Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-05-08


had its beginning and its ending.
He opened and read.
For an instant he stared unbeliev-
ingly. Then the paper cracked to a
ball in his clutched hand, and he made
a hoarse sound which was half cry,
then sat perfectly still, his whole face
shuddering. What he crushed in his
hand was no note of tender love
phrases; It was an abrupt dismissal.
The staggering contretemps struck
the color from his face and left every
nerve raw and %quivering. To be moth
ing to her, as she could be nothing to
him?" He felt a CHASTITY inclination to
laugh. Nothing to heri
Presently, his brows frowning heav-
lily. he spread out the crumpled paper
and reread it with bitter slowness,
weighing each phrase. Something
which she had learned since she last
saw him, which lay between them"
She had not known it, then, last night,
when they had kissed beside the sun
dali She had loved him thenl What
could there be that thrust them irrev-
ocably apart?
Without stopping to think of the
darkness or that the friendly doors of
the edifice would be closed, he caught
up his hat and went swiftly down the
drive to the road. along which he
plunged breathlessly. The blue star
spangled sky was now streaked with
clouds like faded orchids, and the
shadows on the uneven ground under
his hurried feet made him giddy.
Through the din and hurly-burly Of his
thoughts he was conscious of dimly-
moving shapes across fences, the
sweet breath of cows, and a negro Pc
destrian who greeted him in passing.
He was stricken suddenly with the
thought that Shirley was suffering,
too. 1t seemed Incredible that he
should now be raging along a country
road at nightfall to find something
that SO horribly hurt them both.
1t was almost dark-save for the
starlight-when he saw the shadow of
the square ivy-grown spire rearing
stark from its huddle of foliage
against the blurred background. He
pushed open the gate and went slowly
up the worn path toward the great
iron-bound and hooded door. Under
the larches on either hand the outlines
of the gravestones doomed pallidly,
and from the bell tower came the faint
inquiring cry of a small owl. Valiant
stood looking about him. What could
he learn here? He read no answer to
the riddle. A little to one side of the
path something showed snow-like on
the ground, and he went toward 1t.
Nearer, he saw that 1t was a mass of
flowers, staring up Whitley from the
semi-obscurity from within an iron
railing. He bent over, suddenly noting
the scent; it was cape jessamine.
With the curious sensation of almost
precedence plucking at him, he took a
box of vestas from his pocket and
struck one. 1t fared up Illuminating
a fiat granite slab in which was cut
q name and inscription:
EDWARD SASSoON.
''Fergive us our trespasses."
The silence seemed to crash to earth
like a great looking-glass and shiver
into a million pieces. Thu wax dropped
from his fingers and in the superven-
ing darkness a numb fright gripped
him by the throat. Shirley had laid
these there, on the grave of the man
his father had killed-the cape jessa-
mines she had wanted that day, for
her motherl He understood.
It came to him at last that there
was a chill mist cropping among the
trees and that he was very cold.
He went back along the Red Road
stumblingly. Was this to be the end
of the dream, which he had fancied
would last forever? Could it be that
she was not for him? Was it no hoary
lie that the sins of the fathers were
visited upon the third and fourth gen.
Grafton?
When he re-entered the library the
candle was guttering in the burned
wings of a night-moth. The place
looked all at once gaunt and desolate
and despoiled. What could Virginia,
what could Damory Court, be to him
without her? The wrinkled note lay
on the desk and he bent suddenly with
a sharp catching breath and kissed it.
There welled over him a wave of
rebellious longing. The candle spread
to a hazy yellow blur. The walls fell
away. He stood under the moonlight,
with his arms about her, his lips on
hers and his heart beating to the
sound of the violins behind them.
He laughed harsh wild laugh that
rang through the gloomy room. Then
he threw himself on the couch and
buried his face in his hands. He was
still lying there when the misty rain
wet dawn came through the shutters.
CHAPTER xxx.
The Comma of Graef kinn.