Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1891-05-01


came mIsanthropic, and took to keep
ing dogs and smoking cigars innumer-
| able
Things with him were not so bad as
at ilrst suspected. They never are, at
least in stories, and he had after all,
rev thousands left. He went into
business on small scale, but the
confinement of the counting room in
Jured his health, and sometime in the
summer his physician sent him 10 the
White Mountains to recruit.
Meanwhile lmogene Leigh had be-
come an heiress. A great aunt of
hers, after living fifteen years beyond
the age Of man, and tormcnting the
lives almost out of everybody who had
anything to do with her, had died re-
specially one night in her bed, and
when her will was opened, her greedy
relatives found that she had be-
qLeaihed everything to a grand-niece
they had scarcely heard Of.
But it was no use to get angry, and
so they were all very sweet and afiec-
tionate when Imogene came and took
possession Of Beechlawn.
But the girl found the great house
very lonely, and so in july she joined
Mrs, Judge KendaIPs party aud went
TO the mountains.
And so it happened that at the
Crawford House the names of Imo-
gene Leigh and Charles Grcyland
stood one above the other on the
clerks register.
They met at breakfast. Imogene In
her crimson morning robe, with her
silky black hair ripping down over
her shoulders, and her white hands
Sparkling with diamonds-n his dia-
mondss however looked very fair
and queenly as she sat opposite to him
and slipped her coffee, and carried on a
brilliant fire of repartee with Judge
Kendall To have seen her and Grey
land, nobody would ever have dreamed
that they had once been all the world
to each other.
Two or three days passed away.
Somebody introduced Mr.. Greyland
aud fliss leigh, aud they had ex-
ehaliied few well-bred platitudes
and krified apart. That night Grey
lant Tossed until morning in his bed
AID matchmaking the mattress
To- sso@s., -ss7s-oss ---a. Miss Iseiss;,l-
nearly succeeded in making herself
believe that the winds in the corridors
were keeping her awake.
Next morning Grcyland started off
alone for Mount Was .iington.
Everybody told him to take a guide,
and spoke of the danger of going into
those mountain wilds alone, but he
laughed Mt them. He was not going
to convert himself into q hero by
getting lost-not he! lie should dine
at the Tip Top House, and be back in
season for stcwed partridge at the
Crawford.
Imogcne sat on the piazza doing
some trifle in green Berlin wool, and
heard every word. OF course it was
nothing to her any way, but after Mr..
Greyland disappeared in the scrubby
evergreens which clustered around the
entrance TO the bride path, she was
conscious of a feeling of something
lost out of the brightness of the day.
Clouds began to gather over the
summit of Mount Willard. A party
who had ascended early in the morn
ing came down drenched and by and
by the equestrians who had gone up
70 Mount Washington just after Grey
lands departure returned cold and
blue.
A hard storm was in progress on
the mountains-the mist and fog were
almost blinding-and Mr.. Greyland
had not been seen or heard from.
Grave apprehensions were entertained
FOR his safety among those who UNDER
stood the danger of being lost on the
mountains, and the gentlemen stood
apart in knots, and discussed the mat
ter with serious faces.
The night of storm and gloom wore
slowly away, and the morning broke
cold and wet. Imogene sat by the
open window, just as she had sat all
night, listening to the wild howl of
Rudolph, the beautiful pet hound of
the missing man, which had been left
chained in his masters room.
With the first gleam of dawn a party
of guides and a half-dozen friends of
Greyland sailed forth to search for
him.
~ Ahoiher dismal night; ana another
misty morning, and again they went
forth on their quest-this time with
little hope of finding him alive; but,
as one of the guides remarked;
at looked unchristian not TO find
the body and give it a decent burial.
Imogene heard what the man said,
and for a moment her heart stopped.
She knew now that in spite of all the
scorn she had tried to feel for Charles
Greyland, she had never ceased to
love him.
And now he was dead.
No, ho, she would not admit the
thought He must be living! God,