The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-12-07

VIXEN immediate personal happiness
might have been attained, had she held
out her hand to grasp it-in that hour
Daphne Chester found strength, was
able to stand between the man she
loved and her own weakness. Ard the
consciousness of duty bravely held to
has upheld her even while her pillow
has been nightly wet with tears, WINE
her eyes have lost their lustre, her
cheeks their bloom.
Under the first great trouble of her
youth, Barry Chester's desertion, she
succumbed without an effort; crushed
by the deadening sense of her lnslg'
nifcance, the feeling that she was as
little able to act a part in her WI des-
tiny as could the cog in a wheel dis
arrange the machinery in which 1t IS
placed. Love, the great educator. has
lifted her to a higher plane of expert
ence She has learned how loss, viewed
otherwise than as the mere blind oper.
alton of law, may, aided by natures
slow healing, turn into spiritual gain
for the loser. And yet
Yet in this moment-oh, contradictory
woman's heart!-in this moment. when
the abstract has become concrete,
when she may see embodied the net re-
suit of her virtue, Of her abnegation,
Daphne shrinks with agony from be-
holding it!
They might have waited, so she tells
herself, as with ~fast-beating heart,
with ice-cold, clammy hands, she
watches them approach, gay, careless,
as though their W selfish happiness
comprised the universe. They might
have waited a year, six months. They
need not have shown her their new life
in its very spring. Nay, if they were
bent in coming hither, Severne, at
least, might fifty wear a graver coun
tenance! Whatever his liGht-hearted-
ness as a bridegroom, there must be
some painful recollections, surely, con-
nected with Fief-de-la-Reine, some
slight regret, which, though he felt 1t
not, he might have the common deli
cacy to dissemble!
The two elder Misses Vansittart. as 1t
chances, are abroad, in the ~"barouche.'
paying their half-yearly round of calls
on Island notabilities. Aunt Hosie,
as we have SEEN, is at her outdoor
work. So Daphne must drink he- cup
of bitterness, must pass through the
bad quarter of an hour that lies be-
fore her, unsupported.
TO her relief, the bride, after some
futile attempts at French talk with
Margot,' makes her entry into the par
lor alone. S%everne's courage, it may be
supposed, has failed, OF his conscience
pricked him at the last moment.
"You never thought to see US here
again so soon!' cries Clementina, ad.
yancing with an outstretched hand,
with far more cordially of manner
than she ever displayed in former days
toward Daphne Chester. "The fact is,
1 spent such happy, happy hours at
Fief-de-la-Reine in the summer 1 could
not resist the temptation Of paying
you a flying visit on our way to Paris"
Daphne responds to the brides hand
shake with as much warmth as she
can command. Her power of speech
seems frozen. What form Of greeting
shall she choose, what meaningless
commonplace utter, remembering
freshly as she does that those happy,
happy days were spent by Miss Hard.
castle in society-not Of Sir John Sew
ern. but Of Cousin Felix.
II ought to have written you a line.
I know, but our whole journey was. at
the last, planned so hastily. To begin
at the beginning" Clementina seats
herself by the open window, precisely
in such a light that her artistic travel.
ing costume (the latest bridal fashion,
Of course-was not Elsie to make the
dressesg, her smiling, cheerful face,
come into cruelest ~juxtaposition with
Daphne's everyday country gown, with
Daphne's altered complexion and thin
cheeks. "To begin the romantic story
at the beginning, I have been married
a very long time, Mrs. Chester. Our
wedding day was August the 10TH"
We've had never heard the
news"
Fain would Daphne call the bride by
her own name, but cannot. Her lips,
as yet. refuse to pronounce that unfa.
miliar Lady S%everne."
To be continued.