The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-02-27

"'ii so sorry 10 disturb you, Miss
| Kilmaynr"
She sat still for q moment. as though
ha'ehinG TO some other sound than his
voice.
IT YVES Il dream. thon," she said Mt
last: 'the most heaut!fu; dream have
ever had. Do you know. Lord Vera.
mount, thought that an old man, so
Old and bent and w::iiiiaTea-i can see
him now-stood where you are. and
that he was playing the most exquisite
tune i have ever imagined, something
30 perfect, so ideal. so enhancing. that
1 desDaired Of ever learning f. Oh, .e
l could only remember it! What was
it?"
She stood up and played few bars,
then stopped. tried again and finally
laid aside her violin with m impatient
gesture.
Il shall never get it!' she said. II
don't believe human hands ever play
ed such symphony as that. 1t is
! only in dreams one finds perfection"
Then, laughing at her own rhapso-
dies, she lit the lamp and remember:
ing the rules of hospitality. insisted on
making some tea for her guest.
| Nan herself, the dream all dispelled
was laughing at his enthusiasm, and
when her father returned from his
! walk and joined them Il fellow feeling
was established between Verramount
and his tenants that would have taken
months of more conventional intimacy
| to develop.
| Indeed, 1t seemed to Verramount
when he left them that he had never
been SO well entertained, and lie found
| himself hankering constantly during
| the days that followed for the informal
| gayety of the little turret room tea
party, In place Of the gathering at
Mount Regal, where his mother, proud
| Of long line Of ancestry, kept up an
amount Of state that bored him to ex-
tinction.
"Why don't you SO and cali on the
Kilmaynes" he ventured to say one
day. You might ask them over here
sometimes IL they would conc"
"Ny dear boy" said the dowager,
| with her usual decision, "those impos.
| sible people!'
"What is there against them?" de-
manded her son. with some warmth
''The father is gentleman and n
scholar; the daughter is
Il am Indifferent to what they are or
are not" Interrupted Lady Vcrramount
ruthlessly. "Thcir circumstances do
| not permit them 10 entertain or go into
society; therefore it would be quite use
less my adding them to an overcrowd-
! ed visiting list"
| And Lord Verramount knew his moth
er too well to argue the matter further.
The facts Of Mans beauty and incllgi-
bility combined had been quite sulli-
| cicnt TO prejudice Lady Vcrramounl's
worldly nature against her. But her
| opposition rather increased than damp.
encd his own inclinations to so to Bal
lylough and soon his appearance at
teatime grew to be almost daily
event to which Nan found herself look.
ing forward as the cnc ray Of bright.
ness in an otherwise very dull life.
Presents Of game and fruit and flow
ers found their way, too. from Mount
Regal; new songs and magazines for
Nan, new books for Mr.. Kimaync.
Yet, In spite of these distractions, Nan
seemed to droop and fade as the win.
ter progressed. The pretty color no
longer flashed into her cheek, and the
animation In voice and manner failed
day by day, while there came at times
a singular strained look into her face,
as though she were listening to some
farof sound.
Her father, absorbed In study crd
working against time for money that
was spent before 1t camn failed to no.
tice these signs in her, but Yerramount
saw them very plainly and wondered
what the reason could be.
One day he learned 1t. He had run
in on his w home from shooting and,
guided by the. sound Of Mans violin,
had gone straight up to the turret room
to find her. She was playing few
notes over and over again with weari-
some iteration. ard when he entered
and she laid her violin down to greet
him he saw that her lips were quiver-
ing and her eyes full Of tears.
What is 1t. Nan?" he said involunta-
rily and calling her by her Christian
name In his distress.
ut Is nothing" she faltered .Tt Is
only She broke of and then burst
into passionate tears. II shall never
find 1t outT she sobbed. Never! 1t
haunts me always. night and day.
Sometimes In my dreams can even
play some Of it. but when wake it is
gone-gone! When am away from
this room, am restless to come back
to 1t. feel that the tune is here, with
In these walls, and that nowhere else
will 1t come to me. Yet when I am
here it still evades me. And now we
are going away, and shall lose the
chance OF it foreverY
Going away" he echoed blankly.
"Whcn--nnd why?"
Father must &c TO London" she
said. Some literary business OF his
has gone wrong, and he must be there
to look after 1t, and l have made up
my mind to try to earn some money.
1t Is not fair he should do all the work:
l shall try to get into ladies' string
band as. first violin. Father is going
f0 acI. =