The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-14

In that moment the poor lad did more
than realize his guilt. He realized all that
be had lost by it, that boundless store
treasured up. and now gone from him for
ever.
And then recalling bis folly. the wild,
mad impulse which had been his undoing,
| in the bitterness of his heart, the love which
| had been there and now too was lost
| turned for moment into hate, so that be
could almost have found it in him to curse
the day in which he had first set epes upon
| little Gray-cloak.
! He did not do it. He was glad to remem-
Der that afterward. Ia an instant an agony
| Of remorse more terrible than any ne had
suffered yet rushed over him, and then
| came the punishment.
Ii was a wall of unutterable woe, coming
from near at hand in a voice whose music,
broken as it was with grief, there was no
mist4king.
He had chosen his walk in the most re-
tired part Of the town, nearest to his own
lodging at Narrow lane, and now found
himself before a tall, dull-looking house.
a front window Of which, almost at his
elbow, was open. Against the framework
Of this leaned girlish form, the face bowed
in the hands, the shoulders hesving in the
strength of the sobs which were bursting
from the grief-stricken heart.
But, despite that the face was hidden,
young Leo knew whose 1t was. And yet,
while the consciousness Of her grief struck
something like terror TO his heart he was
not prepared for the visible evidences of it
which were disclosed by the lifting of the
bowed head, the white, white face, the
dreadful scar across the eyes, above all
their vacant expression, which it needed
but one glance TO tell him came from lost
sight.
So terrible the change to what had been
that half involuntary, he lost the str ong
control into which he was fast subduing
himself, and uttered cry of horror and
pity" My poor little one!"
Only those few words, and in a strange
voice, but they broke in upon the girls sad
ness like ray of sunshine in a darkened
place.
How little the father in his agonized love,
doing as he thought all for the best, real
lied to what he condemned his child-to a
life little short of imprisonment, to a cap
tivity which in time must have broken her
already sorely bruised heart.
In this, again, what a tie there was be-
tween the lives of those two ponr children
in the world How each had strangely the
power to save the other!
Both captives, both longing for sympathy,
each owing III a measure TO tue other, all
unconsciously, their suffering; for had little
Gray-cloRk not received the strangers
charity, had he not been attracted by her
how different things might have turned
out
1t could have been no mere chance then
that led them together just then. For dt.
spite that they were strangers at least on
one side, the meeting, as will have been
guessed, led to that very acquaintance which
Leo had coveted under IA different circum-
stances.
His exclamation OF PITY had gone
straight to the poor languIshing heart of
the little blind girl. She believed the
words were addressed to her, and replied
with low ,half-moaued, half-sobbed, "Ah
come TO me. help me, l am so louely-in
such trouble While more than all her
words OF tone could tell was the outsJretch-
ing Of those little white hands.
If it had not been for their mute PRAYER
knowing himself to be All outcast, q man or
whom was set the brand of Cain, the lad
might have gone upon his way, torn him
self from the place as a fever stricken man
who, seeing cripple fallen 10 his path
flies away rather than stays to help him,
for fear of bringing on him yet further ill
AS it was he only knew thas despite he had
imagined her In safety, this poor child was
in trouble, and unoonsciously had appealed
to him, as he uuconsoiouSly had been led
across her path
1t was only a word or 80, what neither
exactly remembered rwnrd-but enough
to lay foundation of q more than frie ndly
intercourse.
| II was not that he had forgotten the
shadow which rested upon him, or that the
girl was unmaidenly in accepting the friend
| ship of complete stranger, for Leo let the
acquaintance commence entirely from the
moment of her appeal, resolving for OBJ.
| vious reasons to make absolutely no refer
ence to the past, the memory of which be
had before treasured up, but that both
were 80 IN need OF comfort and consolation
that they took blindly and without com.
ment that which was laid IN their way,
| never guessing the great comfort and con.
! ISOLATION which each might really have given
| 1t will be remembered that, despite his
great attraction toward her. Leo had so lit,
tie pressed any claim upon her attention
| that in her old home where they had both
| been brought up, the girl was not ever
aware Of her lovers existence, and vel
while receiving his help in the matter of the
lost ticket, had done 30 through the agency
| of Madge Brandon, 10y reason OF his sud
| den fit of shyness, not even seeing her bene-
| factor, nor, what was more to the point
| hearing his voice.
| Even had she done so, or he risked hel
identifying him one day later by telling hel
| of his association with her in the place OF
her childhood, even that would have given
| her no clew TO any association of him with
the horrible secret which at times became
worse even than her blindness to her.
On his side, Leo, because of her oath
| only knew half the truth, but that haC
sounded plausible enough-how she hac
come to London to seek her father, had lost
her way in the streets at night, had beer
taken in in charity by the woman of tht
| house in which she now was, and nurseC
| through the illness which she had recovered
blind. Royals provision had indeed beer
no wiser for his safety than for his victims
Blind or seeing, Nellie could never help bel
lover to the truth but, bouAd by the oath
he could never know what she could tell
| Think of it-those two hearts SO weighed
| beneath burden which each could lift
| giving each other every comfort save the
| one which could have removed the burden
| al together.
! Was their meeting chance2 Was Their,
not the working Of providence in it.
CHAPTER VIII.