Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1908-05-08

had no sooner opened it than
she exclaimed:
Why, Dan Bryan is dead; died
Tuesday night. Poor Ethel am 80
sorry for her; but he had been sick a
long time, SO l suppose she must have
been prepared for it."
At the mention of Ethel Bryan, Mrs.
Hamilton's brother-in-Iaw, Judge Blake
Hamilton, began to think of a certain
summer long ago, before she was mar
ried. He was spending the season with
his mother recuperating after severe
illness, and she lived on the adjoining
plantation. 1t was gay country
neighborhood and he had met her often
at the numerous quilting bees and aD-
pie parings, and then he had called in
a neighborly way; his mother and Mrs.
Edwards were old friends and it would
have been rude in the extreme for him
not to be polite to the daughter of his
mothers friend.
They had walked together In the
balniy summer evenings they had rid
den horseback together in the cool of
the mornings; they had rowed together
In the moonlight on the sllvery lake.
He had been very lonely on the days
that she had headaches, and the even
ings that she had engagements with
the rich banker from Mississippi had
been positively interminable. He knew
that he was happy when she was by
him, and IL not utterly miserable when
she was not, he was at least filed with
a nameless longing and vague unrest /;
but he had not reallzed-that this was
love until the night of the corn husking
at the Thorne's, when she had stood
In the mellow light of the harvest moon
watching him tear open the rustling
husk and unsheathe the golden grain.
Her slender, willowy figure swayed
slightly as. she leaned towards him,
looking down at him from the heights
Of heaven, as 1t seemed to him, through
eyes which combined the brightness Of
the stars with the compassionate ten
derness OF the angels; and the silvery
light on the, dark fluffy curls about her
forehead seemed almost like halo.
It was then that he knew what love
was, but Twas too late, moment
only stood the beauteous vision there, "
and she was gone on the arm Of Mr..
Bryan, the rich banker.
How he hated that man! Why
couldn't he have stayed away and left
him this one evening OF happiness
But the fates had not SO decreed. The
next morning he was called back to
the city on urgent business and few
days later, before he was able to get
back to the fair Arcadia Of his sum-
mer hopes, the engagement of Miss
Ethel Edwards to Mr.. Daniel Bryan
was announced.
He had tried to forget those soft
brown eyes that had looked at him as
4. In appeal, tried to forget the white
hand that seemed to beckon to him as
she waved a light goodnight 1t was
too late; she had gone beyond his
reach forever, and he had struggled
manfully to still the tempest In his
breast That was twenty years ago,
but he saw her still us clearly as he
had that night; no other vision had
ever come before him to blot her from
his memory; and now-lt was differ
ent; she was free-and with the
thought the old buried passion burst
forth and filled his heart anew. Yet
that was twenty years ago, and she
.,.t.,hA bova obou0ad. those o,-o. ,,.t.L4
not appeal to him now, that hand might
not beckon; and besides, she herself
might be so changed that he would not
love her as he had-but no, he,e could
not believe that time and life could
have wrought change great enough to
keep her from being all that was low
able.Eto keep him from loving her.
or course he could not go to see her
yet, that would be past the bounds OF
propriety.
But the Fates, hitherto unfriendly,
came at the eleventh hour to his aid,
Mrs. Bryan's health was not good her
nerves were overweight with the long
strain of nursing her husband and her
grief at his death; the doctors thought
country air and country quiet were
needed to build up her strength. So
she came to her old country home for
the summer.
The gods were good, Judge Hamilton
thought, as he started for a visit to
his mother. There was no law, even
Of proprtety, to forbid ones going to
see his mother. As Mrs. Hamilton had
always been very fond Of Ethel she
would see her often now that she was
In trouble, thus he would hear from heH
and sometimes, perhaps, he might see
Der himself.
But soon after his arrival he learned
that Mr.. Bryan had not left his bust
ness matters In order by any means
and Mrs. Bryan was continually beset
with petty creditors who were great
trial to her. Mr.. Bryan had always
preferred to attend to his affairs him
self and had never ~employed a lawyer
he had not liked the lawyers In Jack
son and had asked his wife not to al
low any Of them to settle up his estate
Consequently, Mrs. Bryan had no one
to advise her. and the management Of
a large property weighed heavily upon
her. Her old lawyer friend came Just
in the nick OF tims and she sent foI
blm at oneA