The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1914-07-23

her hands wero hot and her eyelids
burned. Finally she reused herself.
Thank you. Emmaline." she said
in a tired voice. good night now; I'm
going to sleep. and you u go to
bed. too"
But alone In the warm wan dark.
Shirley lay staring o~pen.eyed at the
ceiling. Slowly the terror was SELLING
upon her. the dread. n~oiseless and In
tangible. folding her In the shadow OF
Its numblng wings. Wal 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. a hound on the
porch, seeming her. stirred, thumped
his tail on the flooring, and whined.
Cropping her way to the dining-room'
oht llBlitu a idilhAt II pheeNe
through a corridor into a low-ceiling'
ed chamber employed as a general re.
ceptacle-a gloriied garnet. as Mrs
cambridge dubbed II.
II showed a strange assem5lage! A
row Of chests, stored with winter
clothing, ave forth a clean pungent
smell of cedar. and at n side stood
an antique spinet and a worn set oil
horsehair furniture.
Shirley had turned her miserable
eyes on a bookshelf along one wall
The volumes 1t contained had been
her fathers. and among them stood
a row OF tones taller than their fel
lows-the bound numbers of a county
newspaper, beginning before the war
The hack of each was stamped with
the year. She was deciphering these
faded imprints. Thirty years ago.
she whispered; yes. 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-she
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 open
hand on the page as though to blot
out the words, every trace of color
stricken from cheek and brow. But
the line seemed to glow up through
the very flesh: Died. May 14th; Ed
ward Sassoon. in his t~wenty-sixtf
year"
The book slipped to the floor with {
crash that echoed through the room
II was true, thenl 1t was Sassoon'i
death that her mother mourned. Tn,
man in whose arms she had stool
such a little while ago by the old dia
OF Damory Court vas the son OF tn,
man who had killed himl
"Oh, God" she whispered. Jus
when I was 30 happyl Oh. mother
mother! You loved him. and you
heart broke when he died. 1t wa,
Valiant who broke it-valiant-val
liant. His fatheri"
She slipped down upon the bar,
floor and crouched there ~shudderin,
and agonized. her d~isheveled hair we
with tears. Was her love to be blu
the thing OF an hour. a single clasp
and then. forever. nothing? His ia
theirs deed was not his fault Ye
how could she love q man whose ever,
feature brought q pang to that mothe
she loved mor than herself? So
over and over. the wheel Of he
thought turned in the same desolat'
groove. and yer and over the paroS
ysms Of grief and longing submerge'
her.
Noiselessly as she had descended
she crept again up the stair. AS sh,