Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1896-10-23
BY THE SILVERY RIVER.

Kate and her niece Ellen occupied
house by the river. 1t was the ambi
ton of Susan Wycherly to make her
daughter, the only object upon which
the pride and affection of her selfish
heart was placed, the wife of man of
wealth and influence, and such a one she
pronounced Percy bingham, whose
visits at the house had commenced soon
after It's occupancy by the Wycherlys
And Kate Wvcherly loved him from the
first, not with constrained affection
wrung from her by the commands of her
parent, but with passionate zeal which
melted the heart of the proud beauty 20
an unwonted gentIeness.
During the first weeks Of his visits at
the house Percy bingham had been al
ways received and entertained by the
daughter, and so sedulously was the
niece excluded from his society that he
hardly knew of her existence. He had
abandoned himself to the destinations of
the former with the easy Indifference of
man of the world, and without inquir
ing of himself whether it were possible
that he could love her, and she, for her
part, deemed her triumph complete
when mere accident served to destroy
the fond hopes concerning him which
mother and daughter had pleased them
selves with fabricating. Happening to
call one day, the young man first saw
Ellen Wycherly and was at once deeply
impressed with the remarkable lovliness
of her mind and person. Thenceforth
his visits were made for the sole pur-
pose of seeing her and enjoying her So
ciety. and it was with manifest chagrin
and anger that Kate and her scheming
mother discovered the probable and un-
expected defeat of their cherished plans.
1t was a dusky, twilight hour, upon
summer evening, when Ellen Wycherly
sat alone in one of the apartments OF the
house overlooking the river. She was
seated by the window, absentiy watch
ing the eddies in the current as they
whirled and circled past-absently, for
there was a quiet, dreamy smile upon
her handsome face and the word "Per-
CIV" unconsciously fell from her lips.
The next instant she started and blushed
in unfeigned confusion as she looked up
and discovered bingham himself stand
ing bv her, his features radiant with
glowing qualification which her audible
whisper had produced.
The time, the place and the discovery
all favored and encouraged the ardent
lover, and his warm avowal, there in sol
emn hush of the night, came swiftly to
the ears of Ellen Wycherly, filling her
sweet blue eyes with tears of joy.
The twilight hour had long passed and
the darkness of a cloudy night drew on
before Percy bingham reluctantly toe
himself from the scene of his newly.
found happiness. The next day when
Percy Efingham called he was informed
that Ellen had mysteriously disappeared.
The sudden fate of Ellen Wycheriy
was enveloped in mystery, dark and in
explicable. Unsparing efforts were used
bv her lover, as we'll as by her relatives
to discover and reclaim her, but each at
tempt was as vain as that which had
preceded it.
Search was finally abandoned as utter
" useless. The warmest sympathies
of the neighborhood were given to
Susan WycherIy and her daughter
whose demonstrative grief none could
suspect of being any other than an I'M
feigned one, as well as to Percy Efing-
ham. now broken hearted, prematurely
AGED man. He seemed, in truth, dead
to aught else than "reminiscences of his
great bereavement, and the efforts of
Kate Wycherly to secure his affections
anew were met with indifference or a
passive smile which should have as
sured her that he had no heart to give.
1t was strange, withal, that the passion
ate beauty could still love him and
vearn for his affections, for the lapse of
20 wears could not have so whitened his
hair. withered his cheek, bowed his
form and stolen the luster from his
eyessas this one over-powering sorrow.
Y ct her longings for him were, if posi-
Die, never more intense. and a year
barely passed since the disappearance Of
Ellen when the approaching nuPtials OF +
Percy Efingham and Kate Wyncherly
we're announced through the neighbor- :
rood
The light from the chandeliers of the
3. - e+raa,,,ed ont uDon the
liver on The night appointed for the mar