Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1897-10-22

longer. Coming down country she
had stumbled upon Teddie Blake,
feve stricken and virtually alone, and
II was undoubte iiy 90 her care that
he owed his recovery FROM the re-
LAP Sc, which had been wo Sc than the
original at ack. She had deferred her
swa plans 70 tho eon=ca:caes ef the
patient, had superinteaded his trans
fer to the steamship from the Bonn
bay hotel, which she had hardly dared
10 hope he would reach awe, and was
witness of his contalescence on
Ncard ship, as day by day his 5 rength
spirits returned So it was not
wonderful that Teddie turned to her
for PAPER and pencil on the very first
occasion that he felt he could scrawl
line. and imperiously demanded that
he be allowed to write so his peo-
pie. "
"Are you sure you can do it?" Mrs.
Diamond asked, producing her writing
board, but not giving it over to him
unaond tionally.
"Quite sure--ihat is, not bit Of it
= but I'll try"
'Ithought you said you had nobody
belonging to you?'
mo m re / have-no real relations
hut an adopted family that is the
dearest in the world-not a mere sc-
cident of birth like other peoples
families. / must write them Just
few words to say I'm a i've and coming
home, and NIL he ready when an op
por,unity comes for posting ii, i,though
it can't reach Moyls allan more than
an hour or two before | do myself.7
"Moyliscallan, repeated Mrs. Dia-
mond, "what do you know of Moylis-
callans only heard Of the place for
the first time month ago, and now it
turns up again.
TITS my home, Blake said, pain
fully scrawlilg the date at the top Of
his sheet OF paper ''The castle be-
longs to me, only I've never been
able to live in it. Ny people live at
the rectuy-it is to Mr.. O'Malley, the
rec.or, that I'm writing. And what
did you. lear about Moyliscallan, the
-. eveh.,ee on all the earth?"
''ss~-;;, cs;ss.i Mrs. Diamond, ex-
citedly, "e.s- is the oldest thingl My
cousin, Geoss~ Suangeways, rented
the castle from some one some years
agoz-from you If app 60. 3. ...sss . he
is engaged, married prohauiy ~ this
time, to one of the rector's girls, Ellen
O'Malley, a daughter, / suppose, Of
this very old gentlen an you're writ
ing to. | had the letter Just before |
met you at Rahmednuggar and had
scarcely given it thought since"
One Of the reetor's girls
Teddie Blake had seen death glaring
at him from a wall of black Afghan
I faces; he had looked fever in the eyes
m re than once; but he had never
known what despair meant till Marcia
Diamond told him her little story u
I'd! ss.nciieaces sitting ~ the steam
ship deck, halfway through their
homeward voyage. For moment he
repeated the words, "Ellen O'Malley;
there is only one daughter at the rec
tory and Mrs. Diamond, whose eyes
were on the silk sock she was knitting,
went on cheerfnlly: "Oh, then, that's
the girl. l did not hear from George
Strangeways direct; the news came
through my brother, but, of course, it
is the same-the young lady at the
rectory. Fancy old George succumb-
ing to an Irish girls fascinations after
going all over the habitable world
unscathed till nowl"
Is he a good fellow ?" Teldie
asked.
Something in his voice made Mrs.
Diamond give a swift glance at her com
Panion, and in that glance she under
stood everything.
''He is very good fellow" she
answered, a little more seriously than
she had hitherto spoken; "any girl
will be h ppy aud tenderly treated by
him, though he is an elderly man
50, should think = and little eccen-
tric and old-fashioned in his ways.
You will find letters telling vu all
about it when you reach England, you
may be sure. Don't you think you
had better let me take that writing
board downsta rs again? 1t will be
time enough to write when there is a
chance of posting your letter
He let her lift the writing things
away. only putting out feeble hand
to crumple up the sheet on which he
had begun his letter. Then he lay
back with his eyes shut, and her tact
took her little apart, for the struggle
which he had to go through now must
be fought out alone. By and by his
servant came AMI helped him down
stairs, and Mrs. Diamond saw him
again no more that day. MM