The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-21

fading charm think it was a certain
subdued melancholy suggestion Of
tragedy in his fne-featured aristocratic
face, and magnificent courtesy, an
Old-world chivalry in his manner 10
women, which first attracted me to him.
and made me liken him in my fancy TO
Sir LancelOt of the Idylls. I had an idea
that he must have been the chosen OF
a Queen Guinevere, and that some hap
less innocent Elaine had pinned away for
love Of the knights whose love rooted
in dishonors," held him from virtuous
marriage.
Gen. Fountain was always particular
~ kind TO me. But then he was kind
and peculiarly sympathetic to all wo-
men who had a grain Of the artist IN
them. He liked artistic women-thougn
I never heard of him as the hero of any
love affair or even of a Irritation.
And yet this might easily have been
possible There was something about
him which made women care for him.
1 don't mean that they fell in love with
him and made fools of themselves on his
account. That grave. sweet dignified all
of his would have been a bar TO that
But women were always at their best
with him. They cared more for his ad-
miration and appreciation than for THAI
of younger men, and 1 feel sure that
had he chosen to single out any ordi-
narily intelligent and refined woman OF
his acquaintance to make love to her in
sober. serious earnest. that woman would
have found it impossible TO resist his suit
Gen. Fountain, however. did not make
love to women collectively or individual
ly. AS he once said to me: 4 am in
love with all nice women, and that is
a very different thing from making love-
Then he added, with a deep sigh, and
a strange dreamy look in his singulary
clear eyes, Il love every pure MOBILES
minded and trusting woman for the sake
of one woman whose memory 1 ADORE
and who loved and trusted me-"
'You remind me Of the woman loved"
he said later on. Il don't quite know
why. You will forgive me for saying that
you are not half as beautiful as she was,
and your features and coloring are diff
ferent from hers. I think il is your eX-
preston, and a way you have of lifting
your head when you are interested which
reminds me of her, and have made me
like TO sit and watch you, have made me
grateful to you for taking me back in
thought TO a brief beautiful past. 1t is
an odd fantastic story he Went on and
/ will tell It TO you, dear lady, some day.
or perhaps 1 will leave IL to you in my will
when l die; and you, who are writing
woman, as she was, can turn IT into copy
have thought US both mad to risk every
thing, and, as it turned out, lose every
thing for a mere sentiment, a chimera,
the ghost Of JOY; but II suited our tenn
peraments somehow, and anyhow II eX-
plains this"
he spoke, his manned right hand. The
hand was always covered with a glove. 1t
looked like any other gloved hand, with
this difference. From the middle joint
each finger was useless, wooden, unpliable
as the fingers of lay figure. They We're, in
truth, nothing more than that; and there
was no flesh and blood in the lower part
of the glove. Everyone of the fingers of
Gen. Fountains right hand had been am
putated at the second joint.
No one knew the story Of the manned
hand Gen. Fountain was oddly reticent
on the subject. This was the first authen-
tic intimation ! had ever received, that
the injury was connected directly or indi-
rectly with a woman l had heard many
people speculate concerning It, and va
rous romantic histories related. SABRE
cut was the current explanation.
1 had an instructive feeling that the
general would not like me to make his
chance revelation public. In fact ne sad
10 me afterwards in halt-melancholy
half-humorous way:
Don't gibbet me, dear lady, on the
strength of my indiscreet remark. Re
member you must not give away your
story before it is actually in your possess
siona The woman is dead, and the other
man is dead, so that a hint here and there
would not be of very great consequence
except to myself. I'm too old to posture
as the hero of a tragedy. Besides il would
spoil the value of your little bit of liter
ly by the key to your Bluebeard's cham
ber and don't try, meanwhile, to peep
] did get the key sooner than expected
1t VIII be remembered by people who
knew anything of my dear old friend that
Gen. Fountain was one OF those killed IN
that terrible railway disaster near Dion
in the year 80. When his will came to
be read, it was found, to my great sur
prise that he had left me as legacy an
antique inlaid Golfer and its contents. The
Golfer was very beautiful, and large
enough to contain miscellaneous collec-
ton of properties. Among them were
some curious and valuable eastern jew
els, some quaint bits of silver, finely
carved ivory crucifiX, pile of letters,
diaries and private documents Of the gen
eral s, and a miniature, set IN diamonds,
of a very lovely and very sad-loOklng wO-
man, in whose exquisite race, except Tor
a vague similarity of type, could in truth
discern not the faintest likeness to my
own commonplace features, and I Won
dered what trick of gesture could have
called up to the general any vision of his
dead love. But l was deeply touched at
the fancy, and glad to be in any remote
manner connected with the romance of a
brave mans life. l constructed this ro-
nance from the materials which he sent
me, and which have, according to his
wish, expressed in a letter addressed to
me, furnished me as well with a consid-
cradle amount of interesting copy"
Mrs. Hilaryi OF course, knew the
name The letters in one of the packets
were addressed in Gen. Fountain hand
writing to Mrs. Hilary, Essledon
Grange, Woodfordshire" They had been
sent back to him after her death by so
a note stated, Mrs. Hilarys husband.
Mrs. Hilary! 1t was only the other
day that I reread one of her novels. She
wrote three only-when she died she was
quite a young woman. The book was pub
lished nearly thirty years ago. Mrs, Hill
airy was a remarkable woman in her
day. Her first novel in its then daring
unconventionality-d in the sense of
being in advance of the times in the mat
ter of woman's emancipa ton, rather
than in that of being loose in its moral
ity, had created sensa ton when it
came out had made her celebrated, just
as L. E. L. was celebrated in a different
fashion. Indeed, there seemed to be
something of a parallel between the his
tory of Mrs. Hilary and that Of the i'll
fated Letitia Elizabeth Landon-Mrs.
Hilary's name, too, was Elizabeth. Both
were unhappily married. Both had died
comparatively young and in a foreign
land. Both, it had been more or less
strenuously asserted, were the victims of
morose and cruel husband. Oh, yes I
had heard the story of Mrs. Hilary. had
read about her in the gossipy memoirs
of a few years back-of her beauty, her
NJ har fR nj md