Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1905-06-01
By Anna Katharine Green Author IN inn Etc.

er III his mimi thar SnOuld De Dasis
for his long hoped for chef d'oeuvre.
Not for the unknown Montelli alone
should his pencil fly over the paper
crystallizing into perpetual existence
this dream of fading lovelincss. He
would earn for himself more than the
paltry dollars he felt burning in his
pocket; he would earn right to the
reproduction of this face, which must
henccforth be the expression of his lott.
lest instincts.
His pencil obeyed his enthusiasm;
the features of the unknown began to
show themselves upon the broad sheet
of paper before him.
He was very much absorbed or he
might have taken look mt the old
crone seated in her low chair behind
him. If he had done SO would he not
have lost himself in further questions!
Would he not have wondered why she
gazed at him so intently. with eyes
that were certainly not lacking in
earnestness If they were in candor?
And would he not have queried why
her glances only left him to travel to
the clock, and So, with one quick fiash
to the young girl and back again to
him. There was mystery In all this. If
he could have seen 1t, for there was cX-
pectation in her look; an expectation
that increased as the minute hand of
4 h> ,lA p,nro1 tn,S-prl q Dnl Y.
pcctaton here meant interruption. and
interruption meant-what? The sly
face of the crUne made no revcla
tions.
But he saw nothing behind him.
Life, hope and love were all, for the
moment, concentrated in the end of his
pencil, and not the sound of opening
doors and hurrying feet could have
aroused him now from the dream OF
creation that engaged him. But there
was no sound all was still; even the
mysterious watcher behind him seemed
to hold her breath, and when the clock
struck, which it presently did. tie
faint noise seemed to be too much for
her aged nerves, for she half rose, and
pantingly sank back again, claspnG
her hands with energy. rs if to still
the bca tings of her heart.
But the artist worked on.
Suddenly there was change in the
room. No one had entered it, and VT
it seemed no longer like the same &Hot
Something strange ana unaccOuHtahlc
had occurred; something which caused
the moisture to start on Hamilton De.
graws forehead, and the expectancy
in the old cronc'S look to deepen into
strong excitement. What was it? The
artist, catching his breath. listened.
What silence, What an oppression OF
silence. And yet there ii comes again,
that soft sigh, so light as to be almost
inaudible, and yet, to his cars, so thrill
ing with promise that he lcaped to his
feet like one who breaks some bond
aSundCr.
AT the sight of his caSerncss the old
crone, who had risen also, smiles hun
grily to herself. If she has heard the
sigh also, she shows no anxiety to ad-
vance. but stops where she is, content
that he should take the precedence and
stand first at the young girls side. He
was there in an instant and though no
signs of life greeted him from the mo-
tionless form he could not tear his gaze
away from her face.
Sweet one" welled W from his lips,
"was that the sigh of your departed
spirit grieving it had left body that
could be so loved? Or is life but paus-
Ing in these pulses, and will it.
He does not finish. How can he.
when at these muttered and well nigh
ncohercnt words he perccivcs The
fantest flush of color suffusc the
checks? Or was it but a fancy? 1t
has fed now, and the breast docs not
h2avc. 1t must have been a halucna.
ton like the sigh. And yet-and yet
those lids seem to lie less closely
There is something in the face he has
not seen there before. 1t is not life
and yet, surely, it is not death. Where
are her friends? Where Is there a ply
sician? Why Is he not one instead of
being useless artist? With cry he
turns to the old crOnc
Help" he shreks. "&ee. her lips
are growing red! And look at her
hands; they are becoming warm. Now
how, they tlutter! The roses on her
breast arc disturbed! She is not dead,
We shall have her again"
He paused. struck even in his frenzy
by the abandon of his own words. 81
am fool" he muttered, "but then the
old witch does not understand me.
Will she understand what she secS?"
And bounding to the old woman's side
he drew her. wondering and chattcring
up between the candles and pointed &c
the young girls face. AS he did so he
uttered an irrepressible cry. for in the
instant he had been gone the miracle
had happened, and two wide dark eyes.
luminous with wonder. stared back
into his from amid the wrcatbs Of
those tangled locks of hair.
nrIT