Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-30

Old friends who celebrating amazing victory
and gambling. They had coaxed and cajoed him into
baccarat. They influential; he wished to retain
their good will; they might be useful to him IN his after
career These the thoughts he detailed, the ex
cuses he madebetween wine and the desire to stand
well with friends he had lost his head had yielded to
temptation; gone into the game, and had come out OF
it without shilling in his pocket, without hope in his
heart
Forget me- that note had ended. a am the great
est scoundre that went unhanged, to do thing
like that with your money, and so loathe myself tor 1t
can never look into your face again. My punishment
is that love you with all my heart and yet am to lose
you because of what have done
What became of him after that Miss Amelia never
knew. He seemed to have vanished from off the face
of the earth He must have thought that she would
explain to his father for he wrote to Mr.. Car
bows single line But Miss Amelia kept her peace
She betrayed him to his father He died without
knowing of the mortgage the Pory or OF the shame
full thing his son had done Indeed, it only when
the ruinous interest had to be met and penny
boarded for that end that Miss Amelia conded in her
cousin, and sobbed out her trouble on Miss Phoebes
And after that the struggle the heavy cross and the
bitter, bitter burden!
For years and years the two went pinching and
necessities in order that that interest might be paid
And time passed it became harder and harder to
meet the steady demand for the school longer
profitable as it once had been Old pupils grew up
and left it, educational systems came into vogue;
the ladies of the Pory out of date out of touch
with the of the times; and the little school
dwinded and dwndled till you could count its pupils
the fingers of one hand. And after time these too
went and the brass plate taken off the gates, and
the two little old women walked their empty halls
alone.
And today-this heartbreakng today, when Miss
Amelia sat in the shade of the old pegola and reached
out her to the and the gray old sundial-
today the GROWING misfortune of all had come fort
night ago the holder of the mortgage had died ntestate
and the had to be settled by order of the court
and at ha-past two o'clock this bitter day of days
the Prory be sold under foreclosure at Token
house Yard-and other feet to its SILL other
voices to sound in its quiet rooms, and other hands to
touch and to own Miss Annelias sacred roses
Indeed, they must belong to someone else even now
she told herself with sudden pang that cut its way to
the very heart of her. for after eight o'clock and
the June twilight already dnming.
She to her feet in sort of panic, and went
to the little open space where the sundal stood, and
going down her knees before the of that
marked the sacred spot" took the blooms by
between her scooped hands and kissed them.
@For the last time, Bears the very last time!
she sobbed Then she hudded the big, fragrant bios
SONS up against her withered cheek, bent her head
YEARLY, and still for very long time
Across the river nightingale ficked into treetop
and flung out his evensong in thin sweet rouade just
that other nightingale had done at that other twilight
time of long ago, and between them allthe note of
the Bird the light in the sky, the shine the river and
the scent of the rosesthe years seemed somehow to
again
at is only that have grown old the world is just
young them she sighed, she and
looked round her through warm, wet mist. Mature
gr1eveS, loses the trick OF smiling the
gift of song. Sorrow and tears not made by God
1t that created those
THE sound of gentle voice calling her in tones of
nervousness and anxiety to her at this point
and put end to her reflections She turned her back
upon the sundia hurried round the ANGLE and there,
the middle of the garden path, she her cousin
lmpng toward her and following in her wake old Ban
mister, the solicitor.
ooh, Amelia! Oh, my dear." bleated Miss Phoebe,
with sort of hysterca catch in her voice when she
caught sight of her cousin. Il don't know how to tell
you, really don't. But not to leave it, after
ALL 1t is sod but we to stay Mr. Bannlster says
that we To stay, Amelia! At the Priory!"