The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1895-08-28

before all things was a rigid house
keeper-she sank into large rocking
chair and wandered into delightful
were always young and the maidens al
ways beautiful. There seemed to he in
her mind one figure of which she was
almost unconscious, 50 linked it was
with her own personality, and that was
her own younger self; and always near
her was another, a man, but he was
always out of reach. He was an ignis
ytdtuus, the brightest light in her young
life, but always beyond her. Tired at
last and chagrined, the girl in the day
dream relinquished her hopes, and
united her life with one who persist
emily sought her, and from that time
the light that had so long led her went
out in hopeless distance.
The old woman in the chair was
looking far away to the mountains, and
reminiscently singing, in low gentle
voice not quite under control.
'Iove was once "a little boy, heigho, heigho!
Then twas fun with him To toy, heighor' -
when the sound of wheels, and then
the front door bell, told of an arrival.
The dream of vanished years flew
away, confronted by the necessity of
the moment. Miss Greene's rheuma-
tic knees would not allow of her de-
scent, and all the Others were out, so
she must open the door. She glanced
hastily in the glass to siraighten her
soft lace cap, but quite missed seeing
what was patent tOall who looked on
| her-a sweet, unselfish soul shining
from her eyes and making pleasant
marks about her mouth, quite in har-
mony with the lines etched there by
sorrow.
She opened the street door, and in
dicated to the entering visitor the way
to the sitting-roOm, around the walls of
which Myra Marden had arranged il
Illuminated texts brought from the last
home she had owned. Her amiable
intent to please the visitor was express
ed by "Welcome,n In shaded blue,
placed where the eye would meet it on
entering; ''God Bless Our Home"
shOne resplendent in red and yellow
where all could see and "Come
Again" in subdued purple, uttered the
graceful wish of the establishment a.
the visitor passed out.
Mrs. Upton followed the tall form
into the room with trembling curiosi-
ty. He was the man she had met on
her walk.
81 want to see a lady whose name
was once Miss Elizabeth Hunt he
said, courteously bowling to the lady
before him. 81 have been to her old
home, where | used to know her, and
was told that | should find her here.
tried once before to-day, but she was
out. May | ask of you if she is now
at home, and if she will receive her old
friend Lauren Hamilton ~
The slight frame Of the little woman
trembled and the color flushed her
delicate pale cheek. Her sweet dream
of by-gone years, from which so COM
mon thing n the door-bell had awak-
ened her, was being linked with the
present.
Standing before him, with her face
upturned to his so far above her she
clasped her hands 10 control their tell
tale trembling, from her eyes, she said
simply, al am Elizabeth Hunt, Lau-
rem ~
filled with emotion to be reckoned 10y
the ordinary annexation of time. The
man stood mute before the woman, his
arms folded across his breast, breath
ing deeply, with his head thrown Gag
erly forward. MotiOnless save for his
eyes, these scanned piercingly every
lineament of the face before him. He
noted the soft white hair with straying
tendrils, the refined contour of brow
and cheek and chin, the piteous eyes
upraised. His eyes travelled over the
little figure, upright, though the should
ers dropped a bit, the clasped hands
appealing. Within him rose such
tumuIt of thought that it needs must
find an outlet. His heart was young;
the image of this woman which he had
cherished within it was also young.
He could not in one brief moment tear
it out and in its place set the picture
he saw before him now.
Elizabeth Upton waited. She had
waited through life; she well might
wait a little longer. The silence was
like mighty cavern in which each
| heartbeat sounded an infreIueut bell.
| She quickly traced on the smooth
shaven face of the man some of the
| fulfilled indications of his youth. And
she chided herself for her failure to
recognize them in that quick glance of
first meeting. Later, when this dread
| full mutual scrutiny and endless silence
were over, she would beg forgiveness.
He had come now as her deliverer;
she felt that. He would once more
give her home of her own, and her
few remaining days would be spent
within its happy retirement. At the
thought her lip trembled, her eye
frightened. Lauren IN oved as though
| to speak, and she listened with both
soul and sense.
81 do not see any trace of what you
used to be. | never should have known
you" His voice was deep and slow.
Each word drove mercilessly into the
heart of the woman before him but,
consumed by the grief of his own dis
appointment. he, all unseeing, left her
with a heavy step, youth dropping
from him as loosened garment. And
so he passed from out of her presence
for the last time on earth, taking with
him such bundle of dead hopes as it
would seem impossible to have raised
i'm so short a time.
"Can't you hear ME. Mrs. Upton ~
asked Myra Marden, bending over her
Us she lay in bed the third day after
Lauren Hamilton had left her. She
had lain quiet on her narrow white bed
ever since they found her insensible on
the floor of the sitting-room. Now she
opened her eyes, and Mrs. Marden was
.l | %