Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-02-05
A Forbidden Inquiry.

loriginal.l

hours till you return"
"Are you sureT"
Certain"
"And suppose l never return"
Il will go and weep over your grave"
you won't have to go. | have no
mind to be buried over there. l made
my will yesterday and gave directions
that IL l die abroad my body shall be
sent home to lie In the family lot at
Avondale."
"Then l will weep there"
"How longT,
"For my lifetime"
He hurried ashore and stood looking
from the end of the dock up at her,
throwing her kisses which she threw
back at hin.
A month later word was cabled from
abroad hat she had died suddenly of
heart disease while climbing a noun
tain In Switzerland. He remained for
three days in a stupor, then was about
to go abroad, where her mortal part
was, when he remembered der farewell
words. AS soon as the 700 weather
set in an oblong box was received from
Switzerland and buried in Avondale
cemetery. He was not notified of the
burial by her spinster cousin, her only
relative, who gave as a reason that ii
would be better be should not be pres
ent. But as soon as he learned of the
fact he went to the cemetery and stood
uncovered by her grave, tears rolling
down his cheeks. He had brought some
plants to set out where their flowers
the next spring would hang over her
grave. Some one had been there be-
fore him on a similar errand. Flowers
were strewn over the mound SO fresh
that they must have been cut but a
few hours.
He spoke of these flowers to her cousin
and asked If she had placed them. She
had not and seemed surprised.
He was troubled. 1t is singular that
we should be jealous In case of the
dead.
Every Sunday afternoon he went to
the cemetery. and every time he found
fresh flowers on the grave. They must
have been placed there in the morning.
The next Sunday he went at dawn and
waited and waited till 10 o'clock for
this rival for the dead. At that hour a
young girl came and strewed flowers
on the grave A great relief came to
him. He advanced and addressed his
fellow mourner. She had been a friend
of his former fiancee.
Every Sunday morning these two
met at the grave of one for whom they
had a common love. He grew to look
forward to the meeting not so much as
a melancholy event as q reunion with
one who was filing the void In his
heart, a void which, If filed at all, can
be done only by a living person. But
this girl Of flesh and blood was ron
the first constrained, and her constraint
had grown on her. When they met her
eyes would brighten; but, looking down
on her friends grave, she seemed
moved by some inward emotion.
When winter came their visits were
omitted by mutual consent till the
spring should come. Their meetings
were not, as before, on Sunday morn
ings. but on Sunday afternoons, and
were often prolonged until late In the
evening. 1t was pleasater to sit by a
warm fireplace than stand out In the
cold cemetery, where the winds shrek
ed through the leafess branches.
He besought her to marry him. She
refused. From the expression on her
face his words seemed to have had the
effect rather of clods falling on a
coffin than of a great comfort.
When the FOCUSES were sprlnging up
she proposed that they go again to the
cemetery. He sighed and consented,
but at the appointed time he made ex-
cuses. She said, though with evident
reluctance, that she would go alone.
So he went with her. On the way she
was silent and melancholy. To see her
one would have thought she was going
to her own funeral.
He carried the flowers to the grave,
while she stood at the gate of the in
closure. He had strewn them when.
looking up, he saw a figure coming
down the roadway. Shading his eyes
with his hand to see more distinctly, he
staggered back against the iron rail.
The woman over whose grave he had
strewn fowers-his lost love-was
coming.
She advanced with a slow step, a Sc
rious expression on her face. There
was nothing ghostly about her. On
the contrary, she was plainly mortal.
What aston lshed her betrothed most
was that her friend appeared In no
way surprised at this return from the
dead to the quick.
"This is a wrong 1 have done YOU"
said the returned one, .'and l regret
1t, but l laid the plan long ago and re
solved that l would carry it out.
When we parted / began a b~rooding
over your words that you would weep
over my grave" Then l became pos
sessed with a desire to learn how long
YOU would weep for me or IL you would