The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-11

| have. Will Tregarthen, and I certainly
hoped to hear no more of them in Eng
/ land
Where have you seen or heard of
them?"
In the West Indies, Of course. Didn't
! you know that leprosy was a frightful
| scourge in the West Indies? Oh, the lepers
are aWful-awfm creatures! You see them
sometimes with their hands dropping off
| their faces half gone--oh, why do you
make me remember them?"
But where can you have seen them?
Do they let the poor creatures go about
| the streets?''
Cynthia laughed and then caught her
breath as IL in a sob. In the country
districts you see them-it is not like Eng
land you know. The blacks used to tell
me awful things about them-oh, If 1 were
a leper l should cut my throat"
Poor thing" | said moved by some
strange feeling of compassion. Does no
! body nurse them?'
"Oh, viii Tregarthen how could one
nurse a leper?"
Il don't know; if he was suffering"
\ Cynthia interrupted me with a sharp cry
of protest.
ut would be impossible. One could not
go near them-one could not touch them"
! Then growing more passionate In contra
diction still, she cried, IF a leper ever
touched me I should dier'
We stood opposite each other, a little
/ turned from the leper's window. but for
some reason at that moment we both
glanced at it, and saw that the shutter
had been unfastened, and that Oliver was
looking in. He must have heard part of
our nversaton-certainly the last few
words. But why he should have looked so
! lividly pale, or glared at us with such
a fiendish hatred (as it seemed for a
minute or two, I could not tell.
Cynthia uttered a little scream and
grasped my arm. ooh, see," she gasped.
ITS one of the lepers come back and
looked at US through his doort''
Don't you see that it's your friend Oil
| ver?" 1 said
AS I spoke the head was drawn back,
and the West Indian disappeared. Cynthia
| broke into a great fit of laughter, and then
turned faint. and had 10 be helped into the
| fresh air, where she sat on the grass with
| Oliver and myself waiting on her until she
recovered. Oliver famed her with his hat,
and l brought her some clear water from
a spring close by. After a bit she cried a
| little, and then seemed quieter.
You gave me such fright, Luis" she
said. Il thought you were one of the old
lepers come back again.
l suppose Oliver had been startled in her
swoon, for his face had not
recovered its usual color and
it w as positively CHASTITY as he
turned II slowly towards the girl in the
! keen spring sunlight. 1t seemed for a mo-
ment as if he could not speak.
| why, Luis, how white you lookr' she
exclaimed, putting her hand upon his left
arm. He drew it away SO hastily that I
| remembered the tightly -swathed bandage
that had once seen, and conjectured that
she had given him pain.
rs your arm still hurt?'' l said.
Hurt? What is the matter with it?'
| Cynthia cried
If ever a man looked as if he could kill
another, SO Luis Oliviera looked just then.
He drew back his lips from his white
teeth with a snarl like that of a savage
dog.
There is nothing the matter with it,
and l am not hurt" he answered angriy;
then, slipping off the wall, he offered Gym
thia his hand. Come" he said, In a
changed voice. Come home, Cynthia; the
wind is very cold
She looked at him, and let her hand lin
ger in his for a moment, and 1 knew by
the glance of her eye and the color of her
cheek that my chance was gone. She
loved him and he loved her, after his
fashion. God help them both!
They walked away but when Cynthia
was pace or two IN front, Oliver turned
again and over his shoulder Kissed a hor-
rid word 10 me, which she did not hear.
1t was a curse upon me-a curse upon
me and mine; but why? What had L done
In few days l heard that the marriage
day was fixed, and then Cynthia sent a
message to me through her father, asking
me TO come and see her some evening
when | was disengaged.
! see her now as pain as / saw her
then, il sometimes seems to me. Flushed
and a little downcast, as if she was asham-
ed, with her eyes swimming and a
smile coming and going at the corners
of her MOUTH think thar perhaps in the
New Jerusalem she viii come TO me look
ing as she did jusg then, and stretch out
her hands 10 me and call me by name.
"Wm" she said Il want you to for
give me-"
There is no question of forgiveness be
tween US. my pretty" l said to her May
the Lord send you happiness; that is all
1 ask"
Il don't deserve it," she said, and for
the first time il struck me that there was
a trouble in her eye.
1 was half of n mind to ask her whether
anything was wrong; but 1 steeled my
heart against interfering, as l called il.
and that is where / made a mistake. l
ought to have insisted upon knowing-then