Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1904-06-17
Their GreWSome Bridesmaid


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
Devonshire river.
81 love you!" he cried out, as he and
Sybil sat resting in the MONDAY.
"Sybil, l can't live without you! I
have hungered for you since l first
met you two years agow
Il love you, tool! she said, simply,
when she could find voice. And Hay
den held her in his arms for q raptur-
u moment.
When he glanced up, his arms still
about her, a girl was passing along the
hill below-a dark-haired girl, in a
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 1t
would be a gloomy beginning to the
first hour Of his new happiness. Be
sides which, Mrs. Dove came into sigh
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 recollection of
Kate Moon and her despair. But the
anne mood In Sybil he could not un.
derstand. Was the drowned girl al.
ways to be between them? Hayden
groaned.
"Tell her, I say, tell her, Or"
In desperation Hayden caught up
his hat. "Ill stroll down to the
church." he muttered hastily the
evening before the wedding, after
hours Of gloom in which he had seer
the dead girl walking between him
self and his living bride. 'Ill 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 al
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 steI
was a dark-haired figure in a lilat
gown with a pink band across tn,
t hem.
Hayden CROPPED with his hand, and
clutching a pew door, closed his eye,
in a despalring faintness. His bond
{ age was to be relentless.
When he looked again the fgur'
, was gone. The girls at the pillar hat
turned from their work to speak t
, another. Unseen in his misery, Hay
den stole out at the porch, stunned
{ and cold in the sunshine.
Hayden never forgot the night whicl
t followed, as he lay, unnerved ant
hopeless, waiting for his wedding day
q and facing in all their details the tw'
| years past and the many years t
come, from the day when he hat
played a summers game with tn
: heart of a girl to all the days when h
a should live close to the girl he loved
v and feel himself a murderer.
Z Toward morning he began to take
more ordinary view Of the matter
This was his wedding day-sunny
happy, glorious. He had been In a
a excited, unnatural state Of mind ye,