Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1896-02-19

Clotilde. the little one, clapped her
hands, and asked earnestly:
''Might it be, my friends, that it is
Gaspard, who has come with a sur
prise?"
mo, no, Clotilde, it will not be our
Gaspard. Mon Dieu, how then shall
we tell her? Child, go you not to the
door? Those sleighbells you hear are
not of the flesh and blood mean
the driver is not"
But the little Clotilde had run joy
ously to the great hall door, and
though no servant stood there to open
it, she swung it wide on its massive
hinges. A bitter blast of cold air
rushed in with dreary, wailing
sound, and no sleigh stood outside,
but even as the startled girl watched,
a clash of musical bells and the swift
sound of the steel-shod runners filled
the area Of snow. She turned winter
than lily in the somber moonlight,
and flung the door to, atfrighted.
"Come to the fire, little one; you
have seen, then, our skeleton in the
closet?"
"I saw not any skeleton-nothing-
nothing, but 1 heard the bells -oh,
what does it mean?"
"You tell her, Agatha" said the
younger sister.
eI would greatly prefer that she
should hear it from your lips, Cecile,"
answered the other.
81 am not afraid" said the girl
proudly. The color was coming back
to her lips and cheeks, and her eyes
sparkled. 1t could not be worse than
the legends of the Loup-Garou which
her uncle had told her since she was
child-not so very long ago that-but
now she was woman and would not
show fear.
"You will now lnow why our Gas
pard has dark spells when not even his
sweetheart can comfort him, why the
shadow is never lifted from our lives,
and We cannot be quite like other peo.
pie. Perhaps you will not then like
to marry our brother, who is the best
and dearest in the world, but like us,
under the ban."
''It is the more I would love him ii
! might, when he has the trouble; but
tell me, please, is it that some wicked
souls come back because that they can
not rest?"
"We know not, petite, but the story
is like this: So long ago, maybe, that
not our oldest relation can remember,
there was another Gaspard de From
tenac, brave, good man like this one,
but hot-headed and fiery. And you
know, the steep hills thas shut us in
so high with the big ravine--the
precipice on either side? And in the
winter there was always snow, and the
people went coasting and sleigh-riding
with swift horses down those long hills,
but never could two meet, for the
road was just the width for one sleigh,
and the people all knew this, and they
waited at the plateau on the top, and
each took mis- turn.
cit was my great uncle's pleasure to
take his young wife and go out on
these steep hills and drive her like the
wind with swift flying horse, and
she loved the sport aud wrapped in
furs, with her curls floating in the
wind, fine picture the country folk
thought her; and that Gaspard was
much admired, too, for so the story
has come to us, and their pictures are
in the salon. though some think us
not of the right mind to keep them
there.
SIT comes soon now, petite, the
tragedy of those two. One night, just
s1ch night as this, they went riding
IN the 60 gay spir ts, and going up
hill for the second or third time
what should they see but another
sleigh coming down! 1t wss coming
fast, and my great uncle knew it was
doeth for one side or the other. since