Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1893-07-06
WEETER THAN REVENGE.

There was barely light enough to
show the narrow stream tumbling be-
tween shadowy banks. On one side
were the ruins Of some old building,
overgrown with long grasses and rank
brambles. and half hidden by the pink
and-white bloom of orchard-trces; on
the other side a line of bushy hollows
and low, green knobs stretched away
into the hazy distance
stream was SPAWNED by an old foot
bridge, long considered unsafe, and so
r1ckety that one crossing it could feel
the rotting timber sag and sway on the
crumbling wooden piers
A girl was crossing it nova young
and lovely girl who was fleeing in fran
tic haste, as if pursued by some deadly
horror.
Her delicate, lily-fair face was
blanched to a startling pallor; her
great, irs-blue eyes We're fixed straight
before her in a wild stare of unspeak-
able agony; and with every step a
tortured moan was wrung from her
DeautlTully ChlSeled lips.
Not half the way across there was q
sudden dull creaking, n slight Earring,
and then all the farther end of the
bridge dropped from the Shiny pier,
and the girl was hurled hcadlong into
the rapid stream
But she made no cutlery. neither did
she make any effort to save herself.
She did not sink!
Hpr GOWN of frpo 1,,cAro,,c
worsted fabric did not become saturat-
ed easily, and her full skirts were dis
tended by air in an instant, and thus
upheld her dainty figure.
She f1oated down the swift current
passively, without single struggle,
like broken flower drifting wherever
wind and tide listeth.
On and on she was carried. now past
some speck Of rocky islet; and again,
beneath the low branches of over
hanging trees or brushing along tall
reeds close to the level bank
All at once the stream narrowed
and here the renewed velocity of the
current swept her breathlessly around
sharp bend, lifted her bodily, and
then tossed her like feather upon the
sloping edge of little jutting point
Of ground.
For some moments she lay motion
less. She was not hurt; she had not
suffered so much as single scratch
in all that flashing voyage down the
tumblins, tortuous stream. But she
felt rather faint and bewildered after
that sudden, dizzy spin with the whirl.
ing tide. And besides, it was no JOY
to her to know she still lived.
After awhile she partly arose and
looked drearily around her. The
stream had her cast ashore at q point
nearly half mile from home
Home? She had no home! Had she
not that night been thrust out PENN.
less, to beg or starve?
She instinctively turned her burning,
fearless eyes in the direction of the no.
BILE old mansion which had sheltered
her from her birth, where her father
had lived and died, and his father be.
fore him.
She was an only daughter and an
only child. And now before the be.
loved father had been in his grave for
single year, her stepmother had driv-
en- her forth from her own door and
forbidden her ever to cross its thresh.
old again.
The second Mrs. Glover claimed ev,
erything by right Of will, and there was
uODOuy u ulSpuIC VI " uAoIlOtc uCl
claims. The beautiful house, the fam.
lily silver, the heirloom diamonds, the
broad, rich acres Of land, even Ada's
saddle horse, were hers to use as she
pleased, to devise in the end, if she SO
chose, to her own daughter by for.
mer marriage.
What wonder that Ada Cover sat
there in the damp night dews and felt
no Joy because Heaven had let he1
live?
"Why should I care to live?' she
moaned II am homeless; and in al
tine world l have not single friend tt
offer me halter. That wicked woman
has never let me gain friend or KEEP
one She has made everybody be
Iieve evil of me. She has robbed me OF
everything-the respect Of everybody
who knows me, and of Searle Estley's
love! And then, because 1 dared fol
once to demand part OF my own
she tells me am beggar and drives
me forth an outcast. All, well!-per
haps by tomorrow they will all think
me dead"
Those concluding words echoed anC
re-echoed through her feverish brain.
.They will all think ME dead
They knew the way she went. Ant
IN the beginning Ol ludC ulAAy wy
age, she had lost the pretty blue shaw
which she wrapped about her shout
ders when she rushed from the house
They would find the shawl some
where near the ruins of the bridge
doubtless; and they would be only too
ready to believe that she was drowned
that they were rid of her entirely an6
for all time.
She started abruptly to her feet
some slight animation flashed over he1
lovely, despairing face.
II will let them think so,' she sale
to herself. when they really believe
/ am out of this world, they will no
try to hunt me down with their wicked
fasehoods. l will go so far away that
shall have peace. And sometime
shall learn to forget it all All, no
I can never forget Searle, Estley ant
his love! For he did love ME once
nv darling!-I shall never doubt h
loved me. oh, love; my king, how
could Won be 20 weak and faithlessY