Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-01
AFTER MANY DAYS
A STORY OF MEMORIAL DAY.
You are not doing it just for my sake,
Rugh?" said the sweet incisive voice.
"God forbid! There ia no question of that.

lou arg NOT oolng IL just Tor my sake,
Augh?" said the sweet incisive voice.
God forbid! There is no question of that,
Marion.
"I could not love thee dear 90 much.
Loved not honor more
I am one of .Marion's men, as the bows call me
now. by birth and breeding, for my great
grandfather was sworn aide and ally of the
Swamp Fox. Hugh Heriot, of that day, was
his leaders right hand all through that long
hiding and skirmishing that SO harassed the
British from swamp and morass. Many tale
has my grandfather told me by the big fire.
place at Heriot of those old days, till my heart
and head were full of patriotism. 1 was fed on
love Tor my country from my first remem-
brance; do you think it will fail me nowI"
Marion Lancaster's dark eyes flashed back
the look OF her lovers. NO. but then Will
it seem patriotism to them, Hugh-to your
people at home?"
Il don't know. l have horrid doubt some
times. But 1t Is my country; have no other
my own grand magnificent country-east, west,
north, or south. ! fight for its unity, against
its separation, for no latitude or longitude If
my own people have lived so long In Georgia
that their good Scotch blood runs thin with the
ianguor OF luxury, have been here in these
Mus long enough to get back the iron into mine
that lay only IN allegiance. must go, Marion;
and must go on the side of right You could
not keep me. dear. and know you would not"
spasm OF anguish quivered over her beau
tiful proud face, but her voice was true and
clear. Il dare not keep you, Hugh. Women
have sense of honor. too-a love of country"
Some OF them" said Hugh bitterly. He
was thinking of his classmate and chum; whose
weak, lovely little fiancee was doing her utmost
to Keep him out of the army, day after day.
Hugh looked at Marion with love and pride in
his eyes. You are the right Sort" he said as
he drew her more closely against his shoulder
II wish knew how things were with Sandy"
he went on. Mother has no one else on the
plantation but Cornelia; my cousins 1 know,
nave joined the army of the south. Georgians
born and bred. though Aunt Carr was a Con-
nectlcut woman, like mother. they are typical
southerners; they have neither my Scotch
oiood nor my northern education. know well
which way is theirs. 1 can't blame them,
though heartily disagree with them
Marion looked up at her lover with something
higher than emotion in her eyes; his Justice
and candor amazed her. In the seething pas
slons OF the time she had never before heard
one Just word uttered for those whose honest
convictions arrayed them on the other side.
III Is well now for your mother that Sandy
did not share your strength" she said, think
ing with woman's instinct how lonely Mrs.
Heriot would be without either son.
Hugh laughed Perhaps it is just as we'll
for me, Marion. Had we both been strong and
well we should both have come north-mother
is fanatic about New England education-and
then we should both have fallen in love with
you. sweetheart What dilemma for you!'
How do you know" said Marion, half smil-
ing.
"Oh, Sandy and are twins all through ex-
ceept for his delicate organization. He and
liked the same things, dreamed the same
dreams, read the same books, are so alike,
even mother was at times puzzled to tell us
apart. Old DR.. Severance used to say that we
were, after all, only one boy, without physique
enough for the two bodies we .materialized'
into. always felt ashamed, in dull sort of
way, to be so robust when Sandy could not
keep up with me; but he is far the sweeter-
natured of the two. You would have loved
him the better, Marion"
Never" was the swift. indignant answer.
SO Hugh Heriot enlisted with a northern
regiment parted with his sweetheart bravely.
and left her to wait as hundreds like her were
left in those dreadful days.
Did we know then, shall we ever know-we
who came out scathless-what those women
suffered who, tied hand and foot, maddened bv
the poor recurrent routine of daily life, filled
with vague imaginative terrors, had vet to live
and do their petty duties under the edge of a
sword worse than the tabled blade of Damocles?
Honor forever to that noble army of MARTYRS?
To them no less than to those who lost their
lives on the actual battlefield should monu-
ments arise and wreaths be offered. They
were the beating heart that sent strong life
blood into the battling hand, and. oh! how
often persisted with it.. Not in the palIor and
shelter of the fower-strewn grave, but in the
broken heart, the joyless life, the desperation
of memory, the "dying, yet behold we live"
that death in life that is the greatest if not the
last enemy.
If there were other women who suffered
more than Marion Lancaster in this dire sus-
pense she did not know it; it seemed to her no
heart could be more torn with anxiety, more
tortured by the silence that yet thrilled with
dreadful possibilities than hers. She did not
fhofh ar Co..
young passion scarcely rooted in her breast:
that she was bound to him by none of the
strong ties of those who had sent their hus-
bands out to war, and crouched on desolate
hearth-stones with clinging children about them
who might the next hour be wailing orphans.
she thought she suffered all she could, and as
week after week grew into month after month,
and the second year came lingering on, she
grew thin, pale and listless.
For Hugh Heriot had yet had no furlough:
the few times Marion had heard from him he
had spoken of his intention to apply for one at
the years end, but he had enlisted for the
war, and felt that while his strength lasted he
must tight; he was more needed on the field
than even Marion needed him.
Yet after the first year began there were no
more letters, and after the battle of Lookout
mountain the lists of killed and wounded came
in SO slowly that it was long week before the
very last showed among the list of missing"
"Hugh Heriot, Major G. Tenth Infantry"
'hlsslIlS! Gan WORDS expound what that
one word meant in those days?" Not the sharp
blow of wounded" which implied possible
life, and even hope of immediate repair to
the sufferer, and all the gentle ministries to
relieve one and console the other, blessed in
giving or taking. Not the stun and desolation
Of dead" that left no worse to fear. nor tan
talized with the ignis fatuus of hope; but that
one fatal word that tortured but did not say;
that bound the victim to the stake and piled
the fagots, but delayed to light the fire till the
waiting grew to be Madness
Marion was a warm-hearted imaginative girl
and missing" meant to her long chapter of
surmised agonies. In her waking hours she
figured SO many and such dreadful possibilities
that her sleep renewed and exaggerated. she
painted such sufferings for her lost lover, such
terrific and harassing situations, that it would
have been a positive relief to her to know of
his death: yet she would not admit it to her
self. She lost all that held her to life, when,
just as the war ceased, her widowed mother
died suddenly and without one farewell word
1t would have been better for Marion had
necessity forced her to exertion, but she had
enough money to live on comfortably, and SO
she shut herself in her tiny house with her old
servant, and made herself a solitary mourner
Her beautiful and abundant brown hair grew
white as snow, and her eyes lost their sparkle;
but her health gradually asserted itself
anew, her constitution was strong, and she al
most lived out-of doors, either in her garden
which was her sole amusement and pleasure.
or WALKING over the breezy hills of the country