Year: 1875

she had become attached to her pre-
4 ceptor and teachers.


i In the latter part Of the next term a


brief letter came from her father, say
ing, Willis, come home Immediately


your mother is very ILL.,"


! As she finished the note, it huttered


from her fingers to the floor. She
| leaned her throbbing brow on the desk


before her and murmered mutely, "my
| God, let this cup pass from me-"


She understood we'll its weighty


meaning. She knew her father was


not easily frightened, and the case was


fatal, else her father would not have


summoned her.


With burning brain and sinking


heart, she hurriedly prepared for her


journey. She could not realize that


God who had already smitten and be-


reft her of every tie, would sever this,


the fondest.


She reached the mansion just as the


sun was sinking royalty down in the


West. She passed in unannounced,


and the servants scarcely recognized


in this bowed, broken creature the


merry girl that had left with smile on


her lip. She passed on to the bedside,


so blinded by agony that she noticed


none of the kind attendants who stood


around the sufferer Taking one burn


ing hand into her ice-cold one, she ex-
claimed in broken accents, "Oh, moth
er, mother, can't you speak to me, your
baby, your Willis? one word, mother,
| shall die ifyou do not" but the dy
ing lips were mute the loving words |
would not pass them. In her maddened !
grief she flung gherself down by the bed
side, and sent up to the throne of God
on wings of prayer petition that might
have softened adamant. The friends
that stood around sobbed aloud as the
anguished orphan walled forth her
prayer. There was gentleman stand
ing in the recess of a window whose
eyes meyer wandered from the pale
supplicator. He was tall and splen-
didly formed, his brow was expan-
sive and almost transparent. The
large blue eyes were marvellously brill
liant, and the curling hair was brush
ed earelessly back from his temples,
numerous blue veins. His
face was a study, so frank and yet so
battling in its mystical fascination. He
was dressed in a full suit of dark gray,
and heavy watch chain was looped
across his breast. On the third finger
of one slender, white hand he wore a
superb opal set in diamonds, whose
changing light was ever quivering in
ftful CLEANS. His blue eyes rested
kindly, pityingly on the young mourn
er. The splendid Horace Hays was
softened into tears. He was the only
brother of Harry Clifford's first wife.
Early orphaned, he had left at the age
of twenty-five for jaunt through the
Old World. Three years he had lin
gered abroad. He was lonely man,
without kith or Kindred and he sought
to drown his forlornness in distant
seas. and to hurl it down from Alpine
heights. About a month before he
had returned to the city, and made his
brothers residence his future home.
Horace Hays was extremely fastldious
in his taste. He drew standard tor
woman's excellence at lofty heights.
He demanded perfection and he had
never met one who could fill the ele
waited niche. He was much sought
after, and the smiles of many beauti-
full woman had rested upon him, but
he expected too much; for we all know
that the palace of perfection is far
above US, on dizzy, inaccessible crags.
All! we sigh to reach the enchanted
but alas! perfection is truth,
and there is nothing true but Heav-
en-" He was man of rare endOw-
ments, magnanimous in his nature and
true to the world.


Now,as he stood there and watched
the first storm of grief wreak its fury
On the heartbowed down, he felt.within I
his soul longing to comfort. Aye,
his lonely heart went back to the hour
when he likewise stood by a dying
mother, and bitter tears welled up as
memory bore him back DER trackless
waste to blissful by-gones.