The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-09-25
undoubtedly 1nf1ict upon me-"

undoubtedly 1nfict upon me-"
"Yet you waited so Tonga year and
a half-why did you not come? p
She stopped. She had spoken in a
low. tender whisper, looking down at
the sea beneath them and plucking
nervously at the loose plaster of the
old walk. Death so imminent for love
and lover-nay, not for love; that were
eternal-broke down petty convention.
Where were death and love there, too,
should truth and honesty be-and hon
or.
He laid his strong hand. gently down
on the small white one outlined upon
the gray weather beaten rock of the
parapet. With upturned palm she met
his grasp. Her eyes were lifted now.
She drew strength from his strength;
a dawning hope f1ickered into being in
her torn heart. He was so strong and
true he surely could do something
there must be some other way. 1t vas
the tribute woman pays to nan
He read Alright, with eyes keen from
affection, the mute, piteous appeal in
her sweetly lifted face, but he could
only smile sadly in answer, with a 81
other way, then, in the marked path
she must walk. Have mercy, Lord!
"Was it long to you, dearest?' he
queried, his dark face afame. '"To
mel have been a fool. Nothing should
have kept me from you. To trust to
messengers, letters-a fool-too late!
Silencel The hands unclasped; ties
were broken. "Too later He turned
bitterly away.
"Would that we had met in happier
days." she murmured sadly, making a
brave effort at self control.
"No ~reproaches, Lady Elizabeth he
answered, the touch of Formally in the
address showing his own equal strife.
"What must be must be! At least l
have met you before l die, and for a
year and a half l have thought of you
and dreamed of you and held you the
lady of my heart. Fen death itself
cannot rob me of that sweet joy-for it
is past"
They looked apart, and heard above
the voice Of the great deep, the In
fashionable sound of the moaning
surge far beneath them, chatting against
the pebbles in the still morning, the
wild beating of their hearts. After a
little pause he continued more softly:
"And you-you will forget the young
-rishman. the soldier of fortune. whom
untoward fate threw across your path
way, and in your own English home
and in the love of your noble husband
may you be happy"
NAY, not So" she said softly, taking
his hand again, her eyes filling with
tears-this time she was the stronger.
"My heart is not made Of such tickle
stuff. 1 shall do my duty, keep my
plighted word-even you would have
do no less than that-but not more
s~teadfastly than I shall keep you with
In my recollection. But do not talk Of
death; you must not. 1 know the ad-
miral-he has a kindly heart'-
81 would not live," replied the young
man quietly; "for life is death when
the heart is dead"
"Tell me-" asked the girl, %nervously
breaking the almost insupportable ST.
lence, were you there when my moth
er's picture fell last nightr"
eyes, so near to it that it almost fell
into my arms" he answered, smiling.
"a bad omen!' she murmured, shak-
ing her head.
"What! That it should fall into my
arms?"
"No, that it should fall at ALL"
"WeIl,I do not believe in omenS, n
tis in the arms of another that you
fall, at any rate. He gets the sub
stance, 1 the shadow, the i~llusion-and
wen that is broken!"
"And so even the shadow is lost"
said Elizabeth.
'Not yet. Open my heart, you will
find it there" he answered quickly.
"But how like you the portrait was"
Eyes, 1 am said to look like my moth
err" she answered, striving, as we all
10 in tragic moments, to reach the
height of the commonplace. SIN the
dress I now wear, under the changing
fashions, the likeness is not so strik-
Ing, but when / am gowned as she
was, in the identical costume, which is
still in existence, by the way, and sit
rs she did, in the dim light in that old
chair, the resemblance is even more
striking"
"Nodld that l might see you thus
In that dress Of the olden time! Moth
Ing except your actual presence in the
hall has ever startled me so much as
hat image Of the past did last night.
You are so like your picture, but more
beautiful, l think"
"Ah, yes; youth and the present are
always the more beautiful. The adj