The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-11
THREE FACES.
BY MIR. GEORGE E. PICKETT.

BY MIR. GEORGE E. PICKETT. Copyright. 1904. by Daily Story Pup. CO.,
 The Verney mansion was abloom with flowers Roses glowed in gold and sliVeE vases in parlor and hall and vines trail- ed up the long stairways.
 In an upper room the heiress to the magnificent mansion and the broad acres surrounding it. arrayed in bridal robe, was submitting to the final touches oi skilful hands and listening to the chat ter of her maids.
 "I am her maid of honor," said the tall dark girl who was arranging hel vail. She must give me her bouquet else where are the privileges of my DO sion?"
 That Is not fair" replied maiden whose golden curls fell in riotous mass over the tiny slipper she was fitting tc the foot of the bride. You have highest places and will be the most observed and admired. She must throw her bouquet fairly and let chance select the fortunate one"
 If you do not go away now and give some attention to your own adornment you will not be ready to go down with me and there will be no fortunate one to receive my flowers. Had I known you were going to quarrel like this would not have allowed you to send my dressing maid away so you might practice the art of costumery at my expense. Go off now. every one of you"
 Putting them out and shutting the door | she came back to the center of the room and stood looking about her. She was | taking leave of that room, the sanctum ! of her maiden life, and of all the beau tiful things in it which had been her pride and joy in the happy days she had spent there. Tears came to her eyes as she thought that those days were going away from her forever. She would leave | everything in the room just as it had always been and come back to it some times. but 1t would never he the same. It would belong only to her little episodes then; never again toher life.
 She was not sorry to leave 1t. How c'arld she when she was going to the future that she was to share with Alan Warrington? It would be wider. deeper life than any she had known-more sunlit and more shadowed. Its joys would reach to heaven; its sorrows would fathom the realm internal. With all its possibilities of pleasure and pain she wei comed it with a loving heart and willingly put away her girlhood spent in this happy room.
 She knelt and said a prayer for the happiness of that coming life-for it's true happiness. Not that 1t might be free from the thorns that are the lot of all who tread well the path of life, but that two might walk hand in hand and bring blessing each to the other that would heal every wound and light the darkness of the road until 1t should merge into the shining way. She remembered in her petition. too, the little life that was being given to her care. for Alan Warrington had once had a lovely young wife, who had died and left a little boy to comfort him for her loss.
 She stood by the window and looked out at the rippling river in the distance and away over to the horizon where the dreams of her childhood had taken form in the days gone by. She heard car riages driving up to the door. She could hear tfem bowl around the curve and turn into the drive. There the heavy. arching trees hid them from view. Some one came running down the winding road. She observed him idly. scarcely conscious of his presence. He came on up the pathway to the door.
 How sti,i the house was. The nur- mur of moving forms and light voices had suddenly been stilled. It was tine hush of expectation she thought Alan would soon be there. It had been a dis appointment to him that he could not have had one sweet hour with her to close the old life before they had entered on the new. He was stationed at fort in the west with his regiment and we'd dings were not included in military duties especially when there was an excitement on the border. So he was to arrive just before the hour set for the ceremony.
 Something was coming down the road moving slowly. As 1t came nearer she