Middletown transcript., 1898-01-15

tenderness and hope that sparkles every
where on New YEARS. Eve.
Lyddy remembered it, however, al
though not with happy heart. NeN
Years Eve had meant something t,
her, ever since that one five years be
fore when Tom Brown had shyly, man
fully told her of the love that hat
grown up with him from boyhood, ant
she had promised to be his wife. Sh
was twenty then and he was twenty
two, and New YEARS. Eve had beeI
happy anniversary ever since, ant
had always brought some simple, dearl.
loved token from Tom, who had lef
Pottsville, Four Corners on that SAM
night, five years before, to make hi
fortune in New York city.
But 10 night there wonld be no re-
membrance. Lyddy reminded herself
looking across the brown fields to the
range of gloomy mountains beyond
there could be none. For the serpent
had crept into Eden since the last New
Years Eve, and left it, as he always
leaves it, forsaken and desDlate.
it had been hard enough for pool
Lyddy to bear all along. The drag
ging months of anxiety when Toms
semi-weekly letters had failed to ap-
pear; the intense longing to hear from
him; the growing nameless fear that
had possessed her as the weeks rolled
into months and still no sign. But
the worst had come that morning.
Lydia was sensitive, loyal soul.
Her stepmother thought, it was be-
cause she was so "uppish" that the
girl uttered no word of her growing
trouble, and gave no sign, beyond her
white thin face and listless manner Of
the doubts that had, at last, forced
themselves inside the citidal of her
heart and were laying siege to love.
But Lyddy would have died rather
than say a word that seemed disloyal
to Tom; and her love for Tom had not
been a thing Of light weight, to be ban
died about from her lips to other peo-
ple's. Neither could she cast it out in
a day.
Much better, she though, if she
could do that; for that morning the
blow had fallen which had left the
girl benumbed, stupefed.
She had been out on some simple err
rand which took her across the lots to
a neighboring farmers. The morn
ing had been a bright oBe and warm for
December in Vermont. Lyddy had
walked briskly, across the brown mead
ows and remembered that the last
time she walked over them The golden
rod had been in blossom aud Toms
last letter lay in her pocket. She had
been happy then, confident of the love
that was always to brighten and pro-
tect her life. But no more letters had
come. Aud this morning Lyddy look
ed at the ghosts of the golden,rods and
told herself that her life now had come
to be as bare and brown ard cheerless
as the wintIy fields, with only the
ghost of human love to haunt it.
When she reached the low, raubling
house again where she had been born
and had lived and grown into a
woman, with all Woman's intense
capacity for loving, loyal and true, she
walked straight into thu kitchen and
there sat Miss Andrus.
That parsonage was maiden Of
some sixty summers whose sole object
in life was to obtain what she called
"the news" and having obtained
it to proceed to disburse it among the
Pottsvillians as expeditiously as her
rheumatic and other disabilities would
let her.
Accordingly, Lyddy had no sooner
seated herself in the old-fashioned,
high-backed chair that had been for
years her grandfather's post of honor,
when Miss Andrus proceeded to the
business of the morning.
"Hain,t heard The news, have youl
Mebbe you don't hear from Tom Brown
lately2"
"No," answered Lyddy shortly, ig-
noring the last question completely.
"Wal, you prob'bly won't hear agin
very soon, anyways" and the ancient
maiden bridled into high priestess of
propriety.
Lyddy made no answer.
"The long and short ont is," con-
tinued Miss Andrus, "Tom's married. .
Lyddy made no sign, although hel
face grew a shade paler. But her STEP
mother filed up the gap in the CONVEX
sation with
"You don't sayIn
Where upon the elderly woman who
had never known what honest and
true is, drew out week old newspa pei
from her pocket and read.
"Married. In this city, December 9th
bv the Rev DIR. Blank, Thomas o. Brown
Esor.. to Valerie, daughter Of Hugh Man.
nering, OF this city.
'Ef that amt proof" continued tbs
splinter, what isP''
Nobody seemed able to answer that
question and Miss A ndrus passed the
paper over to Lyddy, who took it, by
means Of powerful effort at self-con-
troll with steady hand. Her first i'm
pulse had been to rush from the room,
to scream, to call wildly for help-that
she could not bear it.
But self-iespect and the conscious
ness that such course of action would
delight her tRrmentor's heart and give
her material for months gossip. kept