Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-01-02

brace, swaying and turning to this
rich wild strain, he might have said
be was in heaven. 1t all stopped
with clang and waking from the
dream, and in the world again, they
| were just beside the conservatory
door once more, and, neither exact
| ~ knowing how, they had wandered
down one of the dewy alleys, and had
paused as if to breathe the bewilder-
ing odors in the shadows of group
Of lemon-trees. Neither of them
spoke, perhaps lest one should break
the spell, till slowly, as if drawn by
an unwilling fate, their eyes met in a
long deep gaze, and his head bent, his
arms were around her, and their lips
met in the sweet strong kiss of a pas
ion that belonged to the eternities.
When next morning Gordon Pen
! 3nore came, Rose crept into the draw
: tt.iitg-room like guilty child her hands
behind her, not daring to look up.
81 thought-oh, thought she
whispered, after he had reassured
her, "that you-you despised me-"
81 shall never even despise dane
ing again, now that it has given me
you," he exclaimed. "How could /
dream you loved me 2" he said. Gas
we'll might the rock long for the foam
wreath of mid-seas." And he did
not dream how apt his figure was.
When he left her that day he left
on her hand ring of a strange, frag-
lie setting, that held an old mine
stone of rare brilliance. sit is the
most sacred thing have" he said.
'SIt was my mothers betrothal ring:
it shall be yours
"Oh," she cried, 81 am not good
enough. | am not half good enough
for you. You should have chosen
Cousin Margaret, who is a saint, in
stead of frivolous futterfy like me,
whose Ieet are ner wings.
"You have WINGS" he said, ''but
they are angels wings. Oh, never
spread them to leave my arms y
And she sobbed herself to sleep |
that night, half with a sense Of JOY,
half with a sense of her unworthi-
ness.
And hoy he loved her, or seemed
to love her 1t was as if stone had |
been rolled away, and the torrent
gushed forth in its might, surround
ing, enfolding, upholding her. He
would have lavished the world upon
her, Jewels. and all costly things;
but her cousin Margaret would let
her have none of them, and so, in
stead, he filled the house every day
with flowers. But her dancing days
were over. ''After that night" said
he, Il can never dance again. You
can not repeat heaven" Nor could
he ever see her thus in the arms of
another And Roosevelt, Rose felt
it as a speck on the sky, a speck no
bigger than a mans hand upon hor
joy; Haydon Roth waiting to dance
with her-Haydon, whose step was
only her own over again, and who
knew nothing of the joyous fate that
had befallen her. For Gordon, hug
ging his sweet secret, wished for
short season to enjoy its luxury away
from all, and had allowed no one to
enter into this dim delicious world
with all the darkling fragrant blisses
of its paths vet before him.
And on the whole Rose did not
greatly care for the dancing and
the dressing, and all that. She too
had felt the transports of this new
strange state, and it was quite enough.
Cousin Margaret received her conf
dences, and she wanted no one else.
But, for all that, it was not easy to
put off Hayden Roth, who knew moth
ing of affairs, and who besieged her,
with the old lovers, little the more
by the little more nearness
by which he had approached her in
the days before Gordon was crowned.
She felt more kindly and conducted
herself more gently toward him, pos
sibly feeling as if some slight wrong
were done him by this secrecy. But |
she could not have told him if she
would, and she would not if she ,
could. |
And Gordon, who was jealous of '
the wind that touched her, of course
was uneasy at this too frequent neigh
borhood of Hayden Roth, at this gen t
5leness of Rose toward him; and
sometimes he spoke stormingly, and |
once he went out, having forbidden
Rose to recognize the persistent fell {
ow when next she met him. 6
But Rose did not mind. "Of
course he did not mean it, she said, t
when up in her room with Margaret,
rs she combed her long lovely hair l
hair like spun gold. ''He couldn't s
mean anything so unkind as that. |
Don't you see how he is reforming
ne, Cousin Margaret? | shall some 1
lay be as much of saint as YOU are. i
He says | am an angel now Oh, no,
ne will come in next time very likely I
arm in arm with Hayden Roth. This |
weather has put so much electricity /
IN my hair it is full of snarls. | wish q
hadn't let Marie 60 out; my hair |
always comes down when | do. {
There! y And giving the lovely locks {
a strong pull, the comb was free, and {
a couple of rapid turns of hand and |