The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-08-11

| stroll through the trees and shru bbery be-
yond the flower beds and lawn, and then
he saw her face as she told him that sister
ly regard was all that she could ever feel
for him, but that Chloe Payscn would
never cease to pray for his welfare as long
as she lived.
81 was fool" he muttered impatisntly,
as the noise accompanying the slaughter
Of the bull in the arena awoke him from
his reverie. eff, instead of weakly despair
Ing and leaving everybody and everything
in old Virginia to come here among a
strange people, l bad staid and faced my
fate like a man, who knows?"
He moved out of the great, hot amphi-
theater with the letter still in his hand.
The streets were at their gayest, with all
the action and bright color characteristic
Of q Mexican city on Sunday afternoon.
! Richly dressed ladies, with the lace man
tilla thrown over their dark hair; gentle
men in American cut frock coats and broad
sombreros; female beggars and flower
sellers, each with the inevitable baby fas-
tened to her back by a gay hued robozo;
policemen, work'nen, dogs, horses, car
riages and the great mass Of idle popula-
ton crowded the main avenues and rem
| dered locomotion necessarily deliberate.
Edward Payson made his way to his
room in q quiet street, and for the TWEEN
tieth time read the letter he had received
the day before.
GREENFIELD Va. June - 49,
| DEAR-Why do you not come back? Why
| do you stay away so long from the old homer
! 1t is ten years that you have been away, and
| only found out last week where you were.
What made you go away so suddenly without
| saying goodby to anybody? l ought not to
forgive you, but do. You should have thought
that perhaps the trouble which made you go
might not have been so bad after all, and that
! people may not have meant all they said. No
| one knows that | am writing you this letter,
! and perhaps ought not TO do it, but am long
ing to see my boy again and do no not care
! what folks may say. Do not wait to write, but
! come. CHLOE PAYSON.
| A week later Edward Payson stood in
the grove of sycamores, oaks and NAPLES,
looking at the stone mansion Of which he
had been thinking SO sadly amid the heat,
dust and noise Of the Mexican amphithe-
alter. 1t was just such morning of which
he had dreamed. The sun was shining
brightly, and the low hum of insects min
gled with the SILVER of the leaves over his
head, as if trying to soothe him and quiet
the fierce beating of his heart.
"How natural the old house looks. What
little change has been made here in ten
years. 1t looks the same as it did yester
day. l wonder what my uncle will say to
me. / wish Chloe had said something
about him. We had a rather serious quar-
rel, l remember, the day before l left him.
Perhaps he will tell me to 60 back again
and resume the vagrant life that know
he thinks have been leading. No, he
would hardly say that to the son of his
only brother, after his sacred promise to
that brother to be as father to me as long
as we both lived.
Besides he was always hot headed, and
no doubt fQrgave me almost before l was
out of the room. All, well, shall soon
know, and what do l care, so that Chloe
has a welcome for me? 1t was near this
spot that she spoke to me so kindly, and
yet, oh, SO coldly, when she told me that
we-cousns-could never be lovers. All!
| There she is surely"
His breath came short as he caught sight
of a white dress at one of the open win
dows under the veranda roof He could
not see the face of the wearer because a
tangled mass of creeper hung in the way.
but he knew it could be no one else save
the girl, as he loved still to think her,
whom he had come thousands of miles to
see, The white dress moved away, and he
walked slowly across the lawn, noting on
every hand familiar objects that brought
back his youth in flood of fragrance.
How weak he felt as ne assembled the
steps to the veranda. Where was Chloe?
Would she come to the door?
He pulled the bell han die and heard the
clang that he remembered so well resound-
ing through the house. He could see it in
his minds eye swinging near the rear of
the long hall that ran straight through
from the front door to that opening on the
yard at the back. where the old cooks cab
bages and tomatoes were carefully tended,
and where it was as much as one of the
kitchen girls life would have been worth
to trespass. He remembered how the old
bell had to his youthful imagination, pos
sessed ghostly attributes, and how he used
to fancy it moved of itself in the dusk of
the evening, shaking its head in mockery
aud threatening to swallow him up into
its rusty throat.
Listen! There is a step in the hall.
Somebody is coming. The door opened a
little way, and the flutter of a white dress
caught his eye. Impatientiy he pushed the
door wide open and put out his hand to
take that OF Chloe.
why, Mas'r Ed'ardl Eff l didn't t'ink
you'd come back to 70 poo oil auntie,"
and two black han 5, in white sleeves.
were placed on Edward Payson's shoulder,
as a pair of hornrimmed spectacles fell
with crash to the floor
YES, auntie. got a letter. and l came
right back to the old place. How are you,
and how is my uncle. and how is-is''-
His voice faltered, but the old woman
did not appear to notice it as she answered.:
''Dey is all well, honey. Dere have been
few changes roun here. Come in and let
me give you something to eat. I've got
some hot con cakes, like yer useter git
when yo was a boy. Come along 70
uncle's done gone away for all day"
ooh, Auntie, l want you to- said
child's voice. and little girl with sunny
golden hair came running along the hall
just as Edward Payson used to run some
thirty years before. She stopped when she
saw him aud chung close to the fiustered
old woman while she looked inQuiringly
at him.
'Yo know, Ed'ard, did not know where
yo had gone, but colored man what
works for Mr.. Sherwood, the butcher, be
was here and he toll me he heard as yo
was in Nexica. And / thought yo'd had
a little quarrel with 20 uncle, and p'raps
you'd be too proud to come back if he wrote
TO you. aud so l get young Miss Mabel,
over to Raleigh's place, who is just as good
as a angel to col'ed folks and who writes
splendid, to write TO you, and
And was the letter from you2" Casped
Edward Payson, as he looked down at the
golden haired little girl, while terrible
thought ran through his brain.
>. =. -, !