The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-04-25
(CHAPTER XIV Continued.)


We dasheu ,4Iou-e gaze ana round a
curve. Then all at once the horses were on
their launches, as, without asking the
coachman's leave, i threw myself on the
reins. Before the wheels had stopped re
were on the ground, and those who had
been watching our desperate approach, pale
rs death and crying with JOY and fright and
amazement, were upon us.
The scene that followed is not to be de-
scribed. The only person in it, outside Of
Tabal and Mahomet, who made any pre-
tense of keeping bis head was Donald, an =
be afterward said he had never known
himself To act SO much like an idiot. The
rest of us had not the least semblance Of
sanity. There is Joy, they say, that kills.
Assuredly there is JOY that makes mad,
and il was upon us then in raging force.
We were delirious with an ecstasy that sent
our wits flying like chaff in a sudden blast.
In a single instant, so to speak, we were
whirled through million realms of poig-
nant feeling. The emotion of lifetime was
condensed into one burning moment, and in
the stress we acted as beings possessed. That
ut any rate was Tabal's opinion, commune
Gated to me con6dentially few day subse-
quent.
an any case / was in no condition TO OBJ
serve minutely; consequently find it now
not only impossible to give an accurate ac-
count of the demonstration, but hard to
disentangle even the major impression.
Perhaps what remains with me most viv-
idly (after my dear mothers frenzied EN-
brace) is that Sir Thomas Gordon, muir
muring words of gratitude for the service
had done him, took my hand and wept over
it like child, and that Isabel in the pres
q g., a..
cheek.
All, mel Inever could forget that. When
think of 10 after the lapse of nearly half a
century, that spot seems TO glow with a
youthful heat as If it were the only part of
me that keeps perpetually young. 1t is on
the right cheek. pretty high up, and some
times go to her and say, Isabel, is there
red ring on that cheek of minef" And
she, we'll knowing what l mean, will an
swer with n pleased smile and maybe a
slight heightening OF the color, flush, tushl
A man of your years should be thinking of
other things" Nor can deny she is right,
for man who has grandchildren climbing
over his knees ought not to be foolish,
though, as tell her, can scarcely convict
myself of foolshness since IL does one good
to try TO feel young again. But all that is
too far ahead of this story TO be gone into
here.
As you may suppose, awondrous fuss was
made over Rance. Sir Thomas and Isabel,
to her unutterable delight, welcomed her
cordially in her own tongue. and my father,
forgetting his antipathies 10 foreigners OF
her color kissed her little brown hand in
his grandest fashion, and my mother,
though sorely puzzled what 10 make Of a
creature who dressed so oddly and under
stood no English, received her with all the
warmth of heart that knew not how TO
be cold. But indeed Ranee's pretty ways
were not TO be resisted. and she was soon,
by virtue Of her own good qualities, estab-
lished as n favorite with all. To Isabel she
was as q sister, and to my mother as a
daughter.
should add that Tabal and Mahomet,
considerably to their embarrassment. came
in for a liberal share Of the good viii, and
thai with Donald and Ranee they long con-