Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-04-03
HORSE SHOE
ROBINSON
A Tale of the Revolutionary Struggle In
Upper Carolina.
BY JOHN p. KENNEDY.
CHAPTER XXXv.

Mildred In Grief-She Is Near Making
q Diselosure-A Visitor Arrives at
the Dove Cote.
"Then in that hour remorse he felt,
And his heart told him he had dealt
Unkindly with his child.
On the following day Mildred confin-
ed herself to her chamber. She had
passed a sleepless night, and the morn
ing found her a pale, anxious, and dis
tressed watcher Of the slow approach
of light. Her thoughts were busy with
the fate of Butler. This topic over
whelmed all other cares, and struck
deep and unmitigated anguish Into her
mind. The hints that had been so In
discreetly dropped by her father, more
than If the whole tale had been told,
had worked upon her Imagination, and
conjured UP to her apprehension the
certain destruction of her lover. In
her interview with Lindsay, her emo
tions had been controlled by the ex-
treme difficulty Of her situation. The
fear of rousing In her father that deep
and solemn tone of passion, which had
now become the infirmity of his mind,
and almost threatened to deprive his
sovereignty OF reason" and OF which
she was painfully aware, had subdued
the strength Of. her own feelings-so
far, at least, as to inculcate a more
seeming moderation than, In other cir
cumstances, she should have exhibited.
It was the struggle between filial af-
fection and duty on one side, and an
ardent, though tremblingly acknoWl-
edged, attachment on the other. The
course that she had previously deter
mined to pursue, in reference to the
many earnest and assiduous efforts or
Lindsay to persuade her from her love
was steadily to persevere In the open
acknowledgment Of her plighted VOW,
and endeavor to win her fathers favor
by a calm and gentle expostulation; or
to seek, in a respectful silence, the
means of averting the occasion OF that
gusty and moody outbreak OF temper,
which the peculiar exacerbation OF the
would have resorted to this silence in
the late communion with Lindsay, II
he had not, with an unusual bitter
ness, denounced Arthur Butler as the
author of a hateful crime; a crime
which she knew had been foully in
slnuated against him by man Of whose
subtle wickedness she was persuaded
and whom, of all others, she most
heartily execrated. She was, therefore,
led Indignantly though temperately, to
repel the slander by which her fathers
hatred had been artfully envenomed.
But when, in the fierce fervor of his
displeasure, Lindsay had announced to
her the danger that had befallen But
ler, the disclosure opened to her mind
a world of misery. The late silence OF
her lover had already alarmed her
fears, and this announcement suggest
ed the worst of the many anxious con-
lectures which her brooding spirit had
imagined as the cause of that absence
of tidings. Her emotions upon this dis
closure were those of a bursting heart
that dared not trust itself with words;
and when her father seeing the un-
looked for mischief he had done,
sought to temper his speech, and re-
tract some of the harshness Of his
communication, by an explanation, the
only effect was, for the moment, to take
off the edge Of her keenest grief. But
when she left his presence, and recov-
cred herself sufficiently to recall all that
had passed, the dreadful thought Of
disaster to Butler, came back upon her
imagination with all the horrors which
a fond heart could summon around 1t.
A weary hour was spent in sobs and
tears: and it was only by the bland
ishments of her brother Henry's kind
and earnest sympathy, when the youth
found her in the parlor thus whelmed
in sorrow, and by his manly ana cheer
ing reckoning of the many chances of
safety that attend the footsteps of a
prudent and a brave man that she be-
gan to regain that resolute equanimity
that was natural and even predomi-
mating attribute of her character.
When Lindsay came into the parlOr
with the tidings of the victory at Cam
den. such was the state in which he
found her; and whilst he announced to
her that event which had given him so
much joy. he was not unheedful of the
pang he had previously inflicted, and
now endeavored to make amends by
throwing in some apparently casual,
though intentional, references to the
condition of Butler, who he doubted
not, would now be disposed of on easy
terms. Perhaps" he continued, "as
the war was drawing to a close, and
the royal clemency had been singularly
considerate of the mistaken men who
had taken arms against their king, he
on his parole" This reluctant and
forced crumb of comfort fell before
one who had but little appetite to take
1t. and Mildred received it only in cold
silence. Henry. however. made bet
ter use of the event and by that ASST
duty which. In true and gentle friend
ship, never wearies, and never misses
it's aim, when that aim is to revive q
sinking hope. succeeded in lifting botf
his father and sister into kindliei
climate of feeling. But solitude and
her pillow ravelled all this. work OF
charity Fancy. that stirring tormen-
tor of acute minds, summoned up al
his phantoms to Mildreds waking
fears, and the night was passed by hel
as by one who could not be comforted
In the morning she was i'll, and there
fore, as | have said, remained i'm hel
chamber.
Lindsay, ever solicitous for the hap
piness Of his children, and keenly sen
sitive to whatever gave them pain
now that the turbid violence of hi:
passion had subsided into a clearer
and calmer medium, applied himself b!
every art which parental fondnes'
could supply. to mitigate the suffering
of his daughter. Like man who, II
a reckless and ungoverned moment
having done an injury which his hear