Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-09-04

the lovers being so we'll known and well
liked, having so much of money and
position both, and being so greatly and
unaffectedly IN love with each other"
Mr.. CRANKY paused, stroking his
horses head and looking down. And
Ada's lips were softly parted.
"Are you waiting for a description OF
their happy marriage and deeper joy"
Mr.. CRANKY demanded, drily. "That is
the sequent cannot give-that is the
tragedy"
He seemed to falter.
"Did she-diel" Ida murmured-"Or
hel"
Yet she knew better. Almost Ger tain
she was that it was of himself Mr..
CRANKY was gravely talking.
"Nol think almost he might better
have. mol The engagement was broken
and for nothing" His voice was hard.
"Broken for some trivial cause which l
understood at the time. The lapse OF
years had made contemplate that which
was unworthy at its best. 1t was moth
ing, nothing caprice on her part, an
inadvertence on his. What matter? 1t
should have been forgotten in day or
an hour. No! she was unreasonably
reproachful and he stubborn, or he re-
proachful, she foolisAly determined
What oddsl Both were wrong; both
in a rash moment we're sure that trl-
umph of self-assertion was more to them
than their life-happiness. Aqd the en-
gagement was broken" ."
Mr.. CRANKY was not looking at her;
his eyes were lowered still.
But paleness had succeeded flush
on his listeners averted face, and she
sat in utter silence.
"There was no reconciliation, for
neither would take the first step. l
know what heart -burnings there were,
what real loneliness and misery. But
that was all. After the first sharp words
they did not even see each other. lie
went South and West-went abroad
came back and visited Canada. He said
he had always meant to travel extensive
", and that he would go into business
when be had seen something, and get
rich. And all this he did. Briefly, he
did it. He gained experience and a
worldly air, and he made success of his
business undertaking. He was popular
among men, being naturally genial and
always handed enough. Aud he
remained a bachelor shooting, yacht
ing, fishing, horse-driviug bache.or-
with finally some few wrinkles and gray
hair, an unreasonable exactness about his
dinner, aud not many female acquaint
ances."
He was looking at her now; but ldas
head, in its little silk hat, was still
turned away.
"And-she- -" she faltered.
"Oh, she married." said Mr.. CRANKY,
briskly. "Married, of course, being a
nice-looking girl, with fortune. Mar
ried her fathers junior partner--a man
some years her senior, well-appearing,
we'll behaved, and eminently respectable
and eligible--if not especially brilliant" D"
He coughed drily.
Then there was silence.
Had he finishedl
Ida was looking toward him, with her
sweet and expressive eyes filled with
something indefnable-with a sort of
tremulous fear.
"Were they-do you think they were
happyl" she whispered, family.
"Thinkl will tell you what KNOW"
said MIR. CRANKY; "and again you may
judge for yourself. / know he bore, af-
ter his first sharp pain, many and many
an hour of dreary depression-of yearn-
ing for something he had not. 1 know
he suffered keenly when the news OF her
marriage reached him. l know she mar
ried man highly uncongenial to her in
many ways-a man whose natural cold
ness chilled her warmth, whose rather
narrow nature clashed with hers hun
dred times day. know he-the hero
of my story-led what people called
Jolly life, aud was successful; and
know that she was well treated and pro-
vided for, aud found much comfort, af-
fer her husbands death, in her little son.
All this. But know that one love
and one only-lived in their hearts ever,
and that for a moments hasty fOolishnesS
twenty years of their lives were to ALI
tents wasted"
There was pulsing pause. The girls
hand trembled where it rested, her throat
had .he quivcrlng which tells OF tears.
And when she spoke, it was with half
sob.
"Tweuty ycars7" she echoed. "Then
something has happened at last! Then
he has met her agaiul"
..Yes, he has, my dear" said Mr..
CRANKY, gently.
"Then you-oh, I know it isyouP she
cried, tremulously-"then you were Mrs.
Campbell's lover before. And that cruel
thing happened to you twoa And you
have found her againl Oh, Mr.. CRANKY,
how glad ami I"
She wassoftly crying in her gauntleted
little hand.
"I've found her." MIR. CRANKY re-