The morning news., 1894-10-21


. huge horn from above his wide low door
blowed upon II a sturdy blast which soon
I brought to the cottage a few servants
and helpers from the adjacent hills and
/ fields
/ 1 neither disclosed my true character
. nor my full name, for I was still sore upon
I the subject Of my trifing legacy. l sim
/ ply told them I was a student, rambling
for little among the Laka country noun
/ tains, in love with their people ana their
I ways had money TO pay for all faVorS
asked; and for the present. plain Mr.. Rob
/ ert would answer for my name.
] 10 these simple souls II mattered nor
I what had come for. nor how long I
/ might remain; and as my host conducted
/ me 10 my room and showed me with pride
| his ancient dwelling. I found myself re-
/ peatedly studying his imposing figure and
1 typical Umbrian face
He was more than SIX feet in hight. and
/ as he moved about the large, low rooms
/ his head just escaped the huge oaken
/ beams of the ceiling. His hair was soft,
! silken and bountiful; fiaxen where the sill
/ yer had not yet come: and with his full,
fine beard it suggested a strain Of the old
Morse blood. His forehead was high, wide,
white. His eyebrows were bushy, but
| fine and fiossy, above large eyes of lus-
trous light blue deep set. steady and al
most mournful in their gaze. The nose
was strongly cut truly classic; and the
mouth was large, but characteristic AMI
/ firm.
This sort of a head. set upon a huge
and perfect frame, stout as the timbers of
! MS centurtes-old habtatiOn. gave it's
owner, who looked straight al you and
made you. despite yourself look straight
at him in return. strange seeming of
! dominance and power; and ] remember
/ that the thought flashed over me then:
/ What struggle two such men as David
| Bamthet and Porter Bob, locked in deadly
embrace, would maket
saw little of Betty that day. but the
/ few glimpses 1 caught revealed a remark
! able figure and face. 1 was struck with
/ ner splendid stature and certain man
! ner of movement, full of physical fire and
/ force, which betokened tremendous latent
energies.
All this was no less impressive than her
race. 1t was the image of her fathers.
hrmer and finer moulded in the lines of
| Womans perfect cOuntenance. Had it
not been tinged with sadness, 1t would
! have been almost divinely radiant Had
1t not been peasant woman's face a
sculptor would have chosen it to show
the placid sweetness and calmness of
Niobe and tell the illimitable heroic gran
deur of Zenoba.
Form and face stirred me as had never
| before been impressed by woman; not
once with the emotions of love, but by
an ineXpressible compassion ever com
mingled with something akin to awe
l cannot now tell how well I concealed
! these emotions. For the time they swept
all else-my calling, my friends, my fu-
| ture, even the petty inheritance which
had covertly brought me to the Umbrian
hills-completely out of my existence.
II there be any manner of hypnotism so
| subtle that swayer and swayed are un-
| intentional and unconscious Of its exercise
and influence, and yet which holds the
subject in gossamer bonds as firm as
steel this innocent maiden was that un-
conscious master and as unconsciously
| her other self.
Like two children we roamed among the
gorges and the glens. climbed the giddy
scars and pixies, loitered by lakes and
| streams, penetrated unknown caVerns
rested beside thunderous waterfalls. clam
| bered along the slippery sides of tumuI-
| tuous FORCES and ghylls raced among the
heather of the cloud-kissed nights, or saw
the red sun sink in his flaming pillows
| beyond the purpling peaks within the
Irish sea, needless of hour or time or
weather. while the Umbrian father and
mother smiled and dozed by their door in
| the sunshine, or dozen and smiled in the
great room beside the freight: happy
only in the gentle influence which now
! brooded upon the spot and their own
dreams OF. the nearing days when til
three gradley pleaces" should be one.
But all such idyllic hours must have an
end.
Betty's grace had come and gone The
father and mother were becoming restive
under the strangers presence: old Mat
Curbison had paid many secret visits to
the cottage, and one night after all but
the old folk had left the great room for
their beds, he had come and tarred late
into the night.
1 resented his presence and tossed on
my pillow restlessly. Finally he went
away in wild mountain storm l heard
| enough to assure me that he had left
some paper which filed the mother and
father with delirious sort of sordid gIee
Then all was still save the mournful
soughing Of the storm through the passes
across the little dale.
l had fallen asleep and had awakened
or dreamed that awoke. In that awaken
| ing or dreaming heard fierce and angry
voices; voices filled with a deadlier mean
| ing and purpose than mere anger can give.
and the voice of one l seemed to know
! That of the other was my hosts hoarselv
! denouncing the intruder and commanding.
him with deadly intensity to depart for
ever. as Betty wor gie'n' anither al
ready!"
This was all could hear. save family
something sounding like the beginning
and sudden termination of a fierce strug-
gle, as though the man of superior power.
moved by some saving impulse, had de-
sisted and turned away with the words:
I'D end yer days, wor ye not Betty
Bamthets bloodr
Yen hang soon enow. 'thout thot, We
hoof-thiclr scornin deeviIr'
This was the painting response from
David Bamthet, as he closed the door
upon his enemy and the storm.
But in the morning the tempest had
passed away, and with apparently all
the dread wraiths of the night before,
for David Bamthets face was as impas-
sve as his gray house walls of stone; and
Betty Bamthets face was as radiant as
the glowing day without.
We had grown into habit of climbing
tho hills toward nishtfall and descending
into the dale behind the shepherds and
the herds after lingering for a time be-
side huge table-rock, overhanging the
caldron of a splendid waterfall which
broke from its dark and splintered edge.
The girl had avoided me this day. The
afternoon had passed; the shadows were
stealing into the lower gorges; the sheep
had trailed melodiously to their fold, ami
no tidings of the girl had been heard. 1t
caused no alarm al the cottage but filed
with unaccountable forebodings l has