The Washington critic., 1889-01-28
ALMOST SACRIFICED.

Digby Lawson, young traveller, was
driven to take shelter during snow
storm in lonely house. There were
two women there when he entered one
elderly and sulen.l looking, who prepared
his supper for him, and slender, black
eyed creature, whom the former adj
dressed as Myrtle.
He found out that the younger one Of
the two was the stepdaughter and that
she was insane. There seemed to be a
settled antagonism between them, and
Lawson could not help wondering what
the mystery was, and If the stepdaughter
really was insane.
When he was with Myrtle alone he
questioned her and found that she spoke
nationally. The stepmother returning
again she questioned him about what the
daughter had said, but he only shrugged
his shoulders.
Before he drove away he was intro.
duced to the woman's son, Stephen Bird,
who seemed TO take great interest in
Myrtle.
He found on making inquiries that the
woman who entertained him was named
Phebe Andres She had been house.
keeper to Myrtle's father, who left her
guardian to his daughter and her large
property. C
She was now trying to marry the girl
to Stephen Bird, and il was hinted that
some coercion was used.
All the rest of his journey Lawson
thought of that girls hard fate, and
pitied her. When business brought him
around again over the same route he
could not resist the impulse of calling.
He had no very sufficient excuse for
stopping, but he found it difficult to
pass.
He got off his horse and went slowly
up to the house.
Myrtle met him at the door. She
was haggard and all her vitality seemed
to be in her eyes.
Miss MYRTLE" he exclaimed, "are
you i'll ?"
She laughed.
''If am my disease Is named Stephen
Bird. Have you come back, sir, to test
the tender hospitalities of my step
mother?'
II was passing, and seeing your face
at the window, thought l would call.
Aren't you going to invite me in?" -.
"Not /. l shall be locked up again If
you come in"
"Again?"
She nodded. "Stepmamma turned the
key upon me when you were here be-
fore. People who have such Timber
tongues as mine often have to be locked
up, stepmamma says"
She had the air of one goaded to des-
peratlon. Digby noticed that her hands
trem bled.
"Miss Myrtle, he said, II may be pre-.
sumptuous, but it seems to me you are in
trouble. l should like to be of service
to you"
gloomily.
"Tell me just what the trouble is"
II haven't any trouble but Stephen
Bird" she said, jarringly. Hell be
the death of me-"
"Do they want you to marry him2"
She nodded.
"And you won't?"
"And won't, most emphatlcally
"Have you said so p
about twenty -four times day for the
last year"
why don't you run away 2"
"Where would run to? Everybody
is on her side"
II am not. win you marry me,
Myrtle-that IS, II give you satisfactory
evidence of responsibility ?"
Myrtle .shraDk o, little, but she said
simply: aye -
II like you; I did from the first. II
would not be very hard to marry you and
be forever free Of Stephen Bird"
''Be at the gate, then, at dusk. / will
come by in carriage"
Myrtle gave him her hand on it, and
went in just in time to intercept her step.
mamma in the hail. But she had seen
nothing,
At dusk Digby Lawson drove slowly
past the Andros gate. 1t swung wide as
he did so, and Myrtle ran out.
They were married within few hours
and the intensity of the chagrin and
amazement of Stephen Bird and his
mother it would be impossible to por
tray.