The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1893-12-01

Iectcd u 60 on with ncr breakfast un-
concerneIiy until her father and her
two young sisters had quilted the room.
Then she rose, and getting Oehind her
mothers chair to prevent the white
anguish of her face being seen, she
said n brcathless staccato sentences:
Read that, mother 1t is from Capt.
harrington. Never speak either of it
or Of him TO me again"
And before her mother had realized
that something horrible had happened
to sever the lovers Kitty had swept in
the quceniiest way from the room.
Nor even in the privacy OF her OWE
room did she for long time break
down into a6ject tears. She stood as
though turned to white marble, facinr
deiirntly the captains photographs
over the mantle piece, as though daring
1t to repeat the-outrageous language of
the letter.
When her mothers timid knock came
presently To the door Kitty asked in
duh dead voice:
''WhaS is it?''
Its !. dear"
''WcIl. mother, what IS it?' she re-
pcatcd Upon her mothers entrance.
Its some misunderstanding. Kitty
some dreadful Misunderstanding
mischief making of ms auut's From
the first dear, / never liked"
Don't, mother. / asked you not and
| meant it," she said in a ton" which At
once siicuced and terrified her gentle
mother.
Turning to say something not less re-
pci!aut and steel-c1ld 10 her mother,
KITTY caught the yearning trouble IN
hyr -cHt-c eyes and was moved 10 fold
her i,aUulsivclv in her arms and sob:
Dear mother, Dear, dear IN pther,''
Aad soon the poor girl was again a
child upon her mothers knee. Yet
even then she would not let her mother
talk of that letter o- its writer.
If I struc.. vou IN the face. mother.
yoU would not like ever to speak of it,
or have 10 spoken of. Let me try To for
get II; it's the most / can hope for" she
.aii, with an aching dcsolation in her
voice which IaGIc her mother press her
almost pas-ionaJcly 70 her bosom.
but, though poor Kitty would not al
low her mother TO discuss the letter or
lis writer, or the motive Of its writing
with an Inconsistency that girls viii
understand, she permitted. even per-
haPs encouraged, her dearest friend
Miss Bell Herbert, to discuss the whole
affair cNEaustively.
les the aunt. Of course: and it's Mr.
Roilcstou. of course: but nothing Won
could do or sine could say justifies such
a letter. l should dearly like To give
him little lesson with this. " switching
her r1dIng-wnIp vIcIousiy IA une ar.
Need [ say that little Of this vigor-
Gus virago talk OF physical vengeance
upon the recrcant had a reactinnarv ef-
feet on Kitty? Her love was dead
murdered, as she tL0ught--but she rev
crcnced, 50 to say, the body Of the
dead, and could not endure its desecra-
licn Ly such talk.
As Beil had the tact to perceive this,
she went 1T once upon the opPosity
tack of trying To imagine an adequate
provocation for such a letter.
she cross-cNamined Kitty upon all
firtations with MIR. R0lleston without
finding anything which anyone could
candidly consider disIoyalty to her en-
gagemcnt.
But there's no knowing what she'd
think improper" she wound up-''shc"
being Mrs. Lyncourt, the captains
aunt. Some of these prim English
women are like Ned's wooden soldiers
so stiff that anything which pushes
them out of the perpendicular by
hairs breadth sends them over al
together"
Having cone something by her sym
pathy at least, if not 10y her comments
and her counsel, to comfort poor kitty's
narrowed heart, Bell had to quit her
to ride home, where there happened to
be urgent need of her presence at
lunch.
just as she was in the act of mount
ing her mare unaided, and for this
purpose had gathered up her habit
with one hand, she caught sight of the
rccreant captain standing staring at
her as though turned TO stone.
He had no sooner posted his letter TO
Kitty than he repeGted of its brutality
and hurried after it or rather with it
in the limited mail to Ireland.
His intense love coming upon him
with a rush swept everything before l.,
so that in this mood and for the mo
ment he would believe nothing-not
that Internal photograph, not his own
very evcs-against Kitty's truth and
modesty.
Bell, though she had no idea that
this was the captain (whom she had
never seem. was arrested by the stupe-
faction expressed in the face of this
man who stared at he- as q. the ghost
of some one he had murdered
Presently he took out a photograph
and compared it with her face and fig
ure-not forgetting he: riding trousers!
81 beg your pardon" ne stammered,
''but Is this you?'
Yes, il was Bell sure enough, with
Kitty sitting on her t-ousered luceS.
Ia riding she had oves,alzan Kitty and
been Overtallcn by n shower.
Leaving her horse with hec groom.
sne scampered across with Ki'ty 90 the
castle for shelter, aud 1s ther. was
only one sheltered seat available she
took Kitty on her knee.
Kitty had occuited al her person but
her trousered legs and her close-ccoPped
head. RICHARD AsHE kING.