The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-12-06

flush was OF her cheek, the fragile
| outline of her face seemed Softened
into fuller and more rounded lines than
| usual. She knew-slIe felt as she had
never felt ~before-that she was beau'
tiful, and she sickened 1T the thought.
She looked down at her hards-the
lovely dropping hands in which every
blue vein was showing in such distinct
ness upon the perfect skin-and she
| remembered whose blood it was that
ran there! Were. these hands OF hers,
that Clifford had kissed so reverently,
formed on the likeness of her mothers,
| the uameless FRENCH actress, or--but
| from that darker thought her soNl re-
volted with a loathing that you and /,
reader, may feel thankful we shall
never be able quite to fathom! To for
give, to pity, well-nigh to love, the
memory of the man who in his crimes
had not forgotten her, was a state of
mind to which after-years did bring
Jane Grand. Now she hated the
| thought of her own life. Of her W
beauty, Of the very blood of her veins
because she was ,his-his child, the in
! heritor of his money, of his nature, Of
his shame.
Rigid and hardened, EEL beyond
what she had been at first, she left Mr..
Clithero's house. Rigid and hardened
she went through all she had. set her.
self to do during the remainder OF the
day. At another time she might have
felt shy at going alone into a great
London shop, and making her way
alone through London streets, and
amidst the crowd and din of a London
terminus. But she felt neither shyness
nor loneliness now. She seemed no so
much to be acting in her W person
in the person of the happy blushing
country girl who had come up to town
that day-as to be going through a
part in some dreary life remote from
hers, and disconnected alike from her
own past and future.
THAT was a handsome woman" one
passenger remarked to another, after
leaving the carriage where Jane Grand
sat; l"beautiful, but with q. handbook
about her eyes and mouth, that took
away all the charm of her good looks"
"A~phlegmatic, 'stolid young person,
in spite Of her bloom and youth. An
expressionless, a~pathetic face, that
never changed a muscle during all the
time I looked at her." was the reply.
For of the soul in it's ferceSt crises,
strangers read just as much-and just
as little, alas!-as the nearest relations
we have upon the earth, and the soul
itself is closed, sealed to all. In moral
as in physical death we are alone; and
neither strange nor loving hands can
raise by an inch the veil that is be-
tween us and them. The. wears little
carriage met her at the HouShton
station, with q message to Miss Grand,
saying that MI. Follett was still de-
layed by close attention to his p%arochial
duties, but that he hoped to be able
to call round and see her in the course
of the next day. And Jane did not feel
the Wears detection as unkind or
strange or characteristic (as at another
time she would certainly have decided)
of his want of moral courage. She was
only relieved to be alone, and not to
have to speak during the remainder Oh
her journey home. When she got in
Chesterford parish, where every face
she saw was a familiar one, she felt
if that was possible-more frozen and
fearless than she had done during all
the preceding part of the day. Fer
heart quickened not by a single stroke
from its heavy lethargy, even when she
had stopped at the garden gate OF
home, and felt poor Miss Lynch's kind
", trembling hands clasping hers.
is Clifford here"
"No, Jane, dearest. I thought you
would be too tired to meet him to-
night. He has promised to come and
see you the first thing tomorrow morn
ing"
Have you told him anything"
"No, my child, I have told him moth
ing"
You have done right. .Auntie, / am
very tired; I will go to my room and
talk no more tonight. I don't want to
go into the parlor, please, and l don't
want Grace to see me-"
TO be c%ontinued.)