Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-07-07
EYRE'S ACQUITTAL.
BY Helen B. Mathers.
PART I.

PART I.
"a care taker?' said Madcap sitting
erect, and with flashing eyes. rs he
not strong and clever enough to take
care Of himself?"
is hep said Gordon, still in that
hard tone. ''Well, gave up the guards
to remain with him at Oxford
Il thought it was because you wish
ed to settle down at the Towers" said
Madcap, whose color had begun to sink
before the energy Of the young man, so
that in ten minutes he had gained that
place in her esteem which twenty-one
years of honest unSelfish service had
not brought him.
Il could have settled down here all
the same" said Gordon. Il shall have
enjoyed a few years in the Army down
to the very ground-I was never cut out
for pursuits such as Doune loves-for,
as you say, 1 have no brains, never
had any"
Madcap said nothing, but looked at
him with new eyes, as, with averted
head, he went on speaking.
Il am like sweep" he said, but
you have provoked me into it and
whatever / have done for Doune, /
take no credit for tit was not for
him''- he turned and looked at her,
and through all his anger and trouble
the yearning, eager look in his eyes
showed like rift of blue sky through
clouds, and touched Madcap to the
heart.
1--WE have never quarreled before
Geordie-much,' she said, with a little
tre'lble Of the mouth; land 1 do not
want you to go-angry."
His face changed as one may see Il
field Of grain that is colorless beneath
a stormy sky, pass suddenly into a
flood of gold, one knows not how, one
knows not whence, but light is there. E.
-. and so in human soul love will
work the selfsame miracle, and Mad
cap drew back startled at the trans
fguraton her words had wrought in
the young fellows face.
| 'Madcap," he cried forgetting to
think Of whether he We're sitting OF
standing (and, in point Of fact, he
was kneeling), Il have been a brute to
you-but l was so jealous and SO
miserable-and you'll forgive me, dear,
won't your he said, hmbly, as he
took the slender mittened hand, prayer
book and all, and kissed it passionately.
Now, if he had kept up his hard
heartedEess two minutes longer, per-
hapS, if he had boxed her ears soundly,
he
taken him as master for once and all
under the greenwood-tree," for her
spirit had responded to his manlineSS;
and next to her father and Doune, she
had always loved him best-and often
the second best love ends by becoming
the first.
But that kiss made him once more
her slave, and the lesson of love was
as yet beyond her comprehension, since
there was no inward teaching to enable
her to learn it. 80. And so Gordon got
a stone for bread when she said, with
her hand still in his.
you know love you, and cannot
bear you to so away tomorrow this
time 1 shall b. crying over you both
''Bothv' he could have let go hel
hand, but that he was ashamed OF
his late outbreak, and wanted to atone
for ii. And there were tears in he1
eyes, rarely enough permitted by her
three faithful henchmen. Yet he risked
all as he said:
Are you crying for Doune or for
me?'
She looked at him with tears in her
eyes, trembling, but still unfallen on
her cheeks, and perhaps Though SO
young some glimmering of love came
to her then and unwittingly she stood
on its brink perhaps for who shall
fix to moment the turn of the tide
the decline of sunset, or the meridian
of suGmer0. She might have taken
the golden mount that led on to hap.
piness and honor, but that some need
from within, some lack from without
stayed herself
Gordon felt that the moment was
missed, and the opportunity gone, as
she said holding up her face to him
like a scolded child who seeks to make
amends:
You'll kiss me, Geordie, and be
friends?"
Perhaps the sancity of her youth
sank into him then. perhaps the
thought of certain passages in his life
shamed him. .. but as they leaned their
two young heads together curiously
alike as a youth and a maiden often
are, he only kissed her cheek.
hn T