The Red Cloud chief., 1889-12-20
MIRIAM.
1le Romance Of HeatlGlagl Hall.
BY MANDA L. CROKER.
COPYRIGHT. 1889.

CdAETEh
fancy Miriam Percival Fairfax is one Of
these, and SO 1 work away with needle and
gray and black zephyr as il I made my liv-
ing BY my endeavors In this line. and glance
up about every tenth stitch over my glasses
to note any change in the occupant OF the
deep, easy chair.
1 hear another rustic Of the letter, and
look up to find her doubling it over her
Singer and looking at me with such q re-
Iieved, sweet expression that l again let the
words slip from my tongue that rise: "LOve
IL Transforming you. Miriam, from a sad
faced, ~revengeful Percival to a bright,
beautiful woman"
"Hush!" she said, with a smile. "Would
you not like to read AlIan's letter! There is
nothing in it that you need not know, and
since you have been so faithful and thought
full and true, why, It is your due-only your
due"
She offers me the missive. I take my
chair and 60 over and sit down beside her,
and she lays the open letter in my lap. I
adjust my glasses better, lay aside my Gro
cheting and read as Allan .Percival has
written:
miriam. my love. the unexpected meet
Ing with Q friend Of yours in the park at Heath
8AVOS 84O ~ ORROA Sohity VI yo1
letter. The great burden OF my life ia. dear
one. whether you love M I, as I desire with my
whole soul, or not. remember OF giving you
my address when I visited you AZ the Rest
but you have not written to me a. set. The
love born In the dark days Of threading the val
ley OF death 10 not to be put aside easily, and I
must beg of you, dearest to say IL you have
changed your mind, or II you have BY our long
separation found that you love me even alrttle.
ssr ma p0or 0hAn No nopfoN hnf 7 MN now
IN independent circumstances having fallen
heir TO landed property in and near Trouville
nom my mothers family. tell you this, not
because I merely wish to speak OF my aflu-
ence, but IL maj be that you think I am think.
ing Of your wealth, though I can hardly see why
you could imagine . Percival assembling.
IF you have found that you can love mi oh!
keep the locket l gave you at tho Rest as the
gift Of only q relative. I remain yours,
"ALLAN PERCIvAL"
81 must answer it" she said, when I had
finished. "Allan will be SO disappointed if
/ do not. He is noble and true, as you said,"
she goes On to say, .'and l find, after such q
long separation, that I can never be happy
without him."
Then that is the problem she has been
trying to solve all these months Of separa-
tion-whether she could forget her anguish
for the dead enough to be happy with the
living. She doesn't say this, but I divine it
TO be the case, nevertheless. Well, she has
solved it, sitting here in the winters sun
shine, and the rose will bloom where the
rue hath grown, for love can never forget
his OWL.
81 never have shown you his gift men,
toned in the letter." she says with a smile;
"though, Of course, you caught sight of it
aurinR my illness. Yes, the face inside"
she adds, with q faint flush.
Drawing the locket from her bosom, she
anclasps the chain which I had restored to
her neck while she was asleep In the first
stage of convalescence, and touches the
secret spring as I had done in those days of