Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1895-08-16

| ehoA AuT u0OLlef.
"@h, well, you mist know him bot
ter.
ana the opportunity was not long
III coming. 1t seemed as if fate were
on the side of his lordship. Where
ever the Merediths went they were
sure to meet him-and he let it be
seen clearly enough that it was for
1asmyns sake he had come.
One night they were sitting out a
dance which she had promised him.
lie had persuaded her to go into the
conservatory instead of dancing, and
she sat On a low seat, over which some
strange foreign plant leaned. An
odor thai seemed like incense burned
on the shrine of some old time god
half intoxicated her. And there and
then Lord Gainsdorf told his love
story. She had charmed him from
the first, he said, aud now he loved
her. Would she -. At that very
instant it seemed to her as if she
heard voice from far, oh, so far
away-a voice that said: "Wait -
And just then, before she had spoken
at all, her partner for the next dance
appeared, and Lord Glinsford said,
with that cool self possession that be-
lonSed to his age and rauk, 81 shall
see you tomorrow.
That night sleep did not come to
Jasmyn. She lay with wide open
eyes, vaguely wondering. What
should she say to Lord Gainsford?
Could she love him-and why not?
Would she be happy as his wife?
How much there would be to make
her SC.
Then suddenly it seemed to her as
il the room opened its windows, to the
stars and the definite night, and she
looked far, far off, as perhaps We ali
shall look when death has taken us by
the hand and led MS far away from
what we call life. She knew that her
vision had gone beyond the sea, and
that it was room in New York, in
which she saw Young man writing.
He had just turned page. She did
not know how his letter began, but
she read these words:
~ am twenty-four now, anil you
are twenty-one. You can no longer
call me boy. L was admitted to the
bar year ago. 1 have succeed ed SO
well that in October l shall make my
first important plea. Remember that
you promised to hear it. 1 will cross
the sea and bring you back in time.
| shall be with you almost as soon
p. this letter. l have o5eyed you
hitherto in keeping silence. l write
now because l wish you to know be-
fore we meet that / am unchanged. "
And when she had read thus far it
seemed to her that suddenly the win
dows that had opened to the vastness
of the night were closed and she was
alone.
What did it all mean? She was not
asleep. 1t was no dream. Plainly as
if she had held the sheet in her own
hands she had read those written
words. Plainly as if he had been in
the room with her she had seen Robert
Marsh.
Yes, she would wait. She would
decided nothing until she knew. She
turned on her side and drew long,
calm breath, and then sloep, the deliL-
quent, kissed her parted lips and led
her Mt last into dreamland.
The next day Lord Gainsford
pleaded his own cause, but he pleaded
in vain.
"If you will wait two weeks" JAS
myn said, 81 will answer you then
Ii | say anything to-day it must be
NO. do not feel that understand
myself. Will you give me time, or
shall it end here?"
or course he give her time. He
turned to Mrs. Meredith. Mrs. Mer-
edith was his senior by three years,
therefore she was safe as well as a
sympathetic confdante.
The two weeks were not over, in
fact, only nine days had passed, when
a letter came to Jasmyn in hand she
used to know. She opened it. She
read the first page, and then she
turned the leaf, and there she saw the
very sentence she had read when the
windows of her chamber opened into
the infinite night.
And that same day Robert Marsh
followed his letter. Then Jasmyn
Meredith knew for the first time her
own hearts secret. The love that
was strong enough to conquer tm3
and space and speak to her across the
ostranging sea was the love of her own
life, as we'll as of her lovers
The next day she told her mother
that she had made up her mind.
Naturally, Mrs. Mere lith did not like
1t, but she was helpless. John Mer-
edith had left his fortune to be equal
ly divided between his daughter and
his wife, and after Jasmyn was TWEEN
ty-one she was absolutely her own
mistress. Mrs. Meredith would fain
have been mother-in-law TO lord,
but there was nothing to be said
against Robert Marsh. SO she quietly
herself to the inevitable.
'You deserve" she said to Jasmyn,
with n little yeyed lauoh Ufhot I