The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-10-11

pleading, saw nothing out MS ala
monds on her diamonds that
mean constancy! And he was about
to do as she had urged him-marry an
Iother woman All, we'll! 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 APP
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 Flavia 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 magma
| ton she saw her own name in place
of that Of Princess Flavia. It 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 tran
Gull 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
| I, ~
Ia-musing while the 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
loughby. Have you completed your
business in town satisfactorily
"Thankyo yes" he answered. "And
feel like 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 happenedY
1.-THE king of Stervia, who was to
have been married today, you know,
was found dead in his bed this morn
ing"
With a choking cry Blanche reeled,
and before the vicar could reach her
she lay faint and prone on the grayeled
path. For hours she passqR from one
fit of Mysteries to another The doctor
4 to1x
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-waited until on the
second day the postman brought her
little package with many foreign
stamps thereon. When she next sum-
moned up strength to face the world
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 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 thinking
that l have altogether forgotten the 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 make my quietus. No other course
is open to me but the one l about to take, be-
lieve me, Blanche; also l am delivering the prin-
cess from q lifelong hypocrisy, for, like myself,
she has been forced into this. l send back the
Mizpah ring, and l know a merciful God will
Judge me innocent in the time we have been alb
sent the 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.