Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1925-10-01

falle0 TO see fnat winch lay WtLnH NEE
grasp. AS the night wore on she fam
cied that she was pursued by mon
ster, leopard-like thing with weird
superhuman quality. Grasping knife
as the thing was upon her, she stabbed
1t through the heart. Meanwhile q
great black bird was pecking on her
door, which was, she knew. the spirit
Of that which she had slain.
Miss Hallam soon afterward went
away on one Of her long, solitary
journeys, and when she returned the
minister was reveling in domestieity.
Fortunately she was spared frequent
intercourse with the manse.
The autumn wore itself away. and
in mid-winter a pang Of anxfefy
gripped the village. EVE was Ill, des-
perately Ill. During the weeks through
which the young wife fought for her
life Agnes inquired daily at her door,
listened, seemingly sympathetic. while
being told of the prolongment Of the
anguish, but the crook in her soul
had grown during this siege Of misery,
steeling 1t against all pity.
On the night that EVE lay dying,
Miss Hallam watched in her great
house on the hill, every nerve as taut
as though she had been actually In the
death chamber, her reason swaylng
back and forth as it had done ON
the night Of EWES marriage. In the
dawn she listened, outwardly calm, to
the sacred details Of the death. In
wardiy she was shaking with q muir
deY0us exaltatiOn.
All day the sleet fell with mourn
full monotony, clicking against the
windows mistakenly. A cedar in the
front yard succumbed to Its burden Of
ice, in It's fall blocking the entrance
to the porch, against which it raped
clammy fingers, as If legion Of
ghosts were demanding admittance.
Agnes, watching dry-eyed. saw the
neigh ~ come and 60, come and 60
all day from the melancholy little
house. Finally she saw the minister
himself 20 out on some last sad err
rand, STOPPING like an old man be-
meath the weight of his sorrow.
A morbid desire possessed her to
see the dead to view the downfall Of
that insolent young pride. Swiftly
she went down the avenue, where the
skeleton trees were merging into the
dusk, her heels crunching through the
ice with harsh, rasping sound, the
sleet singing no color into her gray
cheeks.
Cautiously she opened the house
door. In the sitting room two care
takers were crouched over the fire,
the very flame of which seemed
frozen, and, wan and blue, Tapped the
wood Intellectually. Passing silently
through the vault-like hall. she ascend
ed the stairs. In the room at the
head of the stairs the cold took On q
new force, creeping. nerve stras2sng.
A hyacinth vase, on a stand near the
bed, had been splintered by the fRoez-
ing; amid the fragments of glass the
hyacinths lay, their Wilderness turned
to transparency, their pale stenaS
frozen in block Of ice.
Forcing herself forward, Agnes
stood over the bed. BY degrees Deaths
miracle was wrought upon her Bit
terness and hatred slriveled away be-
fore the piercing sweetness of that
young face. A mighty pity seized her,
bringing with II the first rush of wom-
anly tenderness In all of those griev-
GUS months A feeling of personal loss
overwhelmed her, her early love for
the girl awOke and cried aloud. In
her WretchednesS she tried to evoke
some comfort from the serenity, after
long pain, which was frozen on the
still face. This very serenity, though,
was an unknown quality In . face
which had been so piQuant, supersedinB
all familiarity. And the hands-how
could such eager hands lie so moo
tionless? She noticed, numbly. how
long and thin they had grown. The
ring, the wedding ring. WAS almost
slipping off, but when she tried to
push it Into place her own fingers fall
tered away. shocked by the feel of the
icy flesh.
The click OF sIeet was the only
sound in the gray universe. Sud
denly, with a sickening creak, the up
per half of tree split from its trunk,
crashed ON the roof. and fell with a
thud to the ground. To the woman.
draining her cup Of trembling. 1t
seemed that the world was being rent
asunder. AS the tree swept past the
window the wild wavering of the
shadows caused the expression Of the
dead face to flicker. and movement
to pass, apparently. over the figure.
Her knees slipped from under her,
Agnes fell down by the bed, breath
ing mute. futile prayers to the dead
"Oh, forgive, forgive!
"Precious little girl. come back! !" I
Convulsive sobs rent her thin frame.
Tears came to her relief. The Won
drous peace of the dead form was
communicating itself 20 her. The
dead, seemingly had understood. Her
own forgiveness had evoked corre-
spending forgiveness.
In her paroxysm of grief she had
not heard approaching footsteps. The
minister stood gazing down upon her.
too absorbed in his own grief to won
der at the intensity Of hers. His first
emotion was one Of gratitude. such
passionate grrfeying 'swas the dearest
tribute 30 his dead But his was not
the nature to look upon grief without
attempted comfort.
agnes" his hand rested lightly on
the crooked shoulders, agnes, we
must not rebel. Heaven is for such as
she"