Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1903-06-19
CHAPTER XII.

The DAVIS have grown shorter and short
or. Daylight now is to be priced, not
sported with, as in the gay and happy
summer. 1.-The inaudible and noiseess
foot of Time" has carried us from Gold
en- September" to bleakest winter, and
into that month which claims Christmas
for its own.
At the Hall everything is very much the
same as it was when last we saw it, If we
except the fact that Roger is absent. He
is abroad; so much abroad, indeed, that
nobody knows where he is. A week after
his departure he had written to Sir Chris
TOPPER, and the week after that again to
Mark Gore; but beyond these two mea'
ger attempts at correspondence no news
has been heard from him. Whether, as
! Mr.. Browne has elegantly expressed 1t,
she is up the Nile, OF up the Spout" is
matter of speculation.
Sir Christopher is looking little older,
a little graver. He is not so testy as of
yore, change that fills Dulce's heart
with misgivings. That he has fretted
greatly over her broken engagement with
Roger (who is to the old baronet as near
as his own son should have been, and
l,cond only to Fabian in his affectiOns)
{, well knows; she we'll knows, too, how
..nn,1anmously-to please her-he has
,rie 70 be civil to Stephen Cover, and
~ ~" 2me him with cordially as his fu'
TN, ,;na melancholy, cold, and bleak.
ne " re signing, the earth is bare
anu , nsA oar vestige of fresh and COM
my ni for aw be seen. Upon the gray
, ssnu,' tn, the white waves dash
. . .n1n.t;no keen aea birds shrek, and
= u."s 70 the sounoud roll the white
there is warmth and snole' inuoof'
U Portia, passing by mort
i finding it open, pauses bee oool' ano
" after some hesitation,e IT, and mai
d threshold. Dulce, coming crosses the
1. on+>r finds her sitting over fairs, pres
ie ott;tude that betokens the vUe, IN nm
atti'u t: deepest
q won here, alone" she says
t. stoon;ng over her in caressing fNiy,
n "Noughty girl. You should have tom
OF rou we're going to honor me with y
] presence, and l would nave niaue
room gay to receive you
81 don't want you to make a stran
nj ~ me. like your room as 1t is' 81
Poytia, with smile.
lis swell. don't sit crouching over the
ep il will spoil your complexion; come o
nd :. tbe window, and see what the ST.
hos done. and how lovely nature can
Il, o~en when robed in winters garo.
me port;o rising, follows her to the v
'ur dow, but us she reaches 1t she Sims a. a.
weari)v into loungihg- chair, Win
m tbe mir of one whose limbs refuse OIL
l nately to support her.
AS both girls gaze out upon the q
he, ,ondscope. white here and there
snow that fell last night, FABIAN, con
ce, from between the dark-green prah'
rus ~ an ancient lauristinus, with two
oes settlers at his heels, and gun upon
an shoulder. passes beneath the windo"
ere ING in the direction of the home Woo
uld Leaning forward Dulce taps lght'
ncd tbe name, and Fabian, hearing me q
re- sound. stops short, and lifts his eye
was tho window. AS he sees his pretty
tor. he mods to her, and Drlght
rly. Green's round his lips, rendering III
and u,o,s handsome face actually Deau
Ills for the moment. ,,
Only for moment; his gaze wa
avs, ing instinctively, falls on Portia, s'al
her pale and calm beside her cousin;
Her evos meet and as if by magic the
,nk- dies, his lips grow straight and cold a
rms and without another glance, he turn
tie corner, and is rapidly out of sight;
'unk "Dear Fabian-poor DARING
! the Dulcc. tenderly, who has noticed onl
oud, kindly smile vouchsafed for her'
'ther sad he always looks. Even MS SD
not. more mournful than the tears OF o
at a. What a terrible pressure PAtn W.