The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1901-01-26
!. :. n Haunting MeJody u.


vealed to him Mans sleeping figure in
! an arm chair III
| She had fallen asleep while she wars
| playing her violin, apparently and even
his entrance had not reused her. nor did
| she STIR when he softly spoke her name:
and at last he gently touched the hand
| that held the violin. Then she sighed and
| woke.
Your father told me might come in
! and find YOU" he said apologetically. II
! am so sorry TO disturb you, Miss Kill
| mayne"
She sat quite still for q moment as
| though listening to some other sound
! than his voice.
1T was a dream, then. she said at last:
| the most beautiful dream 1 have ever
| had. DO you know. Lord Nerrarnount. |
! thought that an old man, so old and bent
| and withered--I can see him now--stood
where YOU are, and that he was playing
f, the most exquisite tune / have ever i'm
| agined: something so perfect so ideal. so
| enhancing, that despaired OF ever learn
| ing it. oh, II I could only remember It,
| What was it?'
| She stood up and played a few bars:
| then stopped. tried again. and finally laid
| aside her violin with an impatient ges-
| ture.
IT shall never get it,t.e.. she said. II
don't believe human hands ever played
| such a symphony as that. II is only in
| dreams one finds perfection"
Then, laughing at her own rhapsodies
| she lit the lamp. and remembering the
| rules of hospitality. insisted on making
| some tea for her guest.
| Nan herself the dream all dispeled
was laughing at his enthusiasm: and
| when her father returned from his walk
and Joined them fellow feeling was es-
l tablished between Verramount and his
| tenants that would have taken months of
more conventional intimacy 10 develop.
Indeed II seemed To Nerramount when
he left them that he had never been so
well entertained, and he found himself
hankering constantly during the days
that followed for the informal gaiety of
the little turret room tea party, in place
Of the gatherings at Mount Regal, where
his mother, proud of long line of an
cestry. kept up an amount of state that
bored him to extinction.
why don't you go and call on the
Kilmaynes?' he ventured to say one day
, You might ask them over here some
times. IL they would come"
my dear boy" said the dowager, with
her usual decision, those impossible
peopler'
What is there against them?" demand
ed her SON. with some warmth. The
father is gentleman and scholar; the
daughter is
II am Indifferent to what they are or
are not" interrupted Lady verramount
ruthlessly. Their circumstances do not
permit them to entertain or go into soci-
ETY.: therefore IL would be quite useless
my adding them TO an over crowded vis-
itng list"
Ana Lord Verramount knew his mother
too we'll To argue the matter further. The
facts of Mans beauty and ineligibiity
combined had been quite sufficient to pre-
judice Lady Verramount's worldly nature
against her But her opposition rather
increased than dampened his own inclina-
tons To 40 to Baliylough. and soon his
appearance at tea time grew tn be almost
| a daily event, to which Nan found herself
looking forward the one ray OF bright
ness I'm an otherwise very dull life.
Presents of game and fruit and flowers
found their way too, from Mount Regal;
songs an magazines for Nan. new books
for Mr.. kilmayne. Yet, In spite OF these
distractions, Nan seemed to droop and
fade az the winter progressed The pretty
color no longer flashed into her check
and the animation in voice and manner
failed day by day, there came at times a
singular strained look into her face, as
though she was listening TO some far-off
sound.
Her father, absorbed and working
against time for money that was spent
before ID came, failed To- notice these
signs i'm her. but Verramount saw them
very plainly, and wondered what the rea-
son could he
one day he learned it. lie had run in on
his way home from shooting. and guided
| by the sound OF Mans violin had gone
stright up To- the turret room To ind her.
| She was playing few notes over and over
again with wearlsome iteration. and when
| he entered and she laid her violin down
- greet him, he saw that her lips were
| quivering and her eyes fun OF tears.
What is II. Nan?" he said involuntar-
| ily. and calling her by her Christian
name I'm his distress.
ut is nothing" she faltered: its only"
She broke OF. and then burst into pas-
| sionate tears. II shall never find out!'
| she sohbed. Never. IL haunts ms al
wsys. night and day. Sometimes i'm nv
, dreams 1 csn even play some OF IL. but
| when / wake u Is gone gone, when I
| am away from this room | am restless 60
como back 10 ~. 1 feel that the tune ~
| here. within thees walls. and that no
where else will IL come 70 me. Yet whom
| ! am here IL still svades me. And now we
| are going away, and shall lose tho
| chance Of ~ forever"
Going away he echoed blankiy.
when and why7''
Father must he I'm London before
| Christmas" she said Some literary
business OF his has gone wrong, he must
| be there to look after A.. and have made
up my mind to try and earn some money.
| Ii H. NOT fair that he should do all the
work 1 shall try 10 get into ladies'
string band as nrst violin Father L. going
to ask y0e 10 release him from the rs
| rnainder Of our tenancy"
"Of course I shall be delighted SAID
| Nerrant0unf with patient inaincsrity while
he Vas rspdy revolving in his mind the