The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-01-09
GUILDEROY
4tOUIDEl X
Author of "Under Two Flags, 1.-TWO Lit
tie Wooden Shoes" "Chandos,"
"Den Gesualdo," Etc.
CSOw first published. All rights re.ervsd.l
CHAPTER XXXIv.

John Vernon, having accompanied his
visitor to her carriage, had walked slowly
back to his little house. He had felt in
finitelv more emotion than he had shown
20 her, for although not unexpected, the
tidings she brought TO him had been none
the less cruel And he felt, as he had said
to her, that all Intervention would be use
less, worse than useless. When two lives
are drifting apart, their own regrets or re-
lentings can yet unite them, but the inter
ference OF any other can only send them
wider asunder.
He sat down again in his willow chair,
with the sunshine about him and the bees
buzzing in the honeysuckles. His left
hand was still closed unconseiously on the
letter from his dead cousins lawyers.
The emotions of pleasure and pain had
exhausted him; they were the perils
against which he had always been warned.
His tranquil life amongst his books had
alone preserved so long his fragile cord oil
life.
As he looked at the gay sunshine with
the gnats and the flies dancing in it, the
tangle of green boughs through which the
blue of the sea was shining, the fragrant
sweetbrier and southern-wood where two
little blue tomtits were fitting. to him
there seemed so much-ah, so much -
that was unutterably beautiful In exist
ence. Why would youth and manhood
fret themselves away in the fierce and
heated furnace OF passions, which were
no sooner attained and enjoyed than they
lost all power to charm? III youth would
only believe how much else there is to
enjoyl If age. which does know, had not
lost the power to enjoy all
"Si jeunesse savait 81 vieilesse pouvait !"
ne murmured, in the old trite, true sad
words of human existence which has no
sooner time to learn its secret than it has
20 pass away where there IS no more use
Tor its hardly acquired knowledge. What
cruelty and mockery there were in this
brief saying! II he could only put his
own knowledge, his own patience, his
own experience into the heart OF his
child
He felt tired and sad, and the pleasant
ness OF the little gift of Fortune which had
come to him was forgotten in an aching
anxiety for the fate of one dearer than
himself
''If she be ever forced to leave him.,
he thought, ''she will be too proud to keep
her dowry and she viii have this to live
on it is well so far."
The afternoon was very warm and
sultry; there was no sound but the buz-
zing of the bees and the murmur of the
sea on the shore. lie listened to that
sound which seemed like the beating OF
the heart of Nature.
I'll we could listen more TO that and
less to our own, we should be happier
while we live and reader for death, he
thought, as he leaned his head back in the
chair and closed his eyes. He felt very
weary. He rested there very quietly.
The hours passed and the sun sank
down, and the little birds in the sweet
brier and southernwood began to think of
their bedtime. safe under their abode Of
leaves.
The dog at his feet looked anxiously up
at him from time to time. The reflection
from the setting sun shone on his face,
which was very white and very calm, and
there, when the shadows of the evening
came about him, his old servant found
him sleeping. He died in his sleep with
out a pang. There was the shadow oil a
smile on his pale lips.
He had gone in peace to the great ma
jority, whittier had gone before him the
great souls whom he had loved in life.