The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1898-02-04

"Feared," not known. That was
what Mrs. Hayes and Mary said to each
other. Everybody knew a dozen in
stances of sailors picked up in open
boats;- of desert islands,. of drifting
RATS. No; the idea that Don was dead
could not be accepted; there are some
people one cannot associate with death;
tits not appropriate So Don's mother
and sweetheart held on TO hope
Those awful, -breathless DAYS of de
spair, and refusing to despair, and then
despair again, were filed to Mary,with
intense and immediate anxiety about
Donald's mother. Mrs. Hayes was very
Nfran at best, and it seemed as if this
must kill her; indeed, if Mary had not
kept on hoping for her, she must have
died. But little by little she came back
to life, and to the acceptance of the
fact that Don was dead; and then, one
| day, six months later, hope ..sprang
again into sudden vigor aud certainty;
sailor in Plymouth, who had known
him, was toldc byTa man who had just
come in in a merchant Indiaman, that
he had seen Donald Hayes in the street
in Calcutta. He had not spoken to him,
for he had lost sight. of, him again, but
he had seen him. Through one mouth
and another this news came TO Seaport,
and was brought down to- the gray
house on the rocks. Mary used to say
afterwards that when she heard. tilt
seemed to her that she. should die of
joy. Then came the waiting for the
La e. H.. L.
be on its way. These two, who loved
him, guessed with the instinct of wOm-
en- bred by the sea, the whole story;
the wreck; the rescue on an outward
bound vessel; the long voyage; the first
port Calcutta, and the instant dispatch
of letters to them. .
eve may hear any day." Mary said;
the color had crept back into her face,
and the light to her eyes; and yet,
waiting, and waiting, and waiting for
Don's letter, light and color waned
again. It was months before she whis-
pered to Don's mother the CHASTITY
thought that the sailor had been mis-
taken, and that Don had not been seen.
She said it to be .contradicted. And at
first it was contradicted sturdily and
cheerfully. But by and by they both
grew too wise for self delusion, and
duly took up the burden of living again,
Fortunately there was no complica-
ton of poverty to make Mrs Hayes
more wretched; she had enough money
for Seaport's standards of living; Don's
earnings had never been relied upon;
they were uncertain at best, and had
mostly been put into the Samuel P.
Jones. Still, things had to be managed
for the old woman, and it came to be. a
matter of course for Mary to live with
| her. ,,
So time went by placidly, without
happiness, but with peace; and on
Mary's part, with that deepening love
which, is the strange gift that Death
sometimes bestows on those whom he
robs. Although there had been no
words that bound her, she knew that
she was bound; and it seemed to her
that all the world-her world-must
know it, too. So when, one winter
afternoon, as they were walking down
the river road, Dick Wheeler spoke out,
and asked her to marry him, her refusal
was full of outraged love.
+Perhaps you don't know it, but Don
aid Hayes and T. she said, the color
hot in her face, her eyes threatening
him with a Straight look.
"Oh, said Dick, blankly; and was
silent for a moment, looking with alb
sent eyes at a big coaler coming up the
river to one of the wharves; she was
being lowed by three dories, and Mary
said, nerTously, something about its
being hard work. Dick did not seem
! TO hear her.
mo, he said, in a low voice, II didn't
know that therewas anything settled
between you and Don. But, anyhow,
it's nearly two s/Since then, and
do you think that makes any differ
ence?" she flashed out. ''Do you think
I'm that kind of girl? If it was TWEEN
ty years, it would be just the same!"
And poor Dick, abashed, began to say
that it would be different if there was