The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-19
NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
Blu MRS. OLIPHANT,
COPYRIGHTED, 1898, BY THE AUTHOR.

/ she was TOO proud TO give In. or to go into
. a shop to rest while it did not seem safe
[ TO trust a precious book. and one that she
/ was going to give back to the dealer to a
/ passing boy. She toiled on accordingly,
/ making but slow progress. and very
/ much subdued by her task, her checks
] flushed, and the tears i'm her eyes only
! kept back by pride, when she suddenly
/ met walking quickly along, skimming the
/ pavement with his light tread, the young
/ man who had so wounded and paraIyzed
] her in Miss Bethuues room. whom she
( had seen then only for the first time, but
/ who had claimed ner cheerfuuy by her
I Christian name as an old friend.
She saw him before he saw her and
! her first thought was the quick involun-
| tary one, that here was succor coming
/ toward her; but the second was not so
| cheerful. The second was. that this
| stranger would think it his duty to help
| her that he would conceive criticisms,
/ even if he did not utter them, as to the
/ mistake of trusting her with a burden she
! was not equal to that he would assume
| more and more familiarity, perhaps treat
| her altogether as a little girl-talk
| again of the toys he had helped to choose
! and all those injurious revolving particu-
| lars which had filled her with so much
| indignation on their previous meeting
| The sudden rush and encounter of these
! thoughts distracting her mind when her
| body had need of all it's support. made
| Dora s limbs so tremble, and the light so
| go out of her eyes, that she found herself
| all at once unable to carry on her straight
| course. and awOke to the humiliating fact
that she had stumbled to the support of
the nearest area railing, that the book
had slipped from under her tired arm,
and she was standing there, very near
! crying, holding it up between the rail and
her knee.
"Why Miss Dora!" cried that young
man. He would have passed, had it not
been for that deplora BILE exhibition of
| weakness. But when his eye caught the
half-ridicUlous, wholly overwhelming
| misery Of the slipping book, the knee put
forth TO save il, the slim figure bending
over it, he was beside her in a moment.
Give it to me- he cried, suiting the &C
ton to the word, and taking it from her
as If it had been a feather Well, she had
! herself said it was a feather at first.
Dora, relieved, shook her tired arms,
Strengthened her figure and raised her
head. with all her pride coming back
"Oh, please never mind. | had only
got il out of balance. l am quite, quite
able to carry it," she cued.
Are you going far2 And will you let
me walk with your 1t was indeed to see
you / was golng-nOt without a commits
sion"
To see NEE
The dropping head was thrown back
with pride that was naughty and almost
scOrnful, A princess could not have
| treated rash intruder more completely
"de haut en- bas " with me-what could
| you have to do with me" the girl seemed
to say in the tremendous superiority of
! sixteen years.
| The young man laughed a little-one is
not very wise at tiye-and-twenty on the
subject of girls, yet he had experience
! enough 10 be amused by these remnants
| of the child in this half-developed maiden.
You are going this way}n he said,
| turning in the direction in which he had
| been going. Then let me tell you while
we walk. Miss Dora, you mustremember
| this is not all presumption or intrusion on
my side | came from lady who has a
/ right to send you a message"
."Bdid not say YOU were intrusive, - cried
Dora. blushing for shame.
you only looked it, said young Cor
don but you know that lady is my
aunt too-at least, l have always called
her aunt, for many many years"
Ought l to call her aunt2' Dora said
Il suppose so indeed, if she is my mothers
sister"
Certainly you should, and you have
! right; but l only because she allows me,
! because they wished it, to make me feel
no stranger in the house. My poor dear
aunt Is very ilI-worse, they say, than
she has ever been before"
"ul}" Dora seemed to find no words
except these interjections that she could
| say.
Il hope perhaps they may be deceived.
| The doctors don't know her constitution
| l think have seen her just as bad and
1 come quite round again. But even Mil
| Ter is frightened. She may be worse
| than think, and she has the greatest.
the most anxious desire to see you, as she
| says, before she dies. >
| Dies" cried Dora. "But how can
| she die when she has only just come
! hOmen
That is what feel, too" cried the
! young man, with eagerness. "But per
haps, - he added, lit is no real reason
for doesn't it often happen that people
! break down just at the moment when they
| come in sight of what they have wished
| for for years and years."
| Il don Know said Dora, recovering
her courage. Il have not heard of things
so dreadful as that / can't imagine that
it could be permitted to be; for things
don't happen just by chance, do they
They are, she added quite inconcIusively,
as father says, all in the days work -
Il don't know either said young Cor
don, but cruel things do happen. How
| ever, there is nothing in the world she
come to herr | am sure that YOU have
never been out of her mind for years.
She used TO talk to me about YOU Itwas
our secret between US two. | think that
was the chief thing that made her take
to me as she did, that she might have
i some one to speak to about Dora | used
| 10 wonder what you were at tristan idol
or prodigy, or a princess"
You must have been rather disguised
when YOU found | was only a girl ~ Dora
cried, in spite of herself
He looked at her with discriminative
gaze, not uncritical, yet full of warm
light that seemed to inger and brighten
somehow upon her, and which, though
Dora was looking straight before her,
without glance TO the right or left. OF
any possibility of catching his eve. she
perceived, though without knowing how.
mo, he said, with little embarrassed
laugh, quite the reverse. and always
hoping that one day we might be friends. -
Dora made no reply. For one thing
they had now come (somehow the walk
went much faster, much more easily
when there was no big book to carry) To
the passage leading to HolbOrn. a narrow
lane paved with big flags. and with dull
shops, principally book shops. ON either
side, where Fiddler, the eminent old book
seller and collector, lived. Her mind had
begun TO be occupied by the question how
to shake this young man or and discharge
her commission, which was not an easy
| one. She had hardly heard what he "a 81