Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1903-06-29

she said as the shadows closed around
her.
CHAPTER IL.
II was not death that came 10 Lean
Hatton, only a merciful insensibility.
She woke to find all her nerves
tingling with pain, TO find the crushed
pages of her fathers letter in her
hand, the freight shining on her, and
the face OF the picture looking down
upon her in its calm, grand despair.
She woke with a pain worse than the
thrust OF a sharp dagger, with low
moan on her lips.
A faint glimpse of hope came to
her. The story might not be true.
Her father did not like her, and he
had perhaps taken this method OF
furnishing her. The very hope, faint
as it was, seemed TO gladden. her anu
startle her into sudden brightness.
The story might not be true. Let her
think, let her go back in mind TO the
past, and see if anything in il bore
out or contradicted her. She thought
of Dene Abbey first, and she re-
membered the great green hill that
rose between the estate and the town
Of Southwood. II was on the other
side of the MIL that her father and
sister had lived. She could not find
that the faintest notion of being near
them had ever dawned upon her. No
one had spoken in her presence of a
WORKOUT political agitator who had
come TO Southwood to rest and die;
but she rememberd that Sir Basil had
been very strange when at Dene.
She thought of the long rambles,
when, without seeming reason, he had
left her alone. They had puzzled her
at the time; she understood them now.
He had spent those hours at the cot
tage with Hettie or with Martin Ray.
She remembered his abstraction, his
gloom, ami her anxiety about him.
II seemed TO her as though her
brain were Keeling. Strange words
rang through it, strange sounds came
to her, and a voice deeper and sweeter
than any she had known sang
Sweet is all the land about, and all
the flowers that blow,
And sweeter far is death than life
10 me that long 10 go"
There would be no sweet release Of
death for her. She would have to
suffer through the long years alone.
The freight played on the beautiful
face Of OenOne, whose sorrows she
had sympathizei with only yesterday.
Now a whole age seemed 10 part her
from that time. She tried to rise
from the chair that she had drawn
near the picture, but there was no
strength in her limbs. She could not
stand; she must wait until the first
shock of her pain had passed. II
seemed TO her almost as though
OenOne were living and was the only
one who understood her trouble.
Great Heaven, how hard il was TO
bear,
So, through all this time, Basil had
never loved her! Why had he asked
her to marry him? He had probably
mistaken fancy for love, and only
when he met Hettie knew what love
was. She Ueah) had worshipped
him; had made no secret of il; she
had told him often, with kisses and
tears, that life held nothing for her
but his love, oh, bitter sorrow, bitter
shame! He had kissed her, listened
TO her loving words, spoken to her of
the future they should pass together
He had prepared his house 10 be her
home; he had given her a wedding
ring; he had discussed his future with
har.~ che hn 80 hos
his wife. He had allowed her 10 tell
MIN the deepest secrets of her heart:
TO make her life one with his: he had
let her believe in his truth and his
affectiCn-and all this time he had no
love fer herself!
Hettie had won him-Hettie, with
her fair face and wealth of golden
hair. Hettie, whom years ago she had
forsaken! II was Hettie whom he hal
loved. and not herself!
Il viii Judge him myself" she said;
and then slowly in her own mind she
went over the past. beginning with the
first hour that she had met him and
ending with the previous evening,
when ne had parted from her with q
pale. worn face, as though life had
little brightness for him. Not one
circumstance escaped her memory.
She recalled the little incident at the
Royal academy, when, referring to
the face that she had thought like
Hettie's, he had said, 1T has the
tenderness that yours lacks" Time
went by unheeded. She forgot every
thing in the world but the task she
had set herself; and each fact, each
memory, as il came home 20 her,
brought with il confirmation of the
truth.
At last with white. fearless face
and with clinched hands, she fell upon
her knees with a bitter cry.
1T is all true" she moaned; every
word Is true,"
How long she knelt in the glow of
the firelight she never knew; but it
was the sound of the jressing-ben