The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1914-06-04

with long gentle strokes to smooth GU
the silken threads. talking to her tn
while in a soft grooming monotone.
Under these ministrations Shirle,
lay languid and speeches., her eye
closed. The fear that had stricken
her heart by turns seemed a cold hanC
pressing upon it's beating and an algiC
vapor rising stealthily over it. Blu
her hands were hot and her eyelids
burned. Finally she reused herself.
Thank you, Emmaline," she said
in tired voice, good night now; Tn
going to sleep, and you must go to
bed, too"
! But alone In the warm wan dark
| Shirley lay staring open-eyed at the
ceiling. Slowly the terror was Selling
upon her, the dread, noiseless and in
tangible, folding her in the shadow OF
its numbing wings Was her mother
the one over whom that old duel had
been fought? She remembered the
cape jessamines. Was the date of
that duel-of the death of Sassoon-
the anniversary her mother kept?
She sat up in bed, trembling. Then
she rose, and opening the door with
caution, crept down the stair, sliding
her hot hand before her along the
cool polished banister. AS she passed
through the lower hall, hound on the
porch, seeming her, stirred, thumped
his tail on the flooring, and whined.
Cropping her way to the dining-room,
she lighted a candle and passed
through corridor into low-ceiling-
ed chamber employed as general re-
ceptacle-a glorified garnet, as Mrs.
cambridge dubbed it.
1t showed a strange assemblage! A
row of chests, stored with winter
clothing, gave forth clean pungent
smell of cedar, and at one side stood
an antique spinet and worn set of
horsehair furniture.
Shirley had turned her miserable
eyes on a bookshelf along one wall.
The volumes it contained had been
her fathers, and among them stood
a row of tones taller than their fell
lows-the bound numbers of county
beginning before the war.
The back of each was stamped with
the year. She was deciphering these
faded imprints. Thirty years ago."
she whispered; yes, here it is"
She set down the candle and
dragged out one of the huge leather
backs. Staggering under the weight,
she rested it's edge on the table and
20 ha hnr
EYE on the date line. She stopped !
presently with a quick breath-she
lad reached May 18th. The year was
hat of the duel: the date was the day |
ollowing the jessamine anniversary. |
rearfully her eye overran the columns.
Then suddenly she put her open
land on the page as though to blot |
nut the words. every trace of color
stricken from cheek and brow. But
he line seemed to glow up through
he very flesh: "Died, May 14th; Ed
ward Sassoon, in his twenty-sixth
ear"
The book slipped to the floor with
rash that echoed through the room.
was. true, then! 1t was Sassoon's
cath that her mother mourned. The
nan in whose arms she had stood
UGH little while ago by the old dial
f Damory Court was the son of the
ian who had killed him!
ooh, God," she whispered, "just
hen was so happy Oh, mother,
lother! You loved him, and your
cart broke when he died. 1t was
aliant who broke it-Valiant-Val-
mt. His father!"
She slipped down upon the bare
DOR and crouched there shuddering
nd agonized, her disheveled hair wet
18th tears. Was her love to be but
lie thing of an hour, a single clasp
nd then, forever, nothing? His IA
ler's deed was not his fault. Yet
DIV could she love man whose every
'ature brought pang to that mother
lie loved more than herself? So,
yer and over, the wheel of her
fought turned in the same desolate
'oove, and over and over the parox-
SIMS of grief and longing submerged
er.
Nofselessly as she had descended,
lie crept again up the stair. AS she
Used her mothers door, she paused
moment, and laying her arms out
ross it, pressed her lips to the dark
ain of the wood.
To be Continued.