The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-01-17

could she Dut get Dack tue klDuly, NV
ing unselish soul she had lost. There
was no longer the garrulous, high
pitched voice wandering, wandering on
that ~overfiowing, discursive, uninterest'
ing chatter that used to irrltate her
weak nerves 50 when she longed fol-
rest and quiet: but there was no longer
the kindly hand to press hers night and
morning, no longer the poor little figure
creeping in at night, with shaded lamp
and stealthy step, to see If Jane wanted
anything, or il Jane was watching, OF
if Jane thought it would make her sleep
to have a cup of tea, or to be read
to. or stayed with; the one human ele-
ment. in short. the one human a1ec'
ton, had passed away from her life,
and she knew. almost with astonlsh-
ment at first, how fearfully great her
loss was, how much worse the state
she had used to think SO dreary had
now become!
If MIR. Follett had understood sucn
things better, he might have known
that this was the time, if ever, for
him to speak'to Jane Of his love. But
he was too shy, too delicate, too reti'
cent TO ,intrude upon any great grle1.
Jane in her deep black was not the
Jane he had thought of with a beating
heart that summer morning. in the
clover field; but the poor. p~ale-faced
child OF. the years afar, the little child
who had walked with him hand-1n-
hand along the village street.-the for
saken. nameless girl from whose par
entage of shame all, had turned away,
and whom it was his duty, as a pastor
and priest, to befriend. So as a priest,
he visited her during the dark weeks
when the first revulsion of grief made
her long-chilled feelings warm and
open; and when, the following spring,
he began 10 commune with himself
as TO whether he might dare to speak
or not. James heart was sealed again;
and whatever fluttering words strove
occasionally to pass the wears lips
were frozen back in a second by the
calm. unconscious friendliness with
which she received them.
Although still considering him as
something wholly alien to herself and
to her personal happiness. Jane yet felt
that she had grown to like him far
better of late than she had used to do
when he paid her snowy compliments
as a very young girl. In poor Miss
Lynch's lingering last Illness he was
constantly in attendance On her; and
Jane had been often touched by his
great patience and gentleness in minis
tering to the weak, tickle, exacting re-
quirements of the dying woman.
True to the creed of all her life, Miss
Lynch was firm to the last in her faith
in doctors and clergymen. When Mr..
Huntley's worst drugs were exhausted
and the hand of the great Healer was
upon her, she still seemed to find con-
ISOLATION in being physicAed" and bis
tered-"using every MEANS" rs she
termed ito the last; and as doctors
keep tolerably correct accounts Of such
matters, Jane, of course, viewed Mr..
Huntley's alacrity in obeying all calls
upon his attention as natural. When
Mr.. Follett had heard her confession,
and had given her ghostly consolation
and read to her, and prayed with her
in the forenoon. there was never any
certainty that he would not be sum-
moned through mud and rain, at 10
o'clock at night, to perform the same
offices again. And knowing that spir-
itual medicine is unpaid for, and that
the vicar was by nature averse to un-
timely eXertion and night air, also that
Miss Lynch's profuse requirements OF
familiar spiritual comfort were not
strictly in unison with his own broad
and rarefied creed, knowing these
things, Jane was forced to admit to
herself that she had greatly moderated
Mr.. Fellett in nearly all of the opinions
that she had once formed concerning
him.
After Miss Lynch's death her new
prepossessions in his favor were
strengthened. She never thought him
selfish now. She never thought, as she
used to think, that he wasted his ener-
gies in his study or among his fields,
while Mr.. Bradley did the real hard
work among the poor. of the parish.
Learning, as people do when their
youth is over, 10 see the real inner core,
not the mere coarse crust of character,
she came gradually to think Of Mr..
F'Ollett as a a placed altogether in
the wrong groove Of life, but allowing
none but himself to suffer from the an
giles that continually Jared upon him
q mar made by nature for intellectual
and artistic enjoyment, but living out,
without complaint, the dreary, stag
nant lie Of a little Devonshire village;
a man who had made early shipwreck
of his own household affections, yet
who, without bitterness, even with
kindly sympathy, could look on at the
loves and hopes of others; a friend (and
though I place them last. these were,
of course, his primary virtues to jane
"A friend who had been kind to poor
Miss Lynch through all the long years
since she first wearled him with her
attentions down to the last hour when
he had knelt by her deathbed-a friend
had held her own, Jane Grand's, hand
more closely and warmly than ever
since the dark history of her parentaGe
had become publicly known.
But respect, admiration. esteem, graf
itude, do not constitute loye-howevcl
firm q foundation they may lay for
love. Jane entertained every n OF
! these excellent sentiments toward the