The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-09-18

way, ma am, if so be you re friend of
that dear gentleman $, perhaps you can
give me his address There letter
been lying ere for him this ever so long
1t come about six months after he left, in
closed in a note to the owner of the Aouse,
saying as whoever posted it had dropped
it into gap between the postbox and the
inside of the wall, and there it had stuck,
no one finding it till few days before. .
am standing there in Dicks own
room, the room where he sat and worked
and wrote many and many a letter to me
in the happy days of old, the last room
perhaps in which he ever ate meal or
rested before he sailed away from me and
England together, and yet | cannot look at
it. | cannot think of it. A haze has
come before my eyes and numbness over
my brain for there on the table before me
lies my letter, the very letter, blotted with
tears and soiled and crumpled with age,
which posted with my own hand two
years ago and which (ah, see it all now
how could think him so hard, so unfor-
giving, | who ought to have known his
nature better?) he never received at all.
| must be very weak or the shock is too
great, for as Mrs. Brown leaves the room
| sit quietly down and faint away.
1t is only for minute, however. The
sunbeams which were shining on pot of
yellow crocuses in the window have not
moved hair breadth, and family on the
clear cool air can still hear the bells from
some distant church which were calling the
people to saint S day service when [
came in.
There is a step at the door, but though
| know it is Mrs Brown | cannot look up
or raise my head from the hard deal table
where it is bowed All my long self re-
straint, all my painful, pitiful efforts at
womanly reticence and bravery, have
broken down at last in a burst of childish
grief, and the tears so long held back break
forth in binding rain, and my face is
hidden in my hands, So it happens that
some one coming in sees me before | see
him or can so much as dry my eyes and
utters an exclamation of surprise.
Il beg your pardon he adds very
quickly II only came in because my old
landlady has been telling me something
about letter. and lady And there he
breaks off, for [ have lifted my head, and
as our eyes meet there is cry.
''Cecily Cecily Isl you? Oh, my
darling, my love, what good angel brought
you here to give me the sight of you, and
somehow, somehow, in one moment, all
the pain and grief and WEAKNESS, all the
bitter bravery of days when 'the burden
laid upon me seemed greater than | could
bear are gone, blotted out like breath
from glass, and there is nothing but JOY
and peace and rest rest perfect and serene
to mind and heart and body, for | am in
my lovers arms, and my tired head is
drawn down upon his breast, and | hear
his voice-the dear, tender voice of old
murmuring prayers for forgiveness mingled
with such words of love and fondness as |
never thought would greet my ears again
on this side of the grave.
The bells have ceased to chime The
yellow crocusos bend and shiver before the
sharp, cold breeze, but we two stand in the
April sunshine, and the light, which falls
on Dicks bronzed head and kisses the
crushed white hyacinths in my breast, is
no brighter than that which brightens our
two hearts on this the sweetest springtide
Of our lives.