Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1891-02-12


Never more to walk alone!'
All night it rang through her brain ;
Waking, the memory Of those words as
he had uttered them made her heart
throb with u keen, new pain, sleeping,
they repeated themselves as prophecy
"a prophecy that made her heart re-
bel.
Why should this man, nearly twice
her age, and whose life had belonged to
another woman, disturb her peace with
his keen, cold eyes-eyes unspeakably
melancholy in repose?
She was proud, young, ardent, belov.
ed by scores she passed lightly by.
Why could she not pass lightly by this
man who loved her not
The next day and yet the next, and
for many DAYS to come-she snubbed
him, she refused to sing. she Airted with
Rick Douglass until the young man
grew dizzy with hope.
But ignore him however she might
seem to in the day, Philip Dartmoor.
the blighted man of the world, the man
who had loved and kissed and welded
another woman long ago, claimed her
for his own.
So time fluttered by, and unravelled
his scroll to the last evening of her stay
at Darrell House.
So restless, so vaguely oppressed she
felt, that early in the day she had been
compelled to retire to her room with a
nervous headache.
The evening was ominously calm,
presaglng snow, but she felt that a
long walk on the cliff would do her
good mentally and physically, so she
stole down by side door, and slipped
away INTO the dropping wintry twi-
light.
She walked fast and far, and not un.
til she was miles away, with many cliffs
between her and her home, did she re
allie that the threatened storm had act
ual|y begun.
The snow. even while she turned
started, to retrace her steps, came
down in a binding whlrl.
1t was almost impossible to sec step
before her, and the darkness, too, was
closing in.
How rash she had been in her rest
lessness +? Where could she go-what
could she do?
To start back over those treacherous
cliffs in the face of the storm-it was
madness-death.
And there was no building in sight,
for her eyes had anxiously scanned in
land, then stared seward in blank de-
pair.
Suddenly the quick, sharp beat Of a
horses hoof broke on the awful desola-
ton.
An instant she listened intently, then
she was looking up into the face of
the man she had been snubbing, mad
dening these three long weeks, with a
glad, wistul face
He leapcd from his horse and took
her in his arms-a close, passionate en-
brace, to winch she yielded like a weary
child at rest.
Her head dropped to his breast, and
she burst into a storm Of sobs she could
not check, but cou ld-now understand.
"You do not hate me, then ~ he was
whispering hoarseIy, holding her close.
ly still as if afraid to let her go. 81
was afraid, afraid. Oh, my darling. am
not worthy to hold you here against my
scared heart, but I cannot, l will not,
let you go. l nearly went mad when
l met your maid and she told me, just
as the storm began to break that you
had gone out on the cliffs alone Why"
her at arms length to keenly
survey her arms length-"why did you
do it ?
"To-to escape myself she Whisper
ed with a fierce blush which she hid ut
its birth against the fur ofhls coat.
X X x
"Ph.h .hew!" whistled Maud Darrell
Il couple of hours later in certain cozy
dressing room we have before invaded.
"No, I never guessed it, you are such a
consummste little actress. Lotus Blossom
l never thought you would marry
man who had wife before, you
know
II would marry him T. retorted Cleo,
IA tender light flashing into her sombre-
hued eyes. Eyes, if he had fifty wives
before. but no other man 1t was writ
ten, you ow'-laughing-"and we
were weak as straws IN the hands of
Fate. He tried to avoid me and | tried
to avoid him ever since that first night
when you told me his story, and he,
~, al,.. al, 4Lo halnnnu ann1dnntallv