The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1904-06-03
Their GreWSOrne 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 your he cried out, as he and
Sybil sat resting in the MONDAY.
"Sybil, can't live without you
have hungered for you since 1 first
met you two years agop'
81 love you, too! she said, simply
when she could find voice. And Hay
den held her in his arms for 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 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 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 q
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
same mood in Sybil he could not un
derstand. Was the drowned girl al
ways to be between them? HaydeI
| groaned.
''Tell her, I say, tell her, Or"
In desperation Hayden caught VI
his hat. "I'll stroll down to tn,
church." he muttered hastily tn,
evening before the wedding, afte
hours of gloom in which he had seel
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 gra,
stone, far famed for its many window
Of stained glass, which in a close lin
told in rich puppies and crimsons tn
story of Joseph and his brethren.
One or two gardeners were busy q
the choir stalls; some girls talking i
subdued tones were garlanding q pi
lar. Hayden watched their defines
! Then with tender impulse he turne
his eyes to the altar, where he woul
kneel tomorrow beside
A sudden horror clutched him, tn
blood surged within him and dea.
: ened him. Bending at the altar ste
, was a dark-haired figure in a lila
gown with a pink band across tn
t hem.
e Hayden CROPPED with his hand, an,
| clutching a pew door, closed his eye
: in despairing faintness. his bone
{ age was to be relentless.
When he looked again the figul
D was gone. The girls at the pillar la
= turned from their work to speak
C another. Unseen in his misery, Ha.
t den stole out at the porch, stunne
( and cold in the sunshine.
Hayden never forgot the night whiC
( followed, as he lay, unnerved ar
?. hopeless, waiting for his wedding da
o and facing in all their details the tv
i years past and the many years
|. come, from the day when he hs
played a summers game with Il
l. heart of a girl to all the days when
n should live close to the girl he love
y and feel himself a murderer.
f Toward morning he began to take
more ordinary view of the matt,
# This was his wedding day-sunn
# happy. glorious. He had been in
IS excited. unnatural state of mind "