The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1894-03-02


those days your white-headed old aunt
was young and romantic, and II man
far less fascinating and handsome than
John Graham under such circum-
stances might have turned my silly
head. | confess to you that my head
was wholly turned, my heart entirely
given away to this stranger. For
weeks ] was hands and feet to him.
Never a wish was uttered by him that,
were it iii my power, ! did not crafty.
He was very fond of roses, and early
every morning would gather the
choicest from our garden for Johns
room. was perfectly delighted when
he one day told me that my "cheeks
put the roses to shame" 1t was the
first compliment he had ever paid me,
and for days the thought Of it made
me absurdly happy.
AT last l felt that John loved me. ]
never moved that his eyes did not fol-
low every motion, and how the light
came into his eyes when l returned to
him after some short absence This
was my first love, and by it my dull
monotonous life seemed changed into
a Paradise.
The weeks glided by. John had re-
covered and would soon leave us, yet
he had not spoken of his love; but
after q while the words came. We
were sitting on the porch in the moon
light, in the same place from which /
had seen him carried in on that
eventful day when he was hurt.
My fathers consent to our engage
ment was soon gained, as Johns past
life, so far as he could discover, was
irreproachable, and his worldly pros
poets were good. Everything went on
happily for the first few months, and
it seemed that in our case love was to
run smooth course. l must not for
get to tell you about my engagement
ring. It was one which had been
handed down through several genera
tions tc John. He had always worn
it ON his little finger. II was a ser
pent of silver, its head being formed
of an enormous ruby and the tail of
small diamonds. Inside the ring was
written, Time reveals all things.
On the day of our engagement John
took it from his finger and placed ii
on mine with these words: ''Should
aught part us, love, though years roll
between, the sight of this ring will
bring me to protect YOU"
At last my cup of happiness was
full, but it was destined to be emptied
TO the dregs. ] need not &C
over those months of misery,
when John Graham came tC
see me with his brain stupefed by
liquor, and tell how l tried to bring
him back, and how he would try ant
fail again.
At last, it came to my father knowl
edge, and in one Of his fits of fury al
the weakness and loathsomeness of my
lover, he literally kicked John out o
the house. 1t is enough for me to say
that things went from bad to worse.
could love John no longer, after h,
had sunk so low, and at last-it wa
on a New Year Eve, like this-our en-
gagement was broken. l returned tn,
ring, but John sent it back to me
praying me to keep it, "as n symbo
{ of love that had once been true"
/ After this, my health gradually CAV,
way, and our physician advised m,
father to take me to Europe, which h
did. We travelled several years ant
everything was done to divert ant
amuse me. At first, l prayed to die
: but l was young, very young, and o
the time passed by, life again became
sweet to me. Another love came t,
me, far sweeter and stronger than tina
old, wild passion of my girlhood, an,
r in your uncle, my dears, l found tn
. perfect love of womanhood.
| / had been married a number O
years and was the mother of thre
| children when your uncle was oblige,
to 90 to California to look after som
e mines in which he had large inter
e est. As he expected to be there for
e considerable time, we all went wit
him, and decided to rent furnishe
/, house in the suburbs of L. Tn
2 one we fancied most was large, an
G only one story high. 1t was hand
e somely furnished aud had a gre0
s many acres of ground around it. A
a first, I objected to taking it on accoun
e of the lonely location, but the numeI
e GUS attractions which it possessed 500
e overcame this one fault, and befor
r. long we were comfortably settled i
G our new quarters. We had been liv
g ing there only a year, when one ever
e ing-this also was on New Year Ev
your uncle came home as usual, an
|. after he had been in the house fe,
It minutes, he received a dispatch whic
o necessitated his starting off immedi
q atelv. to be gone for two c