Year: 1878

his own. He was none of your heroic
looking men,"


"You will find that Redmond Clarke
is not second Hamilton Belmont If /
could know for certainty that he ran
away from any danger, threatened OF
real, should never again allow him to
touch even my finger tips. [ should
feel SO humiliated that such man had
ever dared to ask for my love-"


Don't Judge too harshly - too
hastily, said her friend, gently. You
knew that Redmond Clarke and Louise
Rand were fitted to make each other
happy could the latter have the mists of
doubt cleared from her wilful eyes.


Clarke had really intended to return
to the Cocassett House as he promised,
but the gentleman whom he sought was
absent, and the last stage left before his
return.


Ashdale was a primitive, unambitious
town. Its only connection with the great
world was the regular stage. It's hills
and valleys had never yet echoed with
the shrill whistle of the locomotive.


He paced backward and forward on
the piazza of the quiet little hotel
where he was to pass the night, under
the poetic skies of fine evening, think
ing of Louise Rand. Her naughty i'm
periousness had a charm for him. He
smiled to himself as he thought, "She
will thoroughly believe now what ehe
suspected when left her, that should
not return tonight" He was prouder
than she. There was a depth beneath
that indolent exterior she had not sound
ed and because she had doubted him
she whom he loved-he would not deign
to inconvenience himself to gain her ap-
proval. A man with less inherent
haughtiness would have acted differ
emily.


He retired early and was soon in q
deep slumber. 1t did not prove refresh
ing, A feverish, restless dream wreath
ed in and out of his brain. He saw
Louise suspended over a waste of waters
clinging to something that threatened
every moment to snap with her weight,
and she be engulfed forever. Then the
scene shifted, and he saw as plainly as
if it were reality the building where he
had left her enveloped in flame, and
amid the cries of frantic men and women,
Louise in her white night robe at win
dow where the flames were rapidly
SAOoAh6 AOu4u hOAS ASuCuluB Oub 10 HIN
with wild shrieks for help. He woke
with the agony of the scene. Perspira-
tion was starting from every pore. He
sprang out of the bed and threw up
window. The night was sweet and fair
as when he retired, with the added glory
of the full moon, in the fuller light of
which the stars were paling their mod
est brightness. Over the fair landscape
were flung lengthening, sleeping shad-
Ows of tall trees, shrubbery, and home
like cottages in their inclosure.


The scene calmed, sobered him, but
did not dissolve the hurried impression
of danger. Was his dream a warning
He tried TO smile and put it away as the
offspring of a diseased imagination.
But the vivid horror of the scene stood
before his vision with too much of reali-
ty. and he turned to dress with quick,
nervous haste. The moon shone di-
rectly into his room and its light was all
sufficient. He was only four miles from
Woodville. He could walk that distance.
He could not rest with this horrible inn
preston upon him-something might
be even now happening. He let himself
out noiselessly at the front door, and
commenced rapid walk. The church
clock tolled the heur-twelYe. He
would reach there in less than an hour.