Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-08-20
CHAPTER II.
A Fatal Resolution.

describe a few CnFlllluS 0FOhCo
occurred during the space OF few days
Immediately preceding the Wedding
Just described.
TTDon a balcony just outside a
brilliantly lighted room in stateiy
mansion, there might have been seen.
one lovely moonlight night, pair Oh
lovers in earnest conversation.
"Onlv three days more, my Pearle,
and then I need hope no longer, for
Won will be mine for so long as we
both shall live Dearest, can never
fell of you of all the bright plans that
7 have woven for the future. The pros
meet fairly dazzles me sometimes, TO
think that l have won so fair Drlae'
and to know that her heart is all my
own. Pearle, my darling, do you
realize it? Are you glad that you are
to be my wife,?
The moon shone brightly upon the
impassioned speaker, f1ne-looKlng
young man of twenty-five. He was OF
medium height, with powerful, noDly-
proportional frame, and ninety de-
yeloped head, set squarely and proudly
upon a pair of stalwart shoulders.
The moonbeams played lightly over
his broad, white forehead, from Wnlch
rich masses of soft, curling black hair
were brushed carelessly away. Dark,
fathomless eyes, of WondrOus beauty
and expression, beamed from beneath
the shapely brow, while goodly
shaped nose, and a pleasant mouth,
about which tenderness and firmness
contented for supremacy, made up the
remainder of the profile.
It was such good, true face-aslde
from it's mainly beauty-it was a trust
worthy face; and just at this moment
it was full of an earnest, tender
passion, betraying that his whole lie
was bound up in the fair girl who was
so soon to be his wife.
She was a trifie below him in stature,
yet of queenly presence and magnlfl-
cent beauty That beauty, however,
did not consist of the stereotyped style
of either classical or regular features.
Her eyes-beautiful eyes they were.
too-were a decided gray, and large, as
was also her mouth but both were
capable of such charming expression
that no man ever thought to criticise
their dimensions Her nose was
straight, and of aristocratic mold; her
complexion without blemish, and the
abundant chestnut hair which crowned
her intelligent forehead, and always
arranged with dainty care, was per-
feet delight to loon upon.
But the Characterization is more
than beauty-that was written upon
Pearle Radcliffe's pure face, was its
chief charm. Before it strong men had
bowed and owned her their queen,
while her own sex would have been
willing to sacrifice half their D4ltn-
right to have possessed the peculiar
ways Of fascination that were hers.
Eyes, Richard" she replied to her
lovers question, 81 am glad that am
to be your wife-so glad that am
dumb with happiness blessed that
it seems to me there can be no other
woman whose measure of joy is equal
to mine. And yet"
"Heart's dearest!" he interrupted,
reproachfully, hurt that she should
qualify her statement in the least.
and folding his own over them, drew
her toward him, while he searched the
dear face with intense earnestness.
"And yet" she repeated, taking up
the sentence again, and with a shy
resoluteness, as if determined that he
should know all that was in her heart,
though she shivered slightly, II have
been strangely oppressed today with
sense of impending evil. I have felt
something of what Damocles must have
experienced as he sat at the banquet
with that naked sword suspended
above his head by a single hair. 1t
seems as if it would take but the
slightest breath to send all our beauti-
full air-castles crashing down upon us,
burying us in oAeir ruins"
The strong arm of her lover gathered
her close to his manly breast at these
ominous words, and his tender lips
touched her white forehead re-assur-
ingly.
'Air-castles,' love! Who has been
building 'air-castles?' Not you and 7,
surely. Our hopes and plans are much
more substantial that the light struct-
ures you mention" he said, Lightly
then added, with fond solicitude: my
darling, the excitement of the past few
weeks has been too much for you
you are nervous. You must rest for
the next three days, for no shadow
must cloud the face Of my bride. Now
I will send you away; | have kept you
longer than I ought in the night air,
my love, my almost wife. Earth does
not hold man so blessed as I am to
night, nor woman more tenderly be-
loved
He would have released her, but she
chung to him, and he could feel the
thrill of pain which quivered through
every nerve of her being, and
wondered at it.
Involuntarily he elapsed her closer,
as if thus to testify his power to shield
her from every i'll of life.
EfCfi1l cI1noTctitinuc bn1nupd 2'' he