Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-02-24

/! through the moaning pine-ridge and up to the low doorway of her little hut. There was light within, and we could see her daughter busy preparing our evening meal.
 The old woman sat down upon the stone sill, and wiped the precipitation from her brow.
 We've run risk" she said: 'ff we'd ha' fingered another haH hour 'twould ha' been the last O us No one ever lives as once sets eyes upon the bride. One man was foolhardy enough to try it long ago; he waited and watched to see the bride come, and he was never heard of again.
 She must be a terrible bride, then" I answered, sitting down beside her; wont you tell me about her? Tell me the story from beginning to end. There is story, isn't there?'
 "Oh, yes, I've told it hundreds O times in my day. Listen, and you shall hear it. It all happened centuries ago. when the old church wonder was just building.
 "A great gentleman come across the sea from England-Lord Stewart by name. He lived in a great house down among the hills below there. and had no end O servants, and dishes O gold and silver to eat out of, and fine carriages to ride in, and his daughter was the grand est lady in the whole country, and the handsomest. She had skin like the snow, and cheeks like primroses, and eyes like stars, and she wore gowns O the finest silk ever wove.
 Well, Lord Stewart meant to marry her to some great man who was to come across from England; but the Lady Beatrice; that was her name, what should she do but fall in love with the head architect, who was building the old church down wonder.
 "He was a fine young fellow, but he come O the people, and wasn t over rich, and he daren't show himself at Lord Stewards great house; so every evening at twilight the Lady Beatrice she comes down to the church to meet him, and they walks up and down. talking O their love, till the midnight stars were shining overhead. .. -
 Lord Stewart he knows nothing about it, and he sends to England for the fine gentleman to come over and marry his daughter. And he comes, and puts glittering ring on Lady Beatrice's fin. ger, and the wedding day is fixed, and the wedding finery making up-white silks and satins, and faces, such as never was seen afore under the sun.
 And Lady Beatrice is afraid to say word, but she goes on meeting her lover. Every evening at twilight she goes down to the church, and if he isn't there she falls to singing in her soft, sweet voice, and he hears her, and comes, and they walk up and down together.
 But at last the wedding day comes, and the wedding feast is cooked, and all the grand wedding guests invited. And the wedding fnery is all in readiness, and Lord Stewart commands his daugh- ter to get ready for the marriage And she dare not Gisobey, or open her mouth to tell him a word about the man she loves. So she sits white and still like ghost, while they robe her in the white silks and laces, and jewels, and then they lead her down the great stairway, and put her in the waiting carnage, and the grand wedding party drivesdown'to the new church. They are to be married there, the very first marriage before the new altar.
 "A groom gallops ahead. to bid the head architect have the bells in readi- ness to ring for the wedding, and he goes up on the dizzy steeple, in a great hurry, to see for himself that all is right. He has heard nothing of the marriage, and has no dream that Lady Beatrice is to be the bride.
 But presently he looks down, just as the grand party comes dashing up. and he sees Lady Beatrice come walking up the steps. all in her white silks and faces, with her white veil flowing to her feet, and she leaning on the arm of the fine English gentleman. All in a minute it flashes through his mind. what is going to be-that Lady Beatrice has played him false, and has come to church to be made another mans bride.
 He grows blind and sick, and reels where he stands. and presently he falls headlong down from the dizzy steeple. He strikes the fiagstones in the court. yard, right at Lady Beatrice's feet, as she comes sweeping up on her bridegroom's arm. She sees him. and knows him, and falls on her knees beside him, with an awful cry. The blood stains her white marriage robes, and the white roses in her hair fall out, and lay dabbled in . pool of red blood.
 They raise her up, and carry her of. 1 but the wedding does not go on, for the | poor lady lies in swoon, and that night she dies. a calling on her dead lovers name.
 The next day, when the men came to wash away the bloodstains from the fagstones where the poor architect fell. they find that Lady Beatrice's bridal roses have taken root, and are growing betwixt the fiagstones in the courtyard. and instead of being white. they are blood red.
 That's the story of the brides roses! And for hundreds and hundreds of years they have grown and bloomed in that same spot: ana every night, as surely as the dark falls. the poor, broken-hearted lady comes a singing. with her white laces. and her long marriage veil trail- ing and rustling. and she stcops down