Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1895-04-13
an escaped wild animal.

hell up III the air like queens.
"The very next week she asked
Barbara to 90 up to the stone tower
with her. Barbara didn't want to 20,
but Miss Arkwright had a domineer.
ing way with her, and the girl could
hardly refuse.
There's picnic going up there
tonight says Barbara.
al know it, says Miss Arkwright,
but don't want to see the place in a
crowd And you've nothing else To
do, Barbara Dale
80 Barbara went all in = new
white dress with blue ribbons, for
think she half hoped to see Mr.. War
den up there, being as he spent a
deal Of time sketching around the
stone tower. He was an artist by
profession, was Mr.. Warden.
''But he wasn't there on this partic-
ular afternoon. And once Miss Ark
wright got Barbara up there like a
mouse in trap, she commenced her
wicked taunts, telling her how un-
maidenly she was; how bold it was To
accept Mr.. Warden's compliments !;
how little he meant by 'em, and all
that sort of thing, and the poor girl
was fairly stung to the quick.
"She was sitting on the doorstep of
the tower, Barbara was, and Miss
Arkwright was inside, leaning against
the narrow easement, so the sun
touch her roseleaf complex.
ion, when Barbara started up.
allow dare you talk so to me? says
she. What right have you to insult
me when you know that Percy War
den loves me
ale loves me-. said Miss Ark
wright, stripping wild rose of its
leaves and flinging them down on the
grass below. 'And-listen, Barbara
Dale-he returns to New York to-
night, to ask my father for my hand
in marriage. And | alone of all his
friends am going to the train TO see
him off. Now. Barbara, YOU know
all. | have neither pity nor compass
sion for YOU. Your own boldness and
folly have brought this upon you, and
you deserve to suffer-.
"You are going to the train to bid
him Godspeed?' said Barbara slowly.
no, Miss Arkwright you are not.
The last face Percy Warden shall see
in the Catskills shall be that of the
girl he has trifled with and deceived
"And Barbara closed the huge oak
loor and shot the outside bolt across
It's rusted fastenings with strength
that was almost superhuman.
Girl, shrieked the heiress, how
iare you serve me such II trick as this?
Open the door at once
"'Now until | have bidden Percy
Warden adieu, said Barbara with
laugh. And away she sped
down the heights, needless of Miss
Arkwright's cries and entreaties.
"You may wonder, ma'am, how |
know all this. Barbara herself told
me before the mists clouded
her poor brain iorever-and she told
it in such way that | could fairly
hear and see everything for myself.
"But both girls had fingered longer
up Oh the mountain side than they
had any idea of. Before Barbara
could reach the little dcpot-the cars
were then new thing in our part OF
the country-the train was moving off,
and Percy Warden's face at one of the
windows was all that she could see.
In her blind haste, Barbara's foot
caught in the steel rail. the iron cow
catcher flung her on one side and she
fell with her forehead against the
freight-plattorm. All the depot hands
she was killed, but she
wasn't.
"They carried her back to the hotel
carried her insensible and bleeding
from the temples. And that night
Dne OF those temptests of rain and
storm set in that we sometimes have
in mid-August-a tempest that lasted
three days. No one could stir out,
and all that time Barbara lay at
leath's door, unconscious and silent.
"But in the thunder and lightning
and driving rain of the third night
sense and reason came back to poor
Barbara. and she started up among
her pillows.
"'Where is Miss Arkwright?' said
she.
She's not at the hotel dear says
soothinglv. And Wedderburn
thinks she must have made up her
mind at the last minute to go down to
New York with Mr.. Warden
al know where she is said Bar
bara, with shudder. She is up at
The powder house.
1--WE thought she was dreaming, un-
i'll she told us all.
Three days and three nights she
walled out. oh, 20, some one, and