Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-22
"Wau abe 90 to htmf"


 perhaps to operate. Poor child! It will be terrible thing for her if this last hope fails her, too, especially now, when she and Hugh are to make a match of it.''
 Harry's face was turned away. or the bishop would have seen it suddenly startled. 'sTo make a match of itv' To hide the flush he felt staining his cheek Harry bent to close the safe. A something that had darkled in some obscure depth of his being whose exist ence he had not guessed was throbblng now to painful resentment Jessica was to marry Hugh! -.--,
 "A handsome fellow-Hush!' said the bishop. He seems to have return ed with new heart-a brand plucked from the burning. You, had the same alma mater. think you told me. Your influence has done the boy good. San dersonr' He laid his hand kindly on the others shoulder. "The fact that you were in college together makes him look up to you-as the whole par ish does." he added.
 Harry was setting the combination and did not answer. But through the turmoil in his brain a satiric voice kept repeating:
 No. they don't call me Satan now!'
 . .
 The white house in the aspens was ln gala attire. Flowers-great banks of bloom-were massed in the hall, along the stairway and in the window seats, and wreaths of delicate fern trembled on the prim hung chandeliers. Over all breathed the sweet fragrance of jasmine. Musicians sat behind a screen of palms in a corridor. and a long scarlet carpet strip ran down the front steps to the driveway, up which passed bravely dressed folk, arriving fin carriages and on foot, to witness the completion of much booted TO- nance.
 For a fortnight this afternoons event had been the chat of the town, for David Stires. who today retired from active business, was its magnate, the owner of it's finest single estate and of it's most important bank. From his scapegrace boyhood Hugh Stires had made himself the subject of un- comfortable discussion. His sudden disappearance after the rumored quar- rel with his father and the advent of Jessica Holme had furnished the con- munity sufficient material for gossip The wedding had capped this gossip with an appropriate climax. Tongues had wagged over its pros and cons, for Hugh's past had induced whole some skepticism of his future.
 There was an additional element of romance. too, in the situation. for Jes- sica, who had never yet seen her lover, would see her husband The great surgeon on whose prognostication she had built so much had arrived and had operated. The experiment had been completely successful. and Jessi- ca s nope or vlSlon nad become sure Gnd certain promise.
 The operation over. there had re- mained many days before the bandages could be removed-before Jessica could be given her first glimpse of the world for nearly three years. Hugh had urged against delay. If he had strin- gent reasons of his own be was silent concerning them. And Jessiea. steep ed in the delicious wonder of new and inehoate sensations. had yielded.
 So 1t had come about that the we'd ding was to be on this hot August aft ernoon. although it would be yet some time before the eye bandages might be laid aside save in a darkened room. In her girlish. passionate ideality Jes- sica had offered sacrifice to her senti- rent She had promised herself that the first form her new sight should be- hold should be not her lover. but her husband. The idea pleased her sense of romance.
 It was sweltering afternoon, and in the wide east parior iiiIp handker- chiefs and energetic fans fought valn- ls against the intolerable heat There. as the clock struck G. hundred pairs Of eyes galloped between two centers ~f interest-the door at which the bride