The Van Buren press., 1895-08-17

the only hue foea sweet girls dress IN
summer--and Il b scarcely necessary
| TO say that l surrendered TO Master
tArGhic6 hlkce6 b dlscfetio1, u6entally
voting hin the Inckiest ynng doa un'
der heaven. NO matter who she might
! be.
That night, as we sat smoking our
farewell pipes, and with that glorious
odor Of roses stealing ID through The
open windows, Archie told me hii
story. It was Romantic enough. He
had been riding past three weeks age
on his bicycle, and had had a bad fall
At the very momenthe hadrbeen slack.
ening speed in order to admire the
beauty Of the garden Of roses. Dor
othy, for that was her name, had seen
his ungraceful performance and his In
cfRectuAl effort to rise. At her com
mands an ancient gardener had
wheeled. him into the house, in ridicu'
lous fashion enough. and the village
doctor had attended TO his dislocated
knee. Dorothy's aunt, Mrs Brett, a
sweet old lady with silver hair and
gdld-fimmed spectacles|s had, in the
l'coufse Of thenext three weeks, fallen
almost as deeply in love with the
handsome young sufferer as had her
niece. Yes, indeed. l congratulated
Archie over and over again. The Lord
knew hehad no need of money with
his wife, and for goodness-well, one
glance into those sweet, honest blue
eyes was enough to tell me Of the
beauties of this girls character.
Dorothy and I became firm friends
at once. Perhaps it was because /
knew myself to be too old and worldly
wise to get into any sort Of danger
that led me to associate with this pair
Of lovers 20 freely. The three Of us
took long FAMILIES together through
the meadows and down by the restless
and ever-changing sea. 1t did me good
on such occasions TO note Archie's al
most childish delight in his fiancee and
his happiness After all, he was moth
ing but boy, despite his twenty-seven
years. He laughed the whole day
ldhP and made love to Dorothy as one
makes love to beautiful spoiled child.
And she? Why, she accepted it all
in silent, satisfied sort of way. She
accepted the boys kisses soberly, with
out any show of emotion and as a
matter OF course. sometimes Thought
l would give a thousand dollars to see
her tremble or blush. 1t was easy to
see that this was her first love. She
was SO matter OF fact about ii all, and
1t was 20 easy to see there was not a
vestige of passion in it for her.
could see, too, that she was proud Of
her handsome boy lover in a certain
way As she sat on the sand, looking
SO very lovely in her white dress. with
that far away look in the dewy blue
eyes, she would stroke with her slim
fingers the blonde head that lay 30
luxuriously on her lap and smile shyly
up at me for congratulation and ap-
proval.
And then came the first chapter in
the tragedy.
The three of us had been for long
ramble along the beach and Archie
had his pockets filed with the shells
and other treasures gained by his
sweetheart. We were on our way
back, for rain had begun to fall
heavily and few rumblings of thun
der warned us Of the typical Welsh
storm that was In store for us. We
were making short cut up winding
path through the cliffs when the storm
broke In all its fury.
don't think have ever seen suct
lightning or, heard such thunder, not
feven In the tropics. was leading the
way, and between the awful peals
conld hear Archie encouraging the
Beautiful girl he was half carrying
halt dragging along, for she was ter
riAed almost out of her wits.
There suddenly came peal loui
renough to wake the dead, and as il
died away uttered yell Of warning
and sprang aside. A huge piece o.
rock, fully four feet high, loosened BY
the shock, was sliding down the path
As itSpassed me glanced back ant
turned~pale with horror, for the pail
were just at a point where they could
not hope to escape. it. They could not
turn to the right or to the left, and i'm
mediately behind them was another
rock, immovably fixed, and agains,
which the down-coming fragment
wonld grind them, as 1t seemed, te
pieces.
1t all happened in an instant. wa.
powerless to help. At the instant, ap
parently, that rock was sliding upor
them, l saw Archie suddenly seize
Dorothy in his arms, below the waist
and lift her up Higher and higher he
raised her, till she rested on his shoul
der. Then there was horrible crunch
ing sound that l shall never forget
and saw the boys face turn ashen
but he was still pushing the half-faint
ing girl up and UP out of danger. he
also called on me to help him, and
did SO, weeping like woman at the
awful thing that saw had happened
1t took strong men with crowbars te
release my friend. By good fortune
the rock that had fallen was conically
shaped, the smaller end uppermost
else he would inevitably have beer
crushed to atoms. As it was both his
legs were shattered from the knees
down.
No sufferer was ever nursed as Archie
was. Dorothy, whose grief was pitia
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