Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1895-11-14

frightened for me; Did You think
was dying?"
i Eyes, grandmother, came the low
panied, unwilling reply.
my darling, / have been dying fOr
years. The skill of clever men car
avail me nothing, you know"
I'll did not know
at Is only for your sake, Alicia
that would go ON living. If 1t were
not for you, | would if | might, die
this very night"
Alicia fell TO weeping. She bent low
over the pillows and held her grand.
mothers hand. And could You die
happy, grandmother" she said II
you knew-if You knew"
Yes, my darling"
II meant mean that VOC shall die
happy, grandmother" cried Alicrl
Penrith, wildly, forgetting that she
had resolved to be careful in the
breaking Of her secret tidings. "for |
am the child Of Alicia Leighr'
"Aficia"
In a moment Of sudden, unnatural
strength, Lady Penrith had started
from her pillows and was sitting mp
right in bed. The expression of the
poor, haunted looking eyes AN ex.
preston In which doubt, anxiety, fear
and passionate gleam of widest
hope commended one with the other
would haunt the girl for many a day
10 come.
''Afieia" gasped Lady Pe1mith.
Yes, grandmother, 1t Is quite true
Alicia Leigh was really my mother.
A great wrong has been done you,
and the wrong is twenty years old
Oh, forgive me. | know the pitiful
story 1T from beginning to end.
Tonight, grandmother dearest, YOU
shall hear THE sequel; and, having
heard 1t, die happyp
But Lady Penrith sat motionless,
her gaze fixed now, her gray lips I'M
closed. What strange thing-Heaven
help her!-was about to be impaired
tonight? And yet-and yet was not
she forever beholding the dead Alicia
Leigh revealed in the melting depths
Of the tragic eyes Of the living Alicia
Penrith? All, was not the ghost Of
the past perpetnally haunting her, per-
] petually reproaching her, from those
beautiful, sorrowful, beloved eyes?
"I'hat nlght-tha dreadful summer
night, twenty years ago" went ON
SIR Rugs daughter, brea thlessly
Alicia Leigh was not drowned--did
not find a grave in the river bed as
all the world has since believed.
Obher poor crea lures who-w,ho. have
been missing whose whose misfor-
tune mean, has been similar to hers
have never been see again, | know.
My mother was saved by a miracle.
She sunk twice; the water would have
dashed her down third time, and
she would never have risen again. hal
she not clutcheI floati' plank
which was being borne along with the
stream, and in this wise been marci.
fully washed against The lower bank
in the meadows upon the other side
"Exhausted, terrorIstricken, she
knew not what to do lying there upon
the grass I'm her wet, drenched clothes,
I too weak yet to move alone, the night
fast closing in. As the time went on.
she grew stronger. was able Ito stand
UP. She wrung the water from her
garments and hair, and then. with a
prayer that her strength might last,
fed bllndly over the fields under cover
of the darkness and gained the high
n n1sfl aG Aisf1,
nant desire being to escape from Old
friars, and-and to hide herself from
harm.
81 do believe she was possessed Of
some dim. wild notion of trying to
overtake my father, and of begging
him to shield her From further danger.
In reality, she scarcely knew what she
was doing. A deadly fear had be-
wildered her" Still not syllable
from Lady Penrith. Alicia. resuming
the tale, held her hand yet more
closely than before.
"By and by, when she had left the
village several miles behind her, when
she was nearly dead with cold and
fatigue. and a clock over some lone
country-house was striking one, q
carriers covered wagon came along
the moonlit road. and the carrier him.
self. a middle-aged, good-hearted man,
asked her whether she was bound for
London; II So he would be pleased TO
take her on. he said.
"My mother struck with the notion,
gratefully said Yes and continued
her flight in the carriers wagon She
told him that she had met with a
grievous mishap and slipped into the
river near the village of Garth. He
considerably accepted this statement
&c hers end pressed no question on tho
point She was much relieved to
learn that the man knew nothing OF
Oldfriars or its neighhorhood, and that
twice week he piled his calling be-
tween West Game and London, at
which latter p'ace--in small house