The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1906-09-05

IL Utdl up lut lOthb anu dlhOoI
washed her feet.
The sun was going down in a mass
of lurid red clouds; the eastern
breeze was freshening along the
BLUFFS, and now and then stray drop
OF rain fell on her.
Geraldine Vane drew her shawl
closer around her, with an involun-
tary shiver. Something there was in
the night closing around which re-
minded her of dead day.
Her mind went back to the time
with a throb Of pain. She would
gladly have avoided the retrospect
but who can control thought?
Eleven years ago she was sixteen.
What an old, old woman she must
be grown now! She stretched out
her hard through the shadows and
looked at /. earnestly, half expecting
TO see it wrinkled and withered like
old Grandmother Hoits, and she was
upward of ninety.
Eleven years ago she had walked
these very sands, just as golden. low
as then-just so the summer waves
had broken their hearts in music on
the shore, just so the salt sea-breeze
had swept her cheek and tossed the
rocks outside the harbor.
But ther Thane Richmond was be-
side her, and youth, and hope, and
love were hers, to say nothing of a
trust which was perfect. What more
could woman ask for?
They were pair of lovers just be-
trothed, loving each other as no other
lovers had ever loved before-so they
said and thought, and it was very
real to them, and wondrous sweet, as
it always is when the dream is new.
But, after all, there was some
cause of sadness; and when would
love be love if there were not?
Richmond was to leave her in a week
for China, to be absent three years;
for his future was yet to make, and
he was too proud lad to accept a
wife whose possessions were greater
than his own. Geraldine was an
heiress, so it was out of the question
to marry nothing, and live on cheese
parings and kisses in 4 vinecottage,
as both the young people would have
been glad to do.
Colonel Varley, Geraldine's father,
was a high-bred old fellow, and he
had said to audacious young Thane
Richmond, when he had asked him
for his daughter:
See here, young mani Money is
the thing needed nowadays, and my
daughter has always worn her dia-
monds and ridden in her carriage.
She must not marry beneath her.
When you can come to me with a
fortune sufficient to support wife
and keep her in the gewgaws that a
woman finds necessary now, Gerald
inc is yours; that is, IL she has not
changed her mind and married some
body with fortune ready-made."
All Of which was very cruel in the
unsympathetic parent. but the par
ents of heroines have always been
made of stern stuff, you know.
So it was decreed that Thane Rich
mond should go out and seek his for
tune among the Celestials, and Ger
aldine was to go to Paris and finish
her education.
But they werc to write-so very
often--twicc or T. rice week, which
was very moderate for lovers; and,
beside the sea, with the dim light OF
the stars around them, one night in
June, they said their farewells and
vowed to be true.
The lonely woman sitting there to-
night on the shore, and going back
over the ways she had travelled, drew
a sigh-something of the tenderness
of that olden time fingered with hel
still, and flushed her pale cheek with
a soft, bright crimson.
But to return.
For two years after Thames de
parture his letters had been regular
and they had satisfied the heart O.
the woman who had loved him, ant
not one man in hundred, no mattel
how loyal and tender, can write {
letter of love which win just NEE
the requirements of loving woman'
nature without being silly.
At the end of this time the letter
stopped No word of explanation
nothing to break the dull suspens
which is always SO hard to bear.
Geraldine, proud though she was
wrote to Thane to ask the cause o
his strange silence. She received il
return a few brief lines; he wa
weary of youthful folly. asked he
to forget him, and volunteered tn
information that he was soon to b
married TO the daughter OF an al
tache of the American legation q
Pekin.
wen, such breaks as this are har
pening all the time around US; the
are common as births and death,
and excite about as much attention
The world does not suffer the angus
OF heart which sometimes comes {
them to people so unfortunate as {
be possessed Of feelings; and so th
world wags on as ever.
Geraldine was one of thos
wretched women who cannot tram
fer their affections as one woul
transfer house or other piece {
property, and In consequence she su
fered deeply.
Loving once with her was lovip
Tor all time, and though she had sui
ors by the score--as what beautif,
and wealthy woman has not ?-sl
turned from them all in quiet col,
ness?