Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1914-06-04

hhC bCA AaA II ONS - AAAO
Come on, now; we go upstairs soft
SOS not ter 'sturb Mis- Judith"
In the silvery-blue bedroom, she
deftly u~nfastened the hooks of the
heavy satin gown and coaxed her mis-
tress to lie on the sofa while she I'M
pinned the masses of waving hair till
they lay in a rich surge over the
cushion. Then she brought a brush
and crouching down beside her, began
with long gentle strokes to smooth out
the silken threads, talking to her the
while in a soft grooming monotone.
Under these ministrations Shirley
lay languid and speechless, her eyes
closed. The fear that had stricken
her heart by turns seemed a cold hand
pressing upon its beating and an algid
vapor rising stealthily over II, But
her hands were 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 must go to
bed, too
But alone IN the warn 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
it's numbing wings. Was her mother
the one over whom that old duel had
hoon fp17ohk0 Che rorpAunhorod tho
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
she lighted a candle and passed
through a corridor into a ~low-ceiling'
ed chamber employed as a general re
ceptacle-a glorified garnet, as Mrs
cambridge dubbed 1t.
1t showed a strange assemblage! A
row of chests, stored with winter
clothing, gave forth a clean pungen'
smell Of cedar, and at one side stood
an antique spinet and a worn set Of
horsehair furniture.
Shirley had turned her miserable
eyes on a bookshelf along n wall
The volumes it contained had been
her fathers, and among them stood
a row Of tones taller than their feE
lows-the bound numbers Of a county
newspaper, beginning before the war.
The back Of each was stamped 9TH
the year. She was deciphering these
faded imprints. Thirty years ago.
she whispered; yes, here it is"
She set down the candle ant
dragged out one of the huge leather
backs. Staggering under the weight
she rested it's edge on the table anc
began feverishly to turn the pages, hel
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 oyerran the columns
Then suddenly she put her oper
hand on the page as though to bio
out the words, every trace Of colol
stricken from cheek and brow. Blu
the line seemed to glow UP through
the very flesh: died, May 14th; 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 raj Sassoon'i
! death that her mother mourned. TIL,
man in whose arms she had stoot
i, such a little while ago by the old dia
! of Damory Court was the son of tn
man who had killed him!
/, "Oh, God" she whispered, Jus
when l was SO happy! Oh, mother
4 mother! You loved him, and you
heart broke when he died. 1t wa
Valiant who broke it-Valiant-Val
liant. HIS father!'
She slipped down upon the bar
4 floor and crouched there s~hudderini
and agoniZed, her ~disheveled hair we
with tears. Was her love to be bu
the thing of an hour, a 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 a pang to that mothe
a she loved more than herself? Sc
9 ever and over, the wheel of he
thought turned in the same desolat
groove, and over and over the paro1
ysms of grief and longing submerge
her.
Noiselessly as she had descended
Q she crept again up the stair. AS sh
passed her mothers door, she pause
a moment, and laying her arms on
across it, pressed her lips to the dar
grain Of the wood.