The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-02

Tho nosi had just arrived at lit
.,n-co,itry station in South Aus
.,t,a Tae eager crowd round the
.,oe9c was dispensing, and a man
- a not seem to have expected
oavtbg was examining the wrapper
= ewspaper which had been his
shaIsf e the mailbag.
Wv dering half aloud, who could
Il sent II, he threw himself down to
N on a bench outside the local bar.
"Hullo, Blyth!" cried a lounger,
tnever saw you interested in bit
of news before. What's up?"
The man addressed, handsome fell
low, but careworn and emaciated, gave
no reply. He had hurriedly run his
eye down the columns and now held
the paper open on his knee. staring
at a paragraph broadly marked in blue
pencil.
80" he murmured under his breath
\ colbert Fame married, and Lillian for
gotten"
The onlooker laughed and confided
to friend that old Blyth was always
queer, while the recipient of the news
paper after remaining for a while bur-
led in thought, rose and made his
way down the road to a better sort of
unmstakable traces of refinement. In
truth, some of the contents would not
have disgraced lady's drawing room
in Adelaide. They were an old Jap
anese cabinet, a workbasket, a pref
tily cushioned deck chair, and other
knick -knacks such as women choose
The picture of a handsome girl of
twenty hung in massive silver frame
upon the wall. This he walked
straight up to, and gazed at the lovely
face long and wistfully.
you are mine now, Lillian" he said
aloud, your husband has married
again. Do you hear, beloved? Do you
mind. wonder? Was his the name on
your lips when" Signing deeply, he
sat down before the cabinet and took
from it writing case manlfestly fe-
minnie. which was stamped with the
monogram L. f. 1t contained the usual
paraphernalia OF a woman's cores
pondence, a few diary letters, some
loose sheets of paper, and a dainty
little book with "Diary" in quaint gilt
letters on the cover.
For two years this case had been
Graham Blyth's most cherished possess
sion. Hearing that his old friend, Lii
liam Fame was returning to the colony
he had gone to meet the steam
er she was expected to arrive by, only
to receive the terrible news of her
death by drowning on the voyage out.
ii had been purely accidental, they
said. She had acquired a habit of sit
ting alone on the forecastle, and one
evening must have stumbled over an
anchor, and so fallen overheard. The
ship had been stopped, and every eff
fort made to save the unfortunate lady,
who was aelniversal favorite, but to no
purpose. She was never seen again.
Her mother (married for the second
time in the colony) was FN9rtbroken,
and had begged Blyth to KEEP these be-
longings, pleading that the sight of
them would but renew her sorrow
And he had kept them like sacrihcial
mysteries, inviolate.
But today, as he sat with the open
writing case before him, and for the
thousandth time touched each object
with revcrent care, the news of Gilbert
Fane's remarriage filled him with a
sense of proprietorship which in a
vague, unreasoning manner brought
him comfort.
She was his now. The other had for
gotten her. He alone was true, even
beyond the grave.
1t was longer than usual before he
returned the derelict treasures to their
resting places, they so vividly recalled
to him Lillian's pretty methodical
habits and quantity tidy ways. The
diary he took up last, 1t was charac-
teristic of the man that often as he had
handled the little book, its clasp had
never been unfastened. To himself on
this point he had been ineXorable. He
had even begged Lilians mother to
send it to Mr. Fame, as being the last
thing that her hand touched. 1t had
been picked up on the fOrecastle where
she used to sit. But this evening he
I felt differently. The husband owned
another wife. Something that was
akin to eXultation filed Graham
Blyth's soul. He held the tiny volume
against his cheek caressingly, and
gazed at the pictured face above him,
which to his excited fancy smiled ap-
roval. open it," the lips seemed to
ay. Read my dying thoughts; you
alone have the right" She is yours,
yours only" moaned the wind as it
swept round the gables. "Be executor
of her last wishes" urged his heart,
perhaps one remains unfulflled"
With shiver Graham gently undid
tne clasps ara began feaulnS.
At first the entries were brief and
unimportant; only from a word here
and there could the anxious survivor
gather that his dead friend had not
been as fully satisfied with her sur
roundings in England as he had be-
lieved But presently, coinciding with
her final determination to revisit the
Antipodes the tone of the journal
changed. All reserve was cast off, and
he found himself feverishly perusing
the innermost thoughts of a woman
who confessed that life had become in
tolerable to her. The narrative burned
like a hot iron into his brain:
"ThrOb, throb, throb! The monot-
onous pulsation Of the screw is like
the beating of a. laboring heart. But
existence on. board a crowded liner in
the midst of constant movement is, at
least, not so hard to bear as the numb
emptiness ] have left, and which my
folly brought me to.
II, Lillian Fame, aged twenty three
not old enough to be tired of life, is it ?
am impelled for my own justification