Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-05-08
BEATRICE..
By 4. RIDER HAGGARD.

nj x
@Ab well, dreams may be wiser than wax
IA rs and nonsense than learned talk, for all
lnow But there's an end Of it. don't
Enow why repeated it to you am sorry l
"a reneat it. but it seemed so real it shook
me- out of myself This is what comes Of
breaking in upon the routine OF life by being
tbree parts drowned. One finds queer things
A. the bottom of the sea, you know. By the
say | hope that you are recovering. | do
E not think that you will care to go canoeing
IA acain with me. Mr.. Bingham"
There was an opening for a compliment
here but Godfrey felt that it would be too
mnch in earnest if spoken, so he resisted the
temptation.
q uWhat, Miss Granger he said, ''should a
man say to lady who but last night saved
I'd life. at the risk-indeed, almost at the cost
-of her ownF
DIT was nothing" she answered, coloring;
e 81 chung to you, that was all, more by instinct
than from any motive. Think had vague
idea that you might float and support me-"
Miss Granger, the occasion is too serious
Cor nolite fibs. / know how you saved my
ne do not know how to thank you for
# it,
nThen don't thank me at all, Mr.. Bing-
ham. Why should you thank met l only
# Aid what was bound to do. would far
rather die than desert companion in dis
tress Of any sort; we all must die, but it
would be dreadful to die ashamed. You
know what they say, that IL you save per-
son from drowning you will do them an in
iury afterwards. That's how they put it
q here; in some parts the saying is the other
way about, but am not likely ever to do
81 YOU an injury, so 1t does not make me I'M
q happy. 1t was an awful experience; you
we're senseless, SO you cannot know how
strange it felt lying upon the slippery rock,
and seeing those great white waves rush
upon us through the gloom, with nothing but
The night above and the sea around and
death between the two. have been lonely
s for many years, but l do not think that
ever quite understood what loneliness really
meant before. You see,n she added, by way
Of an afterthought, II thought that yos
= were dead, and there is not much company
In a corpse"
81 "Weli,n he said, lone thing is, it would
have been lonelier il we had gone.n
"Do you think soFn she answered, looking
+ at him inquiringly. II don't quite see how
& YOU make that out. II you believe in what
we have been taught, as l think You do,
wherever it was you found yourself there
8 would be plenty of company, and il, like me,
4 you do not believe in anything, why, then,
s you would have slept, and sleep asks for
nothing"
did ycl believe in nothing When you lay
q upon the rock, waiting to be drowned, Miss
8 Granger"
,'Nothing!n she answered; ''only weak PEG
+ Die find revelation in the extremities OF fear.
4 II revelation comes at all, surely it must be
4 born in the heart and not in the senses. l
4 believed in nothing aud dreaded nothing,
3 except the agony of death. Why should l
! be afraid! Surprising that | am mistaken,
4 and there is something beyond, Is it my fault
4 that | cannot believed What have | done
\ that should be afraidl have never harmed
. ANYBODY that know of, and IL l could be-
4 lieve would. / wish | had died. she went
i on passionately; at would all be over now.
4 | am tired of the world, tired of work and
hslplessness, and all the little worries which
\ wear one out. am not wanted here, / have
nothing to live for, and wish that had
diedn
Some day you will think differently, Miss
4 Granger There are many things that a
woman like yourself can live for-at the
least there is your work.
She laughed drearily. my work. II you
only knew what it is like you would not talk
70 me about it. Every day l roll my stone up
the hill and every night it seems to roll down
again. But you have never taught In vii
lage school, How can you knowl work all
day, and in the evening perhaps have to
mend the tablecloths, or-what do you think
write my fathers sermons. 1t sounds Curl
GUS, does it not, that should write sermonsl
But do. / wrote the one he is going to
preach next Sunday 1t makes very little
difference to him what it is so long as he can
read it, and, of course, never say anything
which can offend anybody, and l do not
think that they listen much. Very few peo-
pie go to church in Bryngelly."
Don't you ever get any time TO yourself,
thenr
''oh. YES, sometimes l do, and then l 60
out in my canoe, or read, and am almost
happy. After all, Mr.. Bingham, it is very
wrong and ungrateful Of me to speak like
this. l have more advantages than nine
tenths of the world, and ought to make the
best of them. don't know why have been
speaking as have, and to you, whom never
saw till Yesterday. / never did it before 70
any living soul, assure you. 1t is just like
the story OF the man who came hear last year
with the divining rod. There is cottags
down on the cliff-it belongs TO Mr.. Davies
who lives in the castle. Well, they have nc
drinking water near, and the new tenant
made a great fuss about it. So Mr.. Davies
got men, and they dug and dug and spent nc
end Of money, but could not come to water
At last the tenant retched an old man IRON
some parish long way of, who said that h
could find water with a divining rod He wa
a curious old man with a crutch, and b
came with his rod, and hobbled about till a
last the rod twitched just at the tenants baci
door-at least the diviner said it did At any
rate, they dug there, and in ten minutes
struck spring of water, which dubbed NJ
50 strongly that it rushed into the house anc
flooded it. And what do you thinka Aftel
all, the water was brackish- You are tbs
man with the divininK rod, Mr.. Bingham
and you have made me talk a great deal to-
much, and, after all, you see it is not nic'
4 alk You must think me a very disagreeabl'
and wicked young woman, and daresay
am But somehow it is a relief to open oneh
mind. 1 do hope, Mr.. Bingham, that you
viii see-in short, that you will not misuDder
ovN1,