"
she whispered, presently, "when do you
leave me?' Tomorrow he said.
"To-morrow?n She echoed his words as
if they measured the whole span of re-
naming life.
All through that summer night they sat
together hand in hand. Seldom they spoke,
and then but Of the trifes of the minute; OF
the midnight stiffness or the morning chill.
They kept such vigil as wife and husband
might keep beside the coffined form Of a
first-born child. Something new had come
into life rather than something gone out OF
it. Their cup was fuller by one bitter drop
and all the draught was sadder and sweete1
for the fulness.
At dawn they parted, and for ever. There
came a time when letters ceased, when
days and weeks of anxious waiting woulo
have rendered any news acceptable. But
Carl disappeared utterly and left no trace
For long she lived on the hope that he
might come back when the prisons
opened their doors. The war ended
life began to flow back into the ole
long g-dried channels, but word Of Car
there was none. A slow and subtle
change began to be wrought in Kate, by
disappointment. She who had loved al
things, came to hate with bitter hate the
very name of the South. That name was tt
her the name Of the murderess who hat
, slain her love. The turbulence of an un
quiet spirit made the olden divine whis
, perings less and less audible. God seemed
remote; prayer, the useless wall Of neg
lected child So passed nearly ffteel
years. Aunt Ruth died and Kate lived OF
alone with the old servant whose connec
tion with thehousehold antedated her earli
est recollection. 1t was toward the close o
this period that Kate Wilton became
attracted to Spiritism A stranger had be
come resident in the village and with all th'
zeal of propagandist she had sown th'
seeds of her "ism" in every promising
soil To Kate the possibility of hearing
voice from beyond, above all his voice
was enough to stir her nature to its depths
She became an easy convert, and was thu
first member Of the growing circle tha
held its weekly gatherings at the houses O.