Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1904-06-04
Their GreWS0me Bridesmaid
80

Important and his heart leaped. He
could see, too, that Sybil was happy to
meet him.
For weeks he summed himself in JOY.
and tried to Danish Kate. Then one
day he faced the ghost and reasoned
with himself in a logical, sensible man
ner, and his state of mind became more
normal, and he asked himself why he
should not be happy.
Next morning, on the hill, he broke
into the first love words he had uttered
since he dawdled with Kate by the
Deyonshire river.
81 love your! he cried out, as he and
Sybil sat resting in the MONDAY.
"Sybil, l can't live without you. 1
have hungered for you since l first
met you two years agor'
Il love you, toor she said simply,
when she could find voice. And Hay
den held her in his arms for a raptur-
Gus moment.
When he glanced up, his arms still
about her, a girl was passing along the
hill below-a dark-haired girl, in
lilac gown. 1t was, of course, merely
a coincidence.
Hayden shivered and loosed his
clasp. The old haunted feeling had
returned. He had an impulse to tell
Sybil the whole wretched story, but it
would be a gloomy beginning to the
first hour Of his new happiness. Be
sides which, Mrs. Dove came into sight
at the moment
Those were strange months, those
months of engagement. There were
hours when both Hayden and Sybil
were wildly gay; but again there were
hours when a cloud hung over them,
when something seemed to be between
them, checking their words as if a
third person were listening.
In himself Hayden could under
stand the feeling, for even now, spite
Of argument, spite Of happy future, he
could not throw off the recollectionsof
Kate Moon and her despair. But the
same mood in Sybil he could not I'M
derstand Was the drowned girl al
ways to be between them? Hayden
groaned.
Tell her, say, tell her, Or"
In desperation Hayden caught up
his hat. "I'll stroll down to the
church." he muttered hastily the
evening before the wedding, after
hours of gloom in which he had seen
the dead girl walking between him
self and his living bride. "I'll see how
the decorations are getting on"
1t was a lovely old building of gray
stone, far famed for its many windows
of stained glass, which in a close line
told in rich puppies and crimsons the
story of Joseph and his brethren.
One or two gardeners were busy at
the choir stalls; some girls talking in
subdued tones were garlanding a pill
lar. Hayden watched their deftness.
Then with a tender impulse he turned
his eyes to the altar, where he would
kneel tomorrow beside
A sudden horror clutched him, the
blood surged within him and deaf
ened him. Bending at the altar step
was a dark-haired figure in a lilac
gown with a pink band across the
hem.
Hayden CROPPED with his hand, and,
clutching a pew door closed his eyes
in despairing faintness. His bond
age was to be relentless.
When he looked again the figure
was gone The girls at the pillar had
turned from their work to speak to
another. Unseen in his misery, Hay
den stole out at the porch, stunned
and cold in the sunshine.
Hayden never forgot the night which
followed, as he lay, unnerved and
hopeless, waiting for his wedding day,
and facing in all their details the two
years past and the many years to
come, from the day when he had
played a summers game with the
heart of a girl to all the days when he
should live close to the girl he loved,
and feel himself a murderer.
Toward morning he began to take
more ordinary view of the matter.
This was his wedding day-sunny,
happy. glorious. He had been In an
excited, unnatural state of mind yes