Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1899-08-31

= AO0O0l Oh. !
rode By and forgot to puck it up.
He vas still leaning against the
door. and the brown liquid was
soaking into the floor, a. his friend
walked up.
Hello, John 7 he said. What's
the matterf You look as il you'd
seen . ghost r
! have vas the reply.
Christmas Eve in New York.
The long streets we're ablaze with
the brilliant lights from the store
windows. It vas bitterly cold ont
side; the sideualks we're covered
~. 61t no hint q chill crept into
the luxnfions rooms where : beanti-
fai- woman 10 the prime of life
walked up and down. Marion Van
Verder was in the zenith Of her
beauty, more lovely by far than
when ten years before, she had
married Dick Van Varder for his
money and lived to repent it from
hsr wedding day. Bnt he was
desd-kiiled in q railway accident
two years beforehand she was free,
and ne was coming tonight.
She sst down before the fire to
think il out. Was he changed |?
Would he be very different: Was
she changed? /? She knew she was,
but somehow she could think of
him only as she saw him that day.
She remembered him best as he
lowered 90, grandly above her. and
but did he think of i,er? Had
he thought OF her as he knew her
last-as she remembered him 1?
She picked up square envelope
from the table, and took therefrom
folded note. 1t was his announce
ment to her that he would come. It
brought to mind bundle of letters
upstairs in a little old trunk, and
she ran ap to get them. As she
csine into the room again he rose to
meet her. The letters fell from
her hands and be clasped them in
his own.
marion T was all he said.
He led her to o seat and stood
and looked at her. All the love of
Tie past seemed to rise within him,
seemed trying to burst it bonds, to
break loose from the control of the
last ten years. But the calm, col
lected man who stood before her
vas far different from the eager,
passionate lover she remembered.
Marion he said, ten years is q
long time to wait. In ten years
man grows from q quick, impetu.
ous boy to cold calculating man.
It is long space in q lifetime. It
gives o chance to learn the val
ne of things that he has, and Of
those he has not. / came to tell
ron that | see you az you area
woman who sacrificed love to am
bition. The Marion l loved never
had q real existence. You have
changed outwardly, too. / per-
ceive now that / looked forward to
you az you are to-day.
And you, / know, viii be disap-
pointed. In place Of the lover you
knew years ago is a silent, morose
man. There are many things that
would take my attention away from
you. We have come together ont
Of the past to find the inevitable.
The old love is dead. I have never
thought Of another woman as l have
Of you. Still, it seems best for as
to part
he had left her sitting upon the
couch. He leaned now against the
mantel-piece shading his eyes with
his hand.
Proudly she raised her head and
looked ct him. Her eyes took in
every detail-his rough hands. the
shadows on the hollow of his cheek,
the tinge of gray near the temple.
The memory OF dead day came
back to her, but softly, in . low,
dull voice she answered.
1T is best.
During the civil war, as well as in our
late war with Spain. diarrhoea was one
Of the most tr0uble40me diseases the ar