Middletown transcript., 1907-02-16

sparkle
gee, and both
Eappy.
he lay like drifts
IS the grass on the
Cliff. The breeze, com
9Eesh from the sea, smelt
Re tossing waves, and touched
Ne little golden curls of hair
that lay on Peggy's pretty fore
head very tenderly, as if caress-
ing them with little curious fin
gers.
Peggy was radiantly happy and
beautiful. She was with her
sweetheart, snd the sun shone
down on their tryst at the top
of the cliff, and the waves be-
low FLASHED over silver sands
a pretty song Of love and hope
fulness and joy, and no thought
Of pale Miss Priscilla, with her
stern ideas as to courting and
matrimony, marred the moment.
But in the evening, when the
girl sat at the other side of the
fire in the lamp-lit parlor, when
the dusk had fallen coldly out
side, and the harbor lights were
pointing the way home to the
mariner, she felt strangely un-
easy and restless, and the knit
ting fell from her fingers, and
the silence grew more and more
oppressive and desolate. With
out the wind blew round the little
house, moaning and lonely as
child that frets for something
it hardly knows what, and the
seagulls spread their sEowy
wings for the shore, as if bad
weather were coming with the
deeper hours Of night.
Miss Priscilla forgot to chide
her niece for dropping the steel
blue socks that she was knitting
for. the fishermen, but her own
thin, white fingers moved me-
chanically, though her thoughts
were busy with other matters.
She was anxious about Peggy,
very anxious, and about this love
affair, which was to her only a
silly fancy OF moment, ana not
ulder any circumstances to be
encouraged. So she had for
borne to speak even on the sub
ject to her niece, and had treated
the matter very lightly.
But, o-day, in the soft glow of
the sunset, she had met Duncan
! Mcleod as he came from his
tryst on the cliff, and her ankle
ties had leapt. into new life as
she realized from his few eager
words that he was indeed in
earnest, and that if love and a
brave heart could do it, he would
win his pretty Peggy for his dear,
dear wife.
The boy had said the words
very tenderly, and Miss Priscilla
had been touched under all her
cold exterior by his devoted love
and his resolution to work his
best for the girl he would fain
win, but she said him nay all
the same. Her niece was too
young, and he was but a youth
himself it was nonsense, utter
nonsense, and they ought t9 see
that themselves and IN her-
more, Peggy was ID her guar.
dianship, and she would consent
to no engags cement of any sort, so
Duncan need hope no more.
Then the old lady remem-
,bered that the feast Of Valentine
vas approaching. aud added one
|lsaore shaft Ito the wounds she
1lad dest that poor heart, And
wiI haze no valentines, nor
commanication Of that kind,
4 said, steTllY. | shall forbid
Peggy to receive them, and she
must obey me while she is under
my roof.
Miss Priscilla had a stern
countenance atany time, but
tonight il was m ASually 50, and
she walked on, le ling sorrow
and desolation in Ne ath,
And Duncan Mcleod tealized
that the only-Nay to win his par
pose, difficult though itsappeafed,
vas to approach Miss Priscilla
BY degrees, and very, very geEtly
and warily, as one tames o very
]