Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-06-05

It was Beauty Valiants face that
lay in the locket, and that could mean
but one thing: 1t was he, not Sassoon,
whom her mother lovedl
The lamplight seemed to grow and
spread to an unbearable radiance.
Shirley thought she cried but with a
not moved or uttered a sound. The
illumination was all about her, like
a splendid cloud. The impossible had
happened. The miracle for which she
Historically prayed had been wrought!
When she blew out the light, the
shining still remained. That glowing
knowledge, like a vitalizing and phys
ical presence, passed with her through
the hall to her room. AS she stood In
the elish light of her one candle, the
poignancy of her Joy was as sharp as
her past pain. Later was to come the
wonder how that tragedy had bent
Beauty v~aliant's life to exile and her
mothers to unfulillment, and in time
she was to know these things, too.
But now the one great knowledge blot
ted out all else. She need starve her
fancy no longerl The hours with her
lover might again sweep across her
memory undenied. She felt his arms.
her cheek and smelled the perfume Of
Madonna lilies.
She drew the curtain and opened
the window noiselessly to the light.
Only a few hours ago she had been
singing to her harp in what wretched-
ness! She laughed softly to herself.
The quiet night was full of his voice:
81 love you! I want nothing but you'll"
How her pitiful error had tortured
and wrung them bothi But tomorrow
he, too, would know that all was well.
A clear sound chimed across the
distance-the bell Of the courthouse
clock, striking midnight. OneI j.
Two! How often lately 1t had
run d~iscordantly across her mood;
now it seemed a claimant watcher.
tolling Joy. Three! Four!
. Five! Perhaps he was
sIeepless, listening, too. Was he in
the old library, thinking of her?
Ski . Sevenl . Eight!
Nine! i. /. If she could only
send her message to him on the bells!
Teni It swelled more loudly
now, more deliberate. Eleven! /.
Another day was almost gone.
Twelve! Joy cometh in the
morning"-ran the whisper across her
thought. 1t was morning now.
Thirteen!
She caught a sharp breath. Her
a had not deceived her-the vibra'
ton still palpitated on the air like a
heart of sound. 1t had struck thir
teenl A little eery touch crept along
her nerves and a cool dampness broke
on her skin, for she seemed to hear,
quavering through the wondering ST.
lence, the voice of Mad Anthony, as
it had quavered to her a on the
doorstep of the negro cabin, with the
w~el1-sweep throwing its long curved
shadow across the group Of laughing
faces:
"Ah sees yo' gwine ter him. All
heahs de co'ot-house clock a-strikin
in de night-en yo' gwine.
Dom wait, don wait, Ill mistis, Ell
de trouble-cloud gwine kyah him
erway fom yo' When de CLOCK
strike thuhteen-when de clock strike
thuhteen-"
She dropped the lowered curtain
and drew back. A weird fancy had
begun to press on her brain. Had not
Mad Anthony foretold truly what had
gone before? What If there were
some cryptic meaning in this, too? TIC
go to him. at midnight, by a lonely
country roadside, a girl? Incredible!
Yet her mind had opened to a vague
growing fear that was swiftly mount
ing to a thriving anxiety. That innate
superstition, secretly cherished while
derided, which is the heritage of the
S~outhron-born bred from centuries OF
contact with a mystical race, had her
in It's grip. Yet all the while her
sober actual common-sens was crying
out upon her-and crying in vain.
Unknown appetences that had lain
darkling in her blood, come down to
her from long generations, were sud
denly compelling her. The curtain
began to wave in a little wind that
whispered in the silk, and somewhere
in the yard below she could hear Sc
linn nipping the clover.
She was to go or the "trouble-cloud"
would carry him away!
A strange expression Of mingled
fright and resolve grew on her face.
She ran on tiptoe to her wardrobe
and with frantic haste dragged out a
rough cloak that fell over her soft
house-gown, covering 1t to the feet 1t
had a peaked hood falling from its
collar and into this she thrust the
resentful masses Of her hair. Every
few seconds she caught her breath in
a short gasp, and once she paused
with an apprehensive glance over her
shoulder and shivered- She scarcely
knew what she did, nor did she ask
herself what might be the outcome of