The Portland daily press., 1898-03-05
GContinued.l


uel had struck the keynote Of Jessica's
character. She shrank with unreason-
ing repulsion' from any eye that might
pry into her heart. The story Of her IA
theirs disappearance from the field Of
Chickamauga had been duly oommuni-
Gated to her by the Rev. Mr.. BrcNnell.
Her reception of it had sent him away
baf1ed and angry because he was baffled.
To Mrs BrowneH he confidentially i'm
parted his conviction that the girl had
40 more feeling than stone.
When Maxwell Belknap had gone
away, leaving her sitting SO still, with
her hands clasped about the package OF
letters, she was mentally running over
the strange story Of her life since she
had been brought to her fathers house
from the narrower sphere of Mrs. Short
er's influence.
He and she had lived together just
long enough for her heart to send out
new tendrils to Irvine them together.
Each day of her intercourse with him
had resulted in an access of respect and
affection. She had not known until this
story of his death had come how tender
" she had come to feel toward him.
She knew now that every act Of her
regency as head of his estate had been
dictated by what she thought be would
have her do.
And then in this matter of her Aunt
Ellenl She had taken such deep delight
in thinking Of how he would rejoice to
return and find the sister he had incurred
as one tragically dead sitting at his own
Preside, gentle, quiet woman, whose
restoration to the home Of her girlhood
and to the peaceful routine of a care
free life had brought her back to the
mental level Of the time when nothing
worse was said or thought than that
s'she was not as bright as the rest of the
Bascoms.
And now he was never to come back
to her. She must go on forever just do
ing things because it was her duty to
do them, caring for her Aunt Ellen be-
cause she was here to be cared for, sit
ting at the head of the table, with that
placid, beautiful face on one side of her
and Miss Turner's round, well fed little
face beaning at her from the colonel
place at table. She could have screamed
aloud for the pain Of it all. Instead she
left the chair that Maxwell had found
her in and, taking the letters with her,
went out on the terrace, where the aft
ernoon sun fingered longer, to seat her
self on the steps away from any likeli-
hood of interruption.
There she united the stout Irvine
string Mrs. Matthews had wrapped
many times around the parcel, on which
some one had written in large letters,
stPlease return.
AL told there were 10 letters, writ
ten by as many enthusiasts to their low
ing friends at home. Jessica read every
one of them. Some Of them she read
more than once, not for the elegant die
tion Of them or for their vivid descrip-
lions of the great battle, but because
some word Of praise, some expression Of
tenderness, in them for her father
touched her more nearly than others.
They all had the same theme-admi-
ration for their commanding officers.
They all dilated upon one phase-the
flial devotion of Captain Belknap to
Colonel Bascom. It was Neddie Mat
thews who told the most prolix story.
He told how, when the battle was
at it's hottest, Colonel Bascom had
been seen to put spurs to his horse
and gallop toward the spot where
their colors had just gone down in
cloud of smoke; how BelknapN gal
Hoped after him to turn him back !;
how the two men were inseparable in
camp or on the field; how that intrepid
dash of the coIonel's had swept him
from the sight of his men forever; how
the next that was seen Of Belknap he
was being borne to the rear badly wound
ed; how when questioned about the
colonel he had wept like child while
telling about seeing him reel from the
horse that had been shot under him.
Ii was the same story in ali Of the
ietters-the story Of two brave men out
of thousands of brave men; two men
who loved each other and would gladly
have spent themselves each for his
friend
''They loved each other,'' said Jes-
sica, bending her head to catch the
waning Light for a third reading Of Ned
dies letter.
"What more could a man do than
this that he would have given his life
for his friend, and I, oh, most superior
mortal that I am, refused him the need
of decent farewell because he did not
come up to my standard. .
1t was of Reginald Belknap she was
thinking and of his deathless devotion
to her father after she had folded up the
letters, and, with hands clasped about
her knees, she sat atill on the terrace
steps, with the setting sun shedding its
radiance about her.
CHAPTER XIV.