Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-11-12

young, and youth soon forgets. From
| this moment / forbid all mention of
! the mans name. Would to Heaven
we had never heard it! He has taken
my darling's heart from me.
She was not proof against the sor-
row in his voice-she was but a lovely,
spoiled child. She clasped her tender
arms around his neck, crying out that
she should always love him.
Now go, said the squire, and make
yourself look like my bonny Sybil
again; and from this moment, darling,
! mind, the name is not to be mentioned.
She would have argued with him,
but there was that in his look which
counseled obedience. She left the
room slowly. with lingering steps.
! All, me! the squire never saw his bon
ny Sybil again.
i When he came down to dinner he
hardly recognized her; the beautiful
bloom had left her face, the violet
eyes were dim with long weeping and
saddened with grief.
He looked at her in alarm. Per-
haps the sharpest pain of the old
mans life came to him then, when he
i saw how entirely his child's heart had
gone from him.
u He lavished tenderness and caresses
upon her She was not sullen or i'm
patient; she smiled, and tried to look
i interested in all he said; but the
weary, woe-begone expression never
left her; she was like beautiful
dropping flower.
/ True to his commands, she did not
mention his name; but when the
squire went to his room that night he
found a little note, neatly folded, lying
on the toilet-table. He opened it with
trembling hands, guessing it was an
other appeal, and knowing he must
/, refuse it.
My own darling papa, the letter
ran, do you know my heart is break
ing? Do you know that shall die if
you part me from my love? Oh, papa!
| be merciful to us. Try him-only try
him. I will answer for him! He will
be so good, if you give me to him!
And, oh! forgive me, darling!
would rather be miserable with him
! than happy without him.
He read the impassioned words, and
could not rest until he had seen her
again. She must not sleep in false
hope, he thought; that would only
make her task severer.
Squire Jocelyn went to his daugh-
ter's room; he knocked gently at the
door, and she came to open it. Her
golden hair was unfastened; and fell
like soft shining veil around her.
BY the light Of the taper her fair
young face looked so pale her father
was touched by her innocent lowell
/ ness.
Sybil, he said, gently, have your
note. I must stand between you and
your fate. I must save you from Jour-
self. 1t can never be, my darling
never. Bear the sorrow. Death
could not part you fron him more
forcibly than you are parted now
He heard her wild sobbing all che
way back to his own room; and Squire
Jocelyn, hiding his troubled face in
his hands, wished he had died before
seeing his darling thus.
/ She did not write to him again-she
she did not appeal against her fate
but, day after day she dropped and
faded. In vain did Irene persuade and
demonstrate; in vain did she try to
cheer or rouse her; the girl seemed
to have fallen into deep apathy of
despair.
1t was though some one lay dead in
the house, SO deep was the gloom that
had fallen over Glynn. The summer
SUNSHINE was a mockery, the singing
birds were cruel, the flowers unkind-
to shine, and sing, and bloom, while
she who had made the light and mu-
sic of home was sorrowful almost
unto DEATH
Squire Jocelyn would have laid down
his life to save her. He relaxed the
rules he laid down so strictly. He
would have taken her to London-she
might have gone to every ball and
party for miles round, but she did not
care to go. Her languid face never
frightened no matter what was pro-
posed.
He thought she must be ill at last,
for she neither slept, eat, laughed, nor
talked; and the squire called in one of
theclever est physicians in England,
who told him he could do nothing
his daughters mind was diseased, not
her body.
Then the old man trembled, asking
himself, Must she die as her mother
did. And then came to him memory
of Captain Ayrton's words:
@You will, perhaps, be glad to recall
me. Many fathers have done that to
save the life of dear child"
Would these words come true?
Must he to save SYPHILIS life, give her to
the man who would make that life a
curse to her? No; thousand times
no! Better to die in her sweet, inno-
cent youth, her love unsullied, her life
unstained, than live to share the life Of
| Lyster AyrtOn.
/ Dav NV dav hn watched hor with a