Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1905-07-21
CHAPTER [.

steamer-crowds hurrying hither and
thither, bales of luggage numbering up
the way, sailors and railway porters
Stumbling over each other, the officers OF
the ship shouting forth distracted orders,
passengers, men, women and little chl-
dren standing together in groups striving
20 hear each others trembling words OF
farewell, and over all the screech OF the
steam from the two great smoking fun-
aelS overhead.
Ten minutes more and the shore bell
will be rung and the farewells will all
have to come to an end, and the India
bound ship will have started on her way.
They chung round each other, these
poor unfortunates who were parting
some for years, and some forever-re-
Deating the last fond word, the last
earess over and over again, gazing into
each others eyes despairingly as though
they would fain carry away every line OF
the dear face from which they were so
soon to be severed.
Such a couple stood thus together, a
little remote from the busy scene, near
the bulwarks of the ship. The crowded
quay was above them, yet because every
Body was so full of hurry and excite
business or the grief which specially en-
crossed them, these two people stood
virtually al0ne-a man and a woman,
both young and both tall; they clasped
each others hands with a straining de-
spair, and looked with a speechless ag-
Ony into each others faces.
Brian Desmond was eight and twenty
then, he had health and brains and good
SooJ-- o,,I H. e hoa ,+x VIII ityy
was in his strong, young limbs, but as
he held Rosamond Earle's hands tightly
GlaSped within his own and looked his
last into her beautiful eyes, he said to
himself that life was at an end for him.
at is BETTER" she said, brokenly, "far
better that l should go away; try to
Book at it in the right light, Brian. What
good could l be to you at home; and you
will get used to it in time; there are
many other things for you to live for"
Il have nothing to live for-nothing,"
he said, gloomily; without you life is
an absolute blank"
The tears streamed over her face as
she stroye to answer him. "And yet |
should be an ever present sorrow to you
were | to remain. Consider, Brian, how
desperate, how hopeless is our condition;
AOw much more terrible to bear were we
TO meet constantly than when a whole
Hemisphere stretched between u.s."
"Ah! you might have waited-you
might have waited" he groaned.
What was there to wait for? Would
your uncle and his sons have died so that
we might be happy? Would any one
have given you an appointment? Was
there any chance that even a beggarly
Olerkship would tumble into your arms?
Aud had we not already waited for this
for years; hoping against hope striving
against certainty, leaving no stone I'M
turned so that we might find only a mis-
cradle hundred a year to depend upon|
$50 you married old Samuel Earle in
stead"' he said bitterly.
81 have married q worthy kind-heart-
ed man, who is good to me. and who
mas placed me above want-why go over
the old ground again? In these last
few moments, Brian, spare me the re-
proaches which. perhaps, 1 may deserve,
But which are certainly unavailing now"
"Darling-darIingw he cried, with a
passionate despair. mine always and
ever, in heart and soul, wherever you
may be-"
She did not check him. This was no
moment for the exhibition of a sham
prudery which she did not feel She
was putting Il whole universe between
9hem, so that she might be as true to
the man she had married as to the man
whom she loved; and she would not in
this moment of Il farewell, that was in
all human probability eternal, cavil at
the strong expression of a love which
mad never been hidden between them.
Her tears flowed fast, raining down
thickly upon the clenched hands which
grasped her own.
you know" she cried, suddenly
throwing back her head-"you know that
so my dying day | shall love you the
same, but you-you must be happy, Bri-
an, not now, | know, but after a bit, time
will reconcile you to life, and you will
marry"
81 shall never marry" he answered
xesoIutely. ''never as long as l live
ROSamond, | swear to you that never
will l make any other woman wife but
you. | can always wait; how can one
tell what changes life may not bring?
Ten, twenty. fifty years. what is time
to such a love as mine? Will it not last
forever. shall anything ever change or
L
wait on and hope?"
And so Brian, as he swore, believed
in his own oathS, and Rosamond believ-
ed in them too. Then glancing beyond
Ehe strong young form of the man she
bowed, Mrs. Eares eyes rested suddenly
upon another figure that came Chamber
sng up the companion stair on to the
deck, short, fat, little old gentleman.
with gray whiskers, who emerged pant
3ngly from the lower regions, looking
Aither and thither as he came up as
though in search of some one.
She neither moved far7 .er from Des-
mond. nor did she withdraw her hands
from his-only she frightened her hold for
one instant upon his fingers, and a swift
warning glance shot from her eyes into
his. Brian's back was turned to the
newcomer. but he understood. He gent