The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1888-08-11
LOCKED IN.

Lucy Hutton turned pale. She wa:
locking the school room door, when,
under the shade of the trees outside,
she saw a man stand watching her.
She turned pale, but showed no other
sign OF emotion. Without turning to
look again at this man, she drew her
shawl about her, turned, came down
the steps, and walked homeward.
Her home was but a temporary one.
Lucy Hutton had come from a little
farm in the country to take charge of a
parish free school. She was staying at
a boarding house where nearly all were
: stranger.
She was very pretty, with loa g golden
hair, which she wore free upon her
shoulders. Few persons had ever seen
more beautiful hair.
Lucy turned pale because she had
learned to be afraid OF this person who
was watching her. She knew his ap-
pearance well. For a time he had sat
opposite to her at table, an emaciated,
pallid, carefully dressed man, with long
black hair, parted in the middle of
high, narrow forehead, and falling long
upon his coat collar. Her first IN
easiness was caused by observing that he
constantly watched her out of pair of
small black eyes. His observation was
so close as to be annoying. She had at
length avoided it by changing her seat
at the table.
He never spoke to her. She did not
know his name, and none of the few
persons she know were acquainted with
him. Having placed herself beyond his
notice at table, she congratulated herself
on having escaped him, when, to her
CONSERVATION and serious uneasiness, she
discovered that he followed her to and
from the school.
She chose to ignore this. She did not
even speak of it to any one. Though a
slight, golden-haired girl, Lucy Hutton
was courageous, and natural delicacy
prevented her from making a fuss about
the matter. But, at last, she began to
be annoyed by notes, expressing this
mans infatuation. lie desired to make
her acquaintance-to marry her.
Lucy's immediate impulse was to send
his first note to her lover, Henry Gray
son, and ask hi; assistance. Then she
resisted what seemed a weakness.
Il shall avoid this strange lover of
mine; he cannot do me any HARM" she
thought.
But she could not forget him. His
eyes, his gait, the cut of his garments,
became horribly familiar to her. She
felt that she was constantly under his
surveillance. If she walked alone, he
boldly followed her at distance. If
she entered crowd, she found him at
her elbow. Once as she stood at shop
window looking at some lace, he Kissed
in her ear: 81 love you," and slipped
Instantly out of sight in the evening
darkness. After this she never allowed
herself to be abroad after the evenings
early dusk. At the mans approach she
had felt him so physically powerful as
to fill her with terror.
The day previous to tho evening of
which write had brought new incl
dent. A note had been left at the
school room addressed to her which
read as follows:
BEAUTIFUL LUCY-I must speak to you;
you must hear me. Meet me tonight at the
lower end of Redmond's bridge; remember,
you must come.
There was no signature, but there
could be no doubt from whence it came.
Lucy's checks flushed with indignation;
but thrill of fear went through her
heart. Her pursuer's audacity seemed
to have approached crisis.
She crushed the note in her hand, for
the obscrvant eyes of her little pupils
were upon her and she forced herself to
so on with their lessons; but her cheek