The Opelousas courier., 1897-06-12
that Emily had said her

low.cut shoes. She stopped q momen
in the hall, hearing a familiar laugh.
She remembered that the last time SD,
had heard that voice it had hidden hel
good.by in hot anger. Then shs
pushed the door ajar and entered thu
parlor, where the party had congre'
gated to wait for dinner.
DR.. Frederick Powell was standing
by a window in animated conversation
with Emily. He scarcely noticed he,
aunt's entrance, so e%ngrossed was he
with the fair niece. Miss Briggs had
been a pretty girl in her day, but the
photograph he had taken, and which
was still fresh in his mind, was that
of a wrinkled, faded woman, careless
of her attire. He looked up with sur
prise as she advanced toward them.
The brusk independence of manner he
had expected to see had given place to
a stately dignity. She was one of those
women for whom @ becoming dress
does wonders.
"I'm glad to see you'll" they both
said in the same breath, and shook
hands RS if the most platonic of friend
ships had always existed between
them.
Miss Briggs was not so we'll pleased
with her survey. "He's getting stout"
she thought critically, "and a tribe
bald. He's not the handsome man be
used to be-"
Emily WAS charmed with DR.. Powell.
She found him entertaining and agree.
able. He praised her sketches. He
told her interesting incidents of his
travels in many lands, and amusing
anecdotes of his professional life.
When the party went sightseeing, he
was her t~ete'a-tete if they rode. When
they walked, he was always at her side
to hold her umbrella.
Seeing this, Miss Briggs calmly re.
volved in her solitary orbit-a triae
more Independent in manner, perhaps,
and if possible more outspoken in her
radical opinions. Emily tried in vain
to persuade her aunt that the old serge
was too unbecoming for further use
fitness. Every morning she put it on
with the grim satisfaction OF carrying
her point, and looking her worst.
The days went by too fast in the old
town. Night and morning and noon,
they listened to the Ginning of the
bells in the IVY grown Shandon tower,
and then it was night and morning and
noon again. Still the little party lin
gered.
One day, after lunch, they started
out to make a farewell visit to Barney
Castle. DR.. Powell and Emily gaily
led the way on O jaunt,ng car. Sew
eral of the party followed on horse
back, and the real was brought I'D by
q light wagonette. Miss Briggs rode
in this, net being an excellent horse
woman, and having a mortal antipathy
to jauntlng cars.
1t was a drive none of them could
ever forget. But by the time they hadd,
the castle, the sunshine had
faded out, the landscape was gray and
blurred. and the rain began to pour ,
n torrents. There was nothing to dc s
'ut sit down and wait for it to stop. s
they had grown accustomed to /
his popularity of the weather in Ire |
and.
An old woman came to the door, I
'egging. They tolled her in with a $
billing, and she entertained them 1
nth gruesome tales of the banshees a
nd witches that inhaElt the bat l
aunted ruins of Barney at night. L
he doctor handed Emily ! pencil and c
leaftorn from his memorandum book, =.
nd she began to sketch the old peas. L
ut, with quick, effective strokes. Miss
riggs sat back in a dim corner, listen s
1g carefully, for the woman's brogue u
as almost unintelligible to her. Twice g
ae glanced up, to find DR.. Powell a
at her.
Presently in a pause of the story c
he walked over and stood be- ',
her. "What does this remind you u
!, Caroline?" he asked abruptly.
Nothing" she answered. "Why?"
ut reminds me of a gypsy camp we
!sited one time. You have not for.
often it, 1 hope. 1t was the last day oil
August, sixteen years ago. The al
enc comes back to me very plainly.
n old bag told our fortunes. Some. r.
ow, you look just as You did then" h,
He walked over to Emily again. y,
ISIS Briggs drew back a little farther
to the dim corner, and listened no
ore to the legends of Blarney. She OF
'ard, instead, the cracking of a 81
mp fire, the stamping of horses tied II
the background, the whining tones
the old gypsy who pretended to we
into the future, when in reality M
9 had only to look into the faces be- en-
her to guess their fate. Then =.
Q heard the laughter of the young tn
ks rambling slowly along in the ha
'onlight behind them. Then the th,
Y, earnest voice of the one beside by
r-no, she would not listenl She ha
,uld not recall a single word. The tn.
love had lain buried deeply too vel
lg for its ghost to trouble her now.
9 turned resoluteIy to the old wom- ~,
Gaalthough she couldn't help remem- ine
rflt1n now and then, that he Lad said foSS
} loe-ed just as she did that night a =
D tat night he had called her roe
ant
II know that isn't sol" she kept tee
ling herself, to quiet the little thrill 4
pleased vanity. Giles got an axe An,
grind. He wants me to use my in vel
ence with Emily" nos
t was nearly dark when the rain in,
lily stopped, and they started back scri
hotel. There was a shifting of VI,
is. The wagonette led the way, nh
owed by those on horses, and when FL,
10 Rripus cema 4hro,oh A. 3d. ni'.