The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-04-19

and admirers transferred their allie
glance to another shrine, for little Mar
Gle was Miss Marcella now, as her
maiden aunt had glided into the more
| formal title of Miss Durant
| Then the storm of civil war broke
| loose and the fine old Terraces was laid
waste, narrowly escaping the torch,
and though things were different Mar
| celia tried to adjust herself the best she
might to changed conditions. Only once
| had she heard of Clark Lorrimer and
then news reached her through the let
ter of a friend that an opening had
| been made for him in Australia and
thither he had gone; then all was blank
silence concerning him as before.
=
| Miss Marcella burst into the old din
ing-room in quite little gale. Smiles
wreathed her pretty mouth and danced
in her wine-brown eyes.
Now, auntie, don't, don't, don't re-
fuse. The very first party we've been
| invited to this winter"
Where is it to be?" Miss Durant
asked, absently, beginning to fear that
Marcia must be disappointed.
AT Stony Towers. Just think, how
lovely"
| STONY Towers!" and Miss Durant's
memory flew back to q party at the
same old mansion over twenty years
ago and recalled how she had looked
into pair of leading gray eyes and
promised that whenever their owner
should come back he would still find
her Marcella Durant.
well. auntie?" eagerly. What is
it to be?'' What will you wear, child?"
Marcella's face fell, but she replied,
convincirgly: "Oh! III find something
Very well, only don't expect me to
go. My day for that kind Of thing is
over and done"
"Auntie, Mrs. Travers particularly
| invites you. Says that an old friend
whom you will be glad to see is ex-
pected. Read what she says"
Miss Durant trembles and the gentle
face pales, so that Marcella runs to her
anxiously:
Why auntie, it is only an old friend;
some one whom you knew years and
years ago. Can't you guess who?"
Surely, yes, for she knows that the
only friend she has waited for all these
years, long, silent, torturing years, has
come back at last.
Il think, MarceIla," answers Miss
Durant, that we might 60" For many
minutes after her niece has left her she
stands looking into the fire. Twenty
years. she says, raising her eyes to
the mirror, what a change he will see!
Will he be glad that the beauty and
attractiveness has disappeared? AS
glad as he said he would be? He is al
tered, too, no doubt, but if his heart is
as true
And she buries her face in her hands
and presses her eyes hard to keep back
doubtful tears.
The big parlors of Stony Towers are
full to overlooking with happy, laugh
ing, flirting young people. On a sofa
partly shaded by a mass of greenery
| Miss Durant is sitting. Her eyes are
fixed upon the doors through which the
gay crowd pours until they rest upon a
tall, pleasant faced man, who looks
about smiling, as if in search of one
familiar face among so many strange
ones His host is with him, introducing
him here and there and at last they
stroll toward the sofa4
Here is Miss Durant," observed the
y
be able to tell you of the fate Of most
of your old friends"
'Durant?" bowling courteously Il
am sure l ought to remember-oh, of
course 1 do remember it is twenty
years or more since we met, is it not ?
really don't think l should have
known you
The host disappeared and Clark Lor-
y-1, +o1r II
friend. s1-
What a change from those days.
Miss Durant, No one seems to remem-
Der me-
Il remember you, Mr.. Lorrimer," and
she smiles gently. pathetically
All that is good of you. 1 have for
gotten most of the people l used TO
know, so l cannot complain. How is
your father?"
'Dead"' replies Miss Marcella. He
died years ago."
OF course. How time flies. And you
are left alone and unmarried! How I'M
gallant of my sex to permit such a
thing! Why. when 1 left here you were
considered a beauty. You were really
a very pretty girl indeed
Thank YOU" she says, forlornly, and
there is something so like tears in her
voice that he looks at her keenly.
L meant it for a compliment. but
I'm afraid I've made a hash of it."
Not at all. l am glad you remem-
Der me as / was
Indeed do, and now think of those
old days l believe we had quite q boy
and-gi filtration, but no doubt Won
have had so many of those little affairs
that one very soon passed out of mind. F."
And so he drifts backward inouirine
after various acquaintance, and the
| woman beside him answers all his
questions with a gentle smile on her
| face and dumb pathos in her eyes.
Days chased each other on airy WINGS
golden, happy days for Miss Mar
celia. Picnic and boating parties. in
formal gatherings and impromptu
dancings, at which Clark Lorrimer was
the center of attraction. Leaving his
native town poor man, under a
cloud, he had returned rich in worldly
goods and possessions, and there were
few of the fair young girls but would
have gladly accepted his middle-aged
hand had he but held it out to them.
And Clark Lorrimer, never slow in
expressing his wishes, soon makes
known his choice of the fair girls who
have so often been called together in
the past week to grace the event of his
successful Homecoming.
Miss Durant, sitting on the shady
side of her gallery, was not a little sur
prised to see the handsome, manly form
of her one-time lover striding up the