The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1895-04-05

| think she half hoped to see Mr. War
den up there, beinga as he spent deal
! of time sketching around the stone
tower He was an artist by profession
was Mr.. Ward en-.
But he wasn't there on this partic-
ular afternoon. And once Miss Ark
| wright got Barbara up there like Il
mouse in a 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
shouldn't touch her roseleaf complex
ion, when Barbara started up.
How dare you talk so to me says
she. What right have you to insult
me when you know that Percy
Warden loves me p
He loves men said Miss Ark
wright, stripping IL wild rose of its
leaves and tlinging 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-
GU are going to the train to bid
him Godspeed p said Barbara slowly.
No, Miss Arkwright you are not.
The last face Percy Warden shall see
in the CatskilIs shall be that of the
girl he has trified with and deceived.
And Barbara closed the huge oak
door and shot the outside bolt across
its rusted fastenings with strength
that was almost superhuman.
Girl shrieked the heiress, how
dare you serve HE such trick as this?
Open the door at once !!
MOT until i have hidden Percy
Warden adieu,' said Barbara, with a
mocking 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-told me before the mists clouded
her poor brain forever-and she told
it in such way that | could fairly
hear and see everything for myself.
But both girls had LINGERIE longer
up on the mountain-side than they
had any idea of Before Barbara
could reach the little depot-the cars
were then new thing in our part of
the Countrywide train was moving off,
and Percy Warden face at one of the
windows was all that she could see.
In her blind haste, Barbaras foot
caught in the steel rail, the iron cow
catcher flung her on one side and she
fell with her forehead against the
All the depot hands
supposed 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
one of those tempests 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
deaths 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 Ark wright p said
she.
"'She's not at the hotel dear
says soothingly. And Wedderburn
thinks she must have made up her
mind at the last minute to go down to
New York with Mr. Warden
~ know where she is said Bar
bara, with shudder. She is up at
the powder house.
I'VE thought she was dreaming, I'M
til she told us all.
Three days and three nights she
walled out. ooh, go, some one, and
see after her y
And in all the storm my hush
and two men climbed the steep noun
tain sides with lanterns and approach
the powder house And of all the
eerie places, my husband says the
powder house, in a thunderstorm at
midnight, is the eeriest
well, ma'am, they opened the
door, and there lay Miss Arkwright on
the floor, dead, her teeth nearly meet
ing in her own arm and her face all
distorted by some horrible spasms.
Whether she died in a CONFUSION or
starved to death no one knew and no
one ever will know
And all the time my husband and
the men were gone Barbara was tell
ing Inc the story. ~. Y. Ledger.