The Irish standard., 1914-04-11

~ !
The Year Was That Of the Duel: the
Date Was the Day Following the
Jessamlne Anniversary.
"Reck'n she flop all tn feddahs QUITE,
her wings. Gimme that O. tin crown
Il like ter lam it out tn winder.
Come on, now; we go upstairs sof
SOS not ter 'sturb Mis- Judith"
In the silvery-blue bedroom, sh,
deity unfastened the hooks of tn.
heavy satin gown and coaxed her mis-
tress to lie on the sofa while she un
pinned the masses of waving hair til
they lay in rich surge over tn.
cushion. Then she brought brush
and crouching down beside her. began
with long gentle strokes to smooth out
the silken threads, talking to her the
while in soft grooming mopotone.
Under these ministrations Shirley
lay languid and speeches.. her eyes
closed. The fear that had stricke,
her heart by turns seemed cold nan.
pressing upon its beating and an algid
vapor rising stealthily over it. But
her hands we're hot and her eyelids
burned. Finally she reused herself.
THANK you. Emmaline." she said
in tired voice, good night now; I'm
going to sleep. and you must 60 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 a corridor into a low-ceiling.
ed chamber employed as general re-
ceptacle-a glorified garnet. as Mrs
cambridge dubbed it.
It showed strange assemblage! A
row Of chests, stored with winter
clothing, gave forth a 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 stoot
row of tones taller than their fel
lows-the bound numbers of a county
newspaper, beginning before the war
The back of each was stamped with
the year. She was deciphering these
faded imprints. Thirty years age"
she whispered; Eyes, here 1t 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
began feverishly to turn the pages. her
eye on the date line. She stopped
presently with a quick breath-sht
had reached May 18th. The year was
that of the duel: the date was the day
following the jessamine anniversary
Fearfully her eye overran the columns
Then suddenly she put her ope,
hand on the page as though to bio
out the words, every trace Of colo,
stricken from cheek and brow. Blu
the line seemed to glow up through
the very flesh: "Died, May 18th; Ed
ward Sassoon, in his twenty-sixtl
year."
The book slipped to the floor with
crash that echoed through the room
1t was true. then! 1t was sassoon''
death that her mother mourned. Tn,
man in whose arms she had stoot
such little while ago by the old dia
Of Damory Court was the son of thu
man who had killed him!
"Oh, God" she whispered, "jus
when l was so happy! Oh. mother
mother! You loved him, and you,
heart broke when he died. It was
Valiant who broke it-Valiant-Val
liant. His father!"
She slipped down upon the bare
floor and crouched there shudderini
and agonized. her disheveled hair we
with tears. Was her love to be bu
the thing of an hour, q single clasp
and then, forever, nothing? His fa
theirs deed was not his fault. Ye
how could she love a man whose ever:
feature brought pang to that mothe,
she loved more than herself? Sc
over and over, the wheel Of he
thought turned in the same desolat
groove, and over and over the paro1
ysms Of grief and longing submerged
her.
Noiselessly ~ she had descended
she crept again up the stair. As Oh.
passed her mothers door, she paused
q moment, and laying her arms GU
across It, pressed her lips to the darl
grain Of the wood.