Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1892-12-13
IN THE NICK OF TIME.

OuYer EmpSon was whaC m1gn6 D0
termed bachelor in good repair. BY
one of those singular capillary vicissi-
tudes the reverse of that which has been
known, in a single night, to bleach to
silvery whiteness locks of ebony, his
thanks to the efficacy Of DR.. Schmier-
kop's Magic Rejuvenator-had, in less
time, been transmitted from sandy
gray to raven blackness. An artificial
smile served at once to give an air of
youthful levity- to his countenance, and
to proclaim the triumph of the con-
hnuous gum invention. How much of
his physique was due to nature, and how
much to a judicious arrangement of
pads and braces was a problem,
When called on by the enrolling officer
preparatory to the draft, his perplexity
was painful in the extreme. He finally
compounded with his feelings by giving
his age as under forty five, and claiming
exemption on the ground of weakness in
the back, When informed, however,
that his plea involved the necessity of a
medical inspection, he said no more, but
at once shouldered his musket like man
and set out for the front-by proxy.
With all his attention to dress and ap-
pearance. no man was less addicted to
foppish frivolity. He had formed his
own estimate of the attractions by which
woman is to be won, and had supplied
himself with the best possible imitation
of them.
The object of his last and most per
sistent effort was Kate Sutherland, a
dark-eyed beauty, whose charms had
turned the heads of half hundred
beaux. But she renamed inexorable
for two most potent reasons; in the first
place she cared nothing for the herd of
admirers by whom she was daily perse-
cuted; and, in the second, she cared a
great deal for certain handsome and
gallant young officer, then far away on
the field of danger and duty.
Charles Blakely and Kate Sutherland
had loved each other from childhood.
Young Blakely had been admitted to
the bar a couple of years before the
breaking out of the rebellion, and had
already begun to attract favorable notice,
when the firing on Sumpter summoned
of action, Mr.. Sutherland had not been
blind observer to the young lawyers
attention to his daughter; and he looked
upon them with feelings but little akin
to satisfaction. 1t was the knowledge
of this that had deferred Blakely from
pressing the acceptance of his hand be.
fore taking leave.
Fortune smiled on the young soldier.
His undaunted courage and strict de-
votion to duty had already won the
highest admiration, when, by the death
of distant relative. he succeeded to an
estate, the possessor of which might even
aspire to be the son.in-law of Paul
Sutherland without danger of giving
offense.
This unexpected event was death.
blow to the hopes of Empson, whose
suit Mr.. Sutherland had been previ-
ously inclined to look upon in light
widely different from the ridiculous one
in which it appeared to his daughter.
A brief paragraph announced that Col.
Blakely had fallen early in the action,
and that his body had been left in the
possession of the enemy.
1t was more intense feeling than
qualification at the successful issue of
the investment that betrayed itself to the
countenance of Oliver Empson, now freed
from the disguise of its hab1tual smile,
as his eye fell on this passage.
Kate Sutherland had risen early that
morning. She hastened to meet the
newsman at the door, and grasping the
paper with trembling hand, hurried to
her chamber, desirous whatever of glad
ness or of sorrow was in store of meet
ing it alone. Let us not lift from the
first transport of her grief the veil with
which she chose to hide them. When
next she appeared IN the household her
face was calm, but how changed and sad
in its serenity.
But Empson, with accustomed shrewd-
ness, was not slow in discovering how
the cause of his discontinue might be
turned to account. Life IN general, and
soldiers in particular, he knew to be
uncertain. Ifhe could purchase the in
terest for moderate price of the party
to whom the estate recently left to
Blakely was limited over, in case of
Blakely's death, he felt that the specula-
ton might not turn out unproftably,
He effected the bargain at once.
Not many months afterwards came
the news of terrible battle. The Union
forces met with bloody repulse. The
4OSS WAS uuuSuh1ly Severe.
Then came day of feverish excite
ment. Spectators, eager to turn to ac-
count the latest intelligence of disaster
or success, thronged about the bulletin
boards and in the telegraph Offices, jost-
ling and disturbing with their dissonant
clamor those awaiting, in sad and
anxious silence, tidings of the fate of
husbands, sons and brothers.
The morning papers announced the re-
suit of the battle giving a list of killed
and wounded. From many a stricken
or that loved name was found enrolled
in the grim register of death
The face of one man as he glanced
nervousIy over the telegraphic column
was Lit up with a strange gleam of salts.
faction.
Time sped on, and other battles were
fought. Victory after victory perched
on the Union banners; field after field
was won and city after city was cap
tured, till at last Sherman's march to
the sea and Grants magnificent comb.
nations before Richmond began to make
manifest the beginning of the end.
Changes, too, had taken place in the
affairs of Paul Sutherland. He had lost
heavily in the shape of debts due from
Southern customers, and several recent
speculations in which he had embarked
had resulted far from prosperously. The