The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1900-03-13
THE TEST OF LOVE
Barbara Merriden Came Near Civ
ing Up a Brave Man For
. Coward.

! give q majestic SeltlnR 1oF us stlVe
stream. But why should it be called
silver? At times it is the deepest green
deeper and more luminous than thu
heart of a Jewel There are hour
when its cascades have thousand col
ors, like mother of pearl. There are
dawns, after the mist has lifted, wheI
the broad surface Of the river abov'
the cascades is actually saffron or bur
nished gold.
Barbara Merriden knew 1t in every
mood and loved it whether it was som
Der with storm or sullen in the harsl
autumn days or scintillant under tht
July sunshine She was as much a.
home upon the river as on the land
and the firm earth, with all its comforr
and beauty, could never give her the
Joy that she felt when the current tocl
her boat in its strong embrace.
She went to the river in her sorrow
full moments as well as in her happy
ones. She fed to it as to friend
When George Caxton told her that he
loved her, she ran to the river to tell II
Of the blessing that had come into hei
life. But some way she did not fee
the ecstasy she had expected to. The
pleasure in her heart did not rise to
meet the splendor Of water and sky
and shore She had often looked for
ward to this hour as the browning JOY
of her life. But with grief she discov-
cred that the song of nature had q
higher note than the love lyric of her
heart.
Perhaps 1t was because the hour had
been too long expected. George Cax-
ton and Barbara Merriden had gone to
school together. They knew every
event of each others lives. They had
always been attached to each other
George had never thought of any other
girl with emotion, and Barbara had
long felt that she was destined to be
his wife. She had said yes to his ear
nest question with gratitude and hap
piness, yet now in the mystic hour by
the river, with the sun shedding its
last exquisite glow upon an unreal
world, she felt a WEAKNESS of spirit at
the mOQeTdLlOu Oh Qer Joy.
She was turning from her beautiful
river, Inundated at the inadequacy of
her own emotions, when she saw walk
ing among the pines. with eyes fixed
upon the distant glory of the sky, a
young man whom she had never seen
before. He did not see her till she was
close by him, and then he looked with
a start at the face of the girl. spiritual
and exquisite with its deep emotional
experience. He stopped and looked at
her, rapt, as If she had been some re-
Gently embodied soul created for this
wondrous hour, and she stopped, too,
enchanted by the eloquence of his face.
When he spoke, it was to say some
thing remarkable:
SIS it always mysterious and fear
fully beautiful in these woods?" he
asked.
sit is always beautiful here she
said, speaking as If in a dream. "And
sometimes it seems unreal and like
like phantom world, as 1t does to-
night"
Never before in her life had she spo-
ken in the way that she desired. 1t
was her habit to frame her speech. in
commonplace words.
II should like to walk out on that
golden water" he went on. 'Tt seems
as if it might bear one up, does it not?'
Barbara had a fancy and INDUCED
herself in it.
"It will bear up any one whose heart
is light" she smiled. "But, mind you,
it must have no care at all 1t must be
as light as ether"
"Would it bear you upY' he asked.
She shook her head mournfully, and
he said in a voice that moved her,
"And / should sink like stone" 1t
seemed impossible for them to part
while that witch light cleaned upon
their enchanted wood, and when the
shadows grew gray they became a
part Of them-like shadows they faded
from each others sight.
That night when Barbara went about
her duties and afterward when she lay
in her bed she found herself happy
with the elate and triumphant happi-
ness of which she had dreamed.
George Caxton, her promised lover,
seemed a part of the workaday world.
Her thoughts turned away from him
In spite of her efforts to be loyal.
She felt sure she would meet the
stranger again in the woods, and she
did many times He was a writer by
vocation. He even confessed to being
poet. He was not well, he said. The
for long rest there among the pines.
His name was Cecil Underwood.
Barbara found 1t Impossible to resist
the charm of his personality. He SEEM
ed to make the whole world over for
her. In vain she struggled to remem-
Der the truth and patience and strength
of her betrothed. He was too well
known to her to be seen through a
glamour. With austere serenity he in
sisted upon an early marriage day. He
refused apparently to feel any jeal-
ousy at the constant companionship OF
his sweetheart and Cecil Underwood.
And Barbara was angry at him for
this too
"He has no sensibility," she said to
herself.
One wild day when the wind cried
through the tree tops and the waters
dashed along as If in stress of pain
Cecil Underwood came to her in an i'm
perative mood.
"You must come walking with me"
he said. 1.-THE day expresses me. /
have to speak of the torment of my
heart, and l will keep still no longer
even at your bidding"
Barbara went out with him. They
walked under the pines, whose roar
filed the world with their lamentings.
They were silent, conscious of the
storm within their souls.
"Let us take boat" said Barbara
when they had reached the river.
"No, no." he protested, but she SEEM
ed not to hear him and united her skin
and leaped into it.
Come she said. He hesitated, but
followed. AS the little boat felt the
lift Of the waves the pain In her heart
seemed to tighten, and she let the cur
rent carry her along, unconscious of
the passage of time Suddenly Cecil
cried out:
'sThe rapids, Barbara! The rapidsl
See where you have taken us!' She
glanced behind her 1t was true that
the tossing white. name of the water