Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1895-05-11
Strangers Yet.
BY F. H. R.
(Written for the INDEPENDENT
Continued from last a0eek. }

Continued from last aoeek.)
Ghostly and gray the chill morn
Ing light crept in at the window Of
the grim tower-house-so dim and
gray the light is that it seems only
to make the darkness more visible.
A shadowy figure, with candle up
lifted, came fitting down the wide
staircase.
Milly, with grave, fear-haunted
eyes and her hair hanging loosely
over her shoulders, moved swiftly.
She crossed the wide, cold hall, laid
her hand upon the closed door CT
the study, and paused with her fin
gers upon the handle, and bending
forward she listened for fully a min
ute. Then she opened the door and
passed in. The pickering flame from
the candle made varying and fash
ing bars of light, as the slim, white
arm held it above her head.
"Millyw Her husbands voice
whispering her name, is still sound
ing in her ears. An indeinable dread
one of the vague presentiments
that comes to human beings once, or
maybe twice in a lifetime is knock
Ing at her heart.
She had struggled and battled
with the weakness, but it conquered
her at last and had brought her
down in the chill, ghostly dawn,
with faint, sick feeling at her heart
which thumped and throbbed as she
entered the silent study. 1t was not
dark there the steady glare of the
gas is brighter than the struggling
daylight without.
Jasper Cameron was still in the
same chair, apparently asleep, his
head bowed down on his hands. The
weary, detected attitude was indeed
pitiful. Milly, with sudden love and
yearning in her eyes, came forward
and stood beside him.
casper In all her life she had
never whispered his name as it fell
from her lips now when he could not
hear her. Jasper!" Again she
speaks the word, with tremor IN
her voice. He was so still, so quiet,
with tie light falling on his hair,and
she with her fingers resting lightly
on the bowed head. Again she speaks
his name and shudders at tue awful
silence that follows.
There was no response, though
her hand rested with unwonted ten
derness on his hair, 50 still, so awful
is the utter quiet of this sleep.
Her hand passed from his head to
the tightly laced fingers. They are
cold and stiff, and she is Mortified to
know that her husband is dead
+ *
Next day all the world knows that
Jasper Cameron is no more.
1t was Sunday, and, when
those who had known him, pray to
be delivered from sudden death, the
familiar words, grown so common
from constant use, come with terrific
force, and for a few moments they
realize how awfully solemn is that
sudden death which they pray Hea-
ven to keep them from.
They think Of the widow, too, the
saddest, most pitiful being in all the
earth, and coming out OF church
they say one to another, "Poor Mr..
cameron How sad 1t $50 terri
bly, sudden.
Student As if any heightened
preparation can make the separation
less bitterl
When the busy world began again
on Monday there was more to talk
of than the mere sad circumstances
of Jasper Cameron's sadden death.
The world knows now that he died
8 ruined man, and rumor had it that
anxiety killed him; that all the
keeping up Of appearance, all the
outword display of wealth, broke the
poor heart at last, that with all the