Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-05-01

/ Dt~e 49," f'sf'ffftftb ~ 49, 49,
The autumn afternoon was fading into
evening II had been cloudy weather, but
the clouds had softened and broken up Now
they were lost in slowly darkening blue. The
sea was perfectly and utterly still. 1t seemed
70 sleep, but in its sleep it still waxed with
the rising tide. The eye could not mark its
slow increase. but Beatrice, standing upon
the furthest point of the Dog Rocks, idly
noted that the long brown seaweeds which
chung about their sides began TO lift as the
water took their weight till at last the deli
cate pattern noated out and lay like wom-
ans hair upon the green depth of sea- Mean
while mist was growing dense and soft
upon the quiet waters. 1t was not blown up
from the west, it simply grew like the twi-
light, making the silence yet more silent and
blotting away the outlines of the land. Bea-
trice gave up studying the seaweed and
watched the gathering of the fieecy hosts.
what a curious evening" she said aloud
20 herself, speaking in low, full voice. II
have not seen one like it since mother died,
and that Is seven years ago. I've grown
since then, grown every way and she
laughed somewhat sadly, and looked at her
own reflection in the quiet water.
She could not have looked at anything
more charming, for it would have been hard
TO find girl of nobler mien than Beatrice
Granger she stood and gazed, on this her
twenty-second birthday, into that misty sea
OF rather more than middle height and
modelled like a statue, strength and health
seemed to radiate from her form. But it
was her face, with the stamp Of intellect and
power shadowinS its woman's loveliness,
that must have made her remarkable among
women even more beautiful than herself.
There are many girls who have rich brown
hair like some autumn leaf here and there
just following into gold girls whose deep
gray eyes can grow tender as a doves, or
dash like the stirred waters Of a northern sea,
and whose bloom can bear comparison with
the wilding rose.
But feS can show face like that which
upon this day first dawned on Ge1frey
Bingham TO BIS sorrow and his hope, IL was
strong and pure and sweet as the keen sea
breath, and looking on it one must know
that beneath this fair cloak lay wit as fair
And yet il was all womanly: here was not
the hard sexleSs stamp OF the cultured"
female She who owned 1t was capable Of
many thin She could love and she could
suffer, and ii need be she could dare or die
Ii was to I've read upon that lovely brow and
face and in the depths Of those gray eyes
that is by those to whom the book Of char
acter is open, and VINO wish to study it.
But Beatrice was not thinking of her love
-.iness as size gazed into the water She
Knew that she was beautiful, OF course; her
beauty was too obvious 70 be overlooked, /
and besides il had been brought home to
ler in several more or less disagreeabe ways.
''Seven years, she was thnking, since the |
aight of the death fogs' that was what old |
Edward called 10, aud 50 it was. | was only /
% high then. and following her thoughts |
she touched herself upon the breast And !
/ was happy, too, in my own way. Why /
ant one always be IS. and believe every
hing one is toldfn and she sighed Seven +
7ears and nothing done yet Work, work. /
and nothing coming out Of the work, and 4
everything fading away think that life is 1
very dreary when one has lost everything, /
aud found nothing, and loves nobody. l
wonder what it will De like in another seven
years.
She covered her eyes with her hands, and
then, taking them away, once more looked at
the water. Such light as struggled through
the fog was behind her, and the mist was
AZ first she had some difficulty
in tracing her own likeness upon the CLASSY
surface, but gradually she marked its out
line 1t stretched away from her, and its APP
pearance was as though she herself were ly-
ing on her back in the water wrapped about
with the fleecy How curious it seems,n
'he thought; what is it that reflection re
minds me of with the white all round itfn
Next instant she gave a little cry and
turned sharply away; she knew now. 1t re-
,alled her mother as she had last seen her
even years ago