The Somerset reporter., 1901-10-10

at Is officially announced that a
marriage has been arranged to take
place shortly between his majesty King
Rex of Stervia and her royal highness
Princess Flavia of Rhodana."
That was all-only a bald press par
agraph, but 1t set the sweet May sum
shine all dazzling before Blanche
Drummond's eyes and brought the
waves of the ocean surging through
aer ears
Before God, Blanche. l will never
marry any woman but YOU
He had forgotten her, then. Even a
king could forget his VOW.
She put away her sewing presently
and went up TO her own room. Out
over the woods, yellow green In their
young leaves, and the distant sea,
shimmering sapphire, the sunshine
swept in a flood of gold The birds
twittered hundred glad songs, and the
scent of the lilac and hawthorn hung
on the air. But she heard nothing save
the memory voice of her king lovers
pleading, SAW nothing but his dia-
monds on her Embellishments that
mean constancy! And he was about
to do as she had urged him-marry an
other woman. All well! When the
Princess Flayia was queen of Stervia,
she would put away his love pledge
forever
The days crept on, and the weeks,
and now and then a paragraph ap-
peared in the papers anent the forth
coming royal wedding. 1t was brought
to remembrance that King Rex was
the handsomest ruler in Europe The
Princess Flayia was said to be beau
tiful and accomplished. The names of
the bridesmaids were announced and
the clergy who were to officiate, and
then came the entire programme of the
great event.
Blanche read it all through as though
1t were part of a dream. In magma
ton she saw her own name in place
of that of Princess Flavla 1t might
| have been. Yet not once did she re-
pent her decision of that fateful May
night. She still believed that to have
yielded to her love and married him
she could have done him. And so his
wedding morning dawned in that tran
quill country spot, and Blanche Drum
mOnd's left hand was minus its blaze
of diamonds. She wandered out into
the garden that morning, restless and
agitated and, sitting in a tiny summer
house beneath a big lilac tree, feb
1ciY he nd
by and by the glare of the MONDAY
sun warned her to return to the house.
AS she neared the garden gate the
vicar was passing on the road outside,
and mechanically she paused to speak
to him.
$50 you have returned, Mr.. VIII
! loughby.. Have you completed your
business in. town satisfactorily"
''Thank you, yes" he answered. "And
feel like a giant refreshed by these
few days In London-one drops into
such a rut, forever In the country.
OF course you have not heard this
mornings news"
mo. What has happened"
THE king of Stervia who was to
have been married today. you know,
was found dead in his bed this morn
ing"
With choking cry Blanche reeled,
and before the vicar could reach her
she lay faint and prone on the graveled
path. For hours she passed from one
fit of Mysteries to another. The doctor
said her nerves We're completely un-
strung. and the shock of the Wears
tidings had been the last straw.
No one dreamed of connecting the
country girl. who had not been in Lon
don except for three months of her life,
with the king, who instead of being
principal in the pageant of wedding,
lay dead, it was whispered of poison,
in his darkened palace.
1t was for her he had died, Blanche
felt assured. and by sheer effort of will
she overcame her nerves and her an
guish and waited-wated until on the
second day the postman brought her a
little package with many foreign
stamps thereon. When she next sum-
moned up strength to face the world
again and take up the burden of life,
every one marveled at the alteration
in her. Years older she looked. The
luster was gone from her eyes, and her
expression was that of a woman who
had just turned away from the death
bed of all that the world held dear to
her. Above the diamond ring ON her
wedding finger was plain gold circlet
engraved with the old tryst word Mis-
pah." and next her heart lay a letter,
the only letter she had ever received
from her king lover:
My Blanchc-You have seen all the reports Of
my approaching marriage, and you thinking
that | have altogether forgotten the woman
! love. No So my peerless Blanche 1t has been
necessary, for state reasons. to acquiesce in the
match arranged for me by my ministers, but to-
night make my own quietus. No other course
IS open 10 me but the one am about to take, be-
lieye me. Blanche; also | am delivering the prin-
from lifelong hypocrisy, for like myself,
she has been forced into this. | send back the
hizpah ring, and ! know mercful God will
judge me innocent in the time have been abb
sent the one from the other Wear it always for
my sake. Heart Of my heart, farewell until
meet in the land where all equal and where
love is the only king. REL.
Ladies' Field.