Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-10-03
WOODBURY., N J, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1901

waves of the ocean surging through
! her ears.
! Before God, Blanche, l will never
marry any woman but your
He had forgotten her, then. Even
| 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 Flavia 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
it were part of a dream. In imagina-
tion she saw her own name in place
of that of Princess Flayia. 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
would have been the greatest wrong
she could have done him. And so his
wedding morning dawned In that tram
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 tiny summer
| house beneath a big lilac tree, fell
amusing while tie hours passed, and
| 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.. Will
lon Inv p1
| business in town satisfactorilyw
"Thank you, yes" he answered. "And
| I 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?"
"No. 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 to-
country gTrf, " no had not been in / oh
| don except for three months of her line,
with the king, who, instead of bei4g
| principal IL the pageant sof weddinEs
Iays-dead. it was whispered of poison,
! =, lie ,S.ss.i- -,sasa.y a 10 oe.,AEy
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-waited until OH 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 maryeled 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 a plain gold circlet
engraved with the old tryst word mis-
pah," and next her heart lay letter,
the only letter she had ever received
from her king lover:
| My Blanche-You have seen all the reports OF
my approaching marriage, and you are thinking
that l have altogether forgotten the one woman
l 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 l make my own quietus. No other course
is open to me but the one am about to take, be-
lieve me, Blanche; also am delivering the prin-
cess from a lifelong hypocrisy, for, like myself,
she has been forced into this l send back the
| Mizpah ring, and l know a 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 we
| meet in the land where all are equal and where
love is the only king. REX
Ladies' Field.