Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-09-26
A CONFESSION.

ing in September a woman seated her
self in an open window to peruse the
days mail
The room was the tidy, correct cham
Der Of a spinster.
Not a feature of the place or its be-
longings limited at the thought of a girl
in her teens.
All the literature, photcgravure and
even the papering protested against the
age Of ~frivolity.
The small writing table, never lit
tered by the moods Of young scribes,
was correct as usual, ard with a Gre
cian patterned letter opener Eunice
Raven cut the leaves Of a New York
posted letter.
People said-that is, they had SO ven
tured when in the confidential presence
Of their dearest friends-that Eunice
Raven once had an admirer.
No one knew positively that he actu-
ally reached the Importance of a "beau,"
and as Eunice declined to claim any
such article, surely no one could know
better in the matter than the woman
herself.
Eunice Raven was a good and unself-
ish woman in her small world, and ran
the sands Of life to even measure with
out a suspicion of revolt, but there were
times when she did rebel, and her re-
bellion only took her the oftener to her
little room over the best parlor, where
her Thomas a Kempis and other spir-
itual condiments were pencil marked
anew.
If any one III Palenyille had CHANGED
to see Eulice Raven open that New
York posted letter, there would have
remained no doubt for them that she
once had an admirer.
Out from the strangely directed en-
velope fell a small sized Photograph
one of the old style, with never a bit of
polish in the finishing. and nothing but
grim featured lineaments depicted.
The face wa a strong, manly counte-
nance, with much frank kindness i'll the
smiling eyes and a chin showing well
tempered affection.
The picture brought a warm, girl
hood glow to the gazer's face, while
the light Of a sleeping memory, dim at
first and quickly deepening, famed from
heart to face.
The letter was a long one, closely
written, and apparently with effort,
crossed and recrossed womanwise.
Within was a second letter unopened,
with the date Of 10 years resting on its
shamefaced surface.
Over the first, leaning toward the
light and nerved for something more
vaguely feared than discovered, Eunice
read with puzzled face.
Over the second she paused, and the
dim light Of that rekindled memory
again filed and glowed upon her.
She trenbled with all the agitation
of her girl heart aroused
Taking it between her why fingers,
Eunice studied the still unbroken seal.
Then aloud she read the date.
"If it had come to me then, there
would have been no happier day in my
life, " she said.
Nineteen years from his hand to
mine"
She laid the letter down and dropped
back in the chair.
Her position, reflected by the faithful
mirror, was an awkward, slouching
one.
1t was just such she had maintained
in her teaching last session that only n
woman with no backbone would as
sumo, and she at once sat erect in the
instant correction of such laxity.
Nineteen years too late.
And 10 years the wrong side of matri-
mony, when one is alone i'll the world,
is little more than single misery.
Her eyes, blinded with hot, angry
tears at the cruel, disappointing bitter
ness of it.
Then she read again the fine French
sheets of milk white paper upon which
the guilty confession of the writer
looked blacker than at first.
AS she read she tried to picture very
correctly and justly the mind of the
writer. She tried to be impartial. She
tried to judge with the essence of judg-
ment severity.
She succeeded i'll a large, full, tenn
ing measure of mercy.
A few tears, and she, the accuser, be-
came the defender. 1t is often a WON
ans way.
The writer Of the letter-now i'll, UNI
doubtedly dying-was making confess
sion for relief Of soul.
Sister of the man Eunice Raven
loved, and who had loved Eunice, she
wrote how bitterly she had hated the
very name of an unknown sister.
With no father or mother, and an
only brother, who made her entire
world, she had thought anything better
han to lose his love and care, and
when Eunice had come into his life,
and he had announced his intention of
asking to become nearer to him, this
was the thing she had done;
II felt, " she wrote, that i would
beg, lie or steal before you should come
home here, and when brother went to
his room to write you to become his