Pittston Gazette

              m - * m A V Hwfte M 1 Oldest Newsoaper in the Wyoming Vallev PITTSTON, LUZI COUNTY, PA., FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1900. A Weekly Local and Family journal. 4«1 oo» 1 in Adn -f about such things as Waldo does," said Gregory in exceeding bitterness of Bpirlt. s iU.: enough to support a wife on, and all that sort of thing? I don't. He's what I call a Boft." Lynaau. mat sne may toon Cu u atso. "And they Dut their faces close down to my ear aid whispered, 'It is Lyndall's baby.' am surprised at you. It la all very well to have ideals and theories, but you know as well as any one can that they must not be carried into the practical world. I love you. I do not pretend that it Is in any high, superhuman sense. I do not say that I should like you as well if you were ugly and deformed, or that I should continue to prize you whatever your treatment of me might be, or to love you though you were a spirit without any body at all. That is sentimentality for beardless boys. Every one not a mere child (and you are not a child, except In years) knows what love between a man and a woman means. I love you with that love. I should not have believed It possible that I could have brought myself twice to ask of any woman to be my wife, more especially one without wealth, without position and who"— -wo." "Have yon forgotten the night In the avenue?" that quaint childish song of tne people that has a world of sweetness and sad, vague yearning when sung over and over dreamily by a woman's voice as she sits alone at her work. But Gregory heard neither that nor yet the loud laughter of the Kaffir maids that every now and again broke through from the kitchen, where they joked and worked. Of late Gregory had grown strangely Impervious to the sounds and sights about him. His lease had run out, but Em had said: "Do not renew It. I need one to help me. Just stay on." And she had added: "You must not remain in your own little house. Live -frith me. You can look after my ostriches better so." I look at you, and in your smile, a something at the corner of your «m,; 1 see her. How can I forget her when, whenever I turn, she is. there and ftot there? I cannot, I will not, live where I do not see her! "I know what you think," be skid, turning upon Em. "You think I am mad; you think I am going to see whether she will not like me! I 'am not so foolish. I should have  at first she never could suffer me. Who am I, what am I, that she should 16ok at me? If any one says it is not; it Is a lie! I am not going to speak to; her," he added, "only to sqe her, cmljj to stand sometimes in a place wbtra she has stood before." mm r'.A . fTDOT a I "1 do not know which things you refer to. If you will enlighten me, 1 am quite prepared to speak of them," she Bald, reading an she spoke. She was spreading her skirt out softly with her left hand for the dog to lie down on It. He could feel that she shook her head. "And I said: 'She cannot be grown up yet. She is only a little girl! Where Is she?' And I went to look for you, but I could not find you. H u BY OLIVE BCHRE "Do you want to be quiet now?" "Yes." OF M "I think 1 should be rather astonished If he ever became a respectable member of society," she said. "1 don't expect to see him the possessor of bank shares, the chairman of a divisional council and the father of a large family, wearing a black hat and going to church twice on a Sunday. He would rather astonish me If he cane to such an end." They sat quite still, excepting that only sometimes be raised her fingers softly to his mouth. CM FARM "Oh, you never used to ask Waldo like that," said Gregory in a more sorely aggrieved tone than ever. "You used Just to begin." "And when I came to some people who were dressed in black I asked them where you were, and they looked down at their black clothes and shook their heads and said nothing, and I could not find you anywhere, and then I awoke. Doss, who had been asleep In the corner, waking suddenly, planted himself before them, his wiry legs moving nervously, his yellow eyes filled with anxiety. He war not all sure that she was not being retained In her present position against her will and was not a little relieved whefi she sat up and held ovt her hand for the shawl. ★* "Well, let me see," she said, closing her book and folding her hands on It. "There at the foot of the 'kopje' goes a Kaffir. Be has nothing on bnt a blanket. He is a splendid fellow—six feet high, with a magnificent pair of legs. In his leather bag he is going to fetch his rations and 1 suppose to kick his wife with his beautiful legs when he gets home. He has a right to. He bought her for two oxen. There is a lean dog going after him, to which, I suppose, he never gives more than a bone from which he has sucked the marrow. But his dog loves him, as his wife does. There is something of the master about him in spite at his blackness and wool. See how be brandishes ilia stick and holds up his head!" A TALE OF LIFE IN THE BOER REPUBLIC. ★ "Lyndall," she said, putting her face down upon the hands she held, "it made me think about that time when we were little girls and used to play together, when 1 loved you better than anything else in the world. It isn't any one's fault that they love you. They can't help It And It isn't your fault. You don't make them love you. I know it." "Yes; I don't expect anything of him either," said Gregory zealously. tie went into tne nouse to Bay guouby to Em, and then he walked to the door of Lyndall's room to wake her, but she was up and standing in the doorway. "Well, 1 don't know»" said Lyndall. "There are some small things I rather look to him for. If he were to invent wings or carve a statue that one might look at for half an hour without wanting to look at something else, I should not be surprised. He may do some little thing of that kind perhaps when he has done fermenting and the sediment has all gone to the bottom." TEE XX. TO TASTE LIFE, AND "I must go," she said. The stranger wrapped the shawl very carefully about her. And Gregory did not thank her. What difference did it make to him, paying rent or not, llrlng there or not? It was all one. But yet he came. Em wished that he would still sometimes talk of the strength and master right of man, but Gregory was as one smitten on the cheek bone. She might do what she pleased, he would find no fault, had no word to say. He bad forgotten that it is man's right to rule. On that rainy morning be had lighted his pipe at the kitchen fire and when breakfast was over stood in the front door watching the water rush down the road till the pipe died out in his mouth. Em saw she must do something for him and found him a large calico duster. He had sometimes talked of putting the loft neat, and today she could find nothing else for him to do. So she had the ladder put to the trapdoor that he need not go out In the wet, and Gregory with the broom and duster mounted to the loft Once at work, he worked hard. He dusted down the very rafters and cleaned the broken candle molds and bent for that had stuck In the thatch for years. He placed the black bot neatly in rows on an old box In the ner and piled the skins on one « and sorted the rubbish in all the and at 11 o'clock his work was done. I to bx coiTTnruro.] IOXE AND TASTES IT. i the evening, packing • the next morning's iked up and was surn's yellow head peepoor. It was many a had been there. She de him sandwiches for IMMUNE TO FEVERS. tft* Remarkable Treataeat That I* Cart la Do«tk America. The world moves fast, bat it is r that some of the most brilliant C? les have not cone beyond the sim tices of undvilixed peoples. A Journalist gives his - * it.. — ' ' "So you are ready," she said. "Yes; go on. Do not grow sorry for me. Say what you were going to— 'who has put herself into my power and who has loBt the right of meeting me on equal terms.' Say what you think. At least we two may speak the truth to one another." "Keep it close around your face, Lyndall. It Is very damp outside. Shall I walk with you to the house?" Waldo looked at her with sudden heaviness; the exhilaration died out of his heart. Her gray dressing gown hung close about her and below its edge the little bar« to*t - — -sting on the thresh* * "I wonder « won meet again, Waldo? What you will be, and what I r "Thank you, dear," Lyndall said. "It is nice to be loved, but it would be better to be good." "T Then they wished good night, and Em went back to room. Long aft cr Lyndall lay IB the dark thinking thinking, thinking, and as she turned round wearily to sleep she muttered: "No. Lie down and rest. I will come and wake you at 3 o'cjpck." She lifted her face that he might kiss it, and when he had kissed it once Bhe still held it that he might kiss it again. Then be let her oat. He had seated awhile to the* saddle- Gregory felt that what she said was not wholly intended as blame. pp "Well, I don't know," he said sulkily. "To me he looks like a fool—to walk about always in that dead and alive sort of way, muttering to himself like an old Jtafflr witch doctor! He works hard enoagh, but it's always as though he didn't know what he was doing. You don't know how he looks to a person who sees him for the first time." Then she added, after a pause: "I believe you do love me, as much as fuu passimt couiu tove anytnmg, ana I believe that when you ask me to marry you you are performing the most generous act you ever have performed in the course of your life or ever will, but, at the same time, if I had required your generosity, It would not have been shown me. If, when I got your letter a month ago, hinting at your willingness to marry me, I had at once written, Imploring you to come, you would have read the letter. 'Poor little devil!' you would have said and tore It up. The next week you would have sailed for Europe and have Bent me a check for £150, which I would have thrown in the fire, and I would have heard no more of you." The stranger smiled. "But because I declined your proposal, and wrote that In three weeks I should be married to another, then what you call love woke up. Your man's love Is a child's love for butterflies. You follow till you have the thing and break It. If you have broken one wing and the thing flies still, then you love it more than ever and follow till you break both. Then you are satisfied when It lies still on the ground." the old things lying "I will lock the room "Oh, but aren't you maklag fun?" said Gregory, looking doubtfully from her to the Kaffir herd, who rounded the "kopje." himself at the fireplace when she reopened the door. "Will yon write to me?" he asked of her. for you to come "There are some wiser in their sleep Ing than In their waking." "Have you forgotten anything?" "Tea, and If I should not, you can still remember, wherever you are, that you are not alone/' "Not I am very serious. He la the most Interesting and intelligent thing I can see Just now, except, perhaps, Dobs. He la profoundly suggestive. Will his race melt away in the heat of a collision with a higher? Are the men of the future to see his bones only in museums, a vestige of one link that spanned between the dog and the white man? He wakes thoughts that run far out into the future and back into the mutt" "No." back some day! Would the eturn to Its cage? But he r. When she went away, be fe doorstep holding the canj had almost reached the t Em was that evening in eater and, Instead of going aek door, walked with lagreps round the low brick 6he gave one long, lingering look at the old room. When she was gone and the door shut, the stranger filled his glass and sat at the table sipping It thoughtfully. CHAPTER XXII. LTNDAI.L'8 STRANG En. ' "I have left Doss for you," he said. "Will you not miss him?" "No; I want you to have him. He loves you better than he loves me." A fire Is burning in the unused heart V of the cabin. The fuel blazes up an lights the black rafters and warms tli faded red lions on the quilt and til. the little room with a glow of warrnt and light made brighter by coutras for outside the night is chill and mlstj "I all c« Lyndall was softly touching the little sore foot as she read, and Doss, to -show he liked it, licked her hand. The night outside was misty and damp. The faint moonlight, trying to force Its way through the thick air, made darkly visible the outlines of the buildings. The stones and walls were moist, and now and then a drop, slowly collecting, fell from the eaves to the ground. Doss, not liking the change from the cabin's warmth, ran quickly to the kitchen doorstep, but his mistress walked slowly past him and took her way up the winding footpath that ran beside the stone wall of the camps. When she came to the end of the last camp, she threaded her way among the stones and bushes till she reached the Geeman's grave. Why she had come there she hardly knew. She stood looking down. Suddenly she bent and put one hand on the face of a wet stone. "Thank you." They stood quiet "Goodby!" she said, putting her little hand In his, and he turned away, but when he reached the door she called to him: "Come back. I want to kiss you." She.drew his face down to hers and held it with both hands and kissed It on the forehead and mouth. "Goodby, dear!" "But, Miss Lyndall," persisted Gregory, "what do you really think of him?" ■a before the house. OppoDn window of the parlor she "he little room, kept carefula Taut' Sannle's time, was 1 by a paraffin lamp; books lay atrewn about it and It ght habitable aspect Heap at the table in the corner i, the open letters and paday's post lying scattered while she perused the colnewspaper. At the center his arms folded on an open fch there waa not light read, sat Gregory. He was her. The light from the rw fell on Em's face under lapje" as she looked In, but iced that way. Fetch me a glass of water," camp w k.J  »tc 17 y I , ■ 1 Gregory was not quite sure how to take these remarks. Being about a Kaffir, they appeared to be of the nature of a joke; but, being seriously spoken, they appeared earnest, so he haif laughed and half not, to be on the safe side. , "I've often thought so myself. It's funny we should both think the same. "I think." said Lyndall, "that he is like a thorn tree, which grows up very quietly, without any one's caring for It, and one day suddenly breaks/out into yellow blossoms." Before the open fireplace sits a stran ger, his tall, slight figure reposing lb the broken armchair, his keen blue eyes studying the fire from beneatL delicately penciled, drooping eyelids. One white hand plays thoughtfully with a heavy flaxen mustache, yet once he starts, and for an Instant the languid lids raise themselves. There is a keen, intent look upon the face as he listens for something. Then he leans back in his chair, fills his glass from the silver flask In his bag and resumes his old posture. When he looked back, the little figure with its beautiful eyes was standing in the doorway still. m "And what do you think I am like?" asked Gregory hopefully. Lyndall looked up from her book. CHAPTER XXI. THE "KOPJK." "Good morning!" Em, who was In the storeroom measuring the Kaffir's rations, looked up and saw her former lover standing betwixt her and the sunshine. For some days after that evening on which be had ridden home whistling be bad shunned ber. She might wish to enter "Like a little tin duck lloaung on a dish of water, that comes after a piece of bread stuck on a needle, and the more the needle pricks It the more It comes on." He seated himself on the . case which had once held Wi books and proceeded to examine 1 contents of another which he had i yet looked at It was carelessly nai down. He loosened one plank and gan to lift ou#various articles of male attire — old fashioned ca aprons, dresses with long pointed b lefl such as he remembered to hi seen his mother wear when he wai little child. He shook them oat ca fully to see there were no moths .a then sat down to fold them np agi one by one. They had belonged Em's mother, and the box as packed her death had stood untouched a forgotten these long years. Bhe m have been a tall woman, that mot] of Em's, for when he stood np to shi out a dress the neck was on a le with his, and the skirt touched 1 ground. Gregory laid a nightcap C on his knee and began rolling up i strings, but presently his fingers m ed slower and slower, then his cl rested on his breast, aqd finally the i I knew we should if once we talked. But there are other things—love, now," he added. "I wonder if we would think alike about that. I wrote an essay on love once. The master said it was the best I ever wrote, and I can remember the first sentence still—'Love Is something that you feel in your heart.'" "Oh, you are making fun of me now, you really are!" said Gregory, feeling wretched. "You are making fun, aren't you, now?" Presently the door opens noiselessly. It is Lyndall, followed by Doss. Quietly as she enters he hears her and turns. "You are profoundly wise In the ways of the world. You have seen far into life," he said. "I shall never come to you again," she said. "That was a trenchant remark. Can't you remember any more?" "Partly. It is always diverting to make comparisons." Then she knelt on the ground and leaned her face upon the stones. ' | Into, explanations, and He (Gregory to find It When be Bo8e) was 004 tbe man for that kiad r side, she merely of thing. If a woman bad once thrown recognition, and he h,m overboard' 8he mu8t teke the C*D*' ,t and his old occn- **l»«nces by them. When, noved slowly away however, she showed no inclination to md through it came revert *D the past and shunned him »#ed insects, to play Inore he shunned her, Gregory 1 »» Ch« softened. "No," said Gregory regretfully. "I've forgotten the rest. But tell me what do you think about love?" "Yes; but you don't compare me to anything nice, and you do other people What is Em like, now?" "I thought you were not coming." "I waited till all had gone to bed. I could not come before." He might as well have sneered at the firelight. "I have seen enough to tell me that you - love me because you cannot bear to be resisted and want to master me. You liked me at first because I treated you and all men with indifference. You resolved to have me because I seemed unattainable. That Is all your love means." "Dear old man, good old man, I am so tired!" she Bald, for we will come to the dead to tell secrets we would never have told to the living. "I am so tired! There Is light, there is warmth!" she walled. "Why am I alone, so hard, so cold? I am so weary of myself! It Is eating my soul to Its core—self, self, self! I cannot bear this life! I cannot breathe, I cannot live! Will nothing free me from myself?" She pressed her cheek against the wooden post. "1 want to love! I want something great and pure to lift me to Itself! Dear old man, I cannot bear It any more! I am so cold, so hard, so hard! Will no one help me?" The water gathered slowly on her shawl and fell on to the wet stones, A look, half of abstraction, half amusement, played on her lips. "1 don't know much about love," she •aid, "and 1 do not like to talk of things do not understand, but I have heard two opinions. Some say the devil carried the seed from bell and planted it on the earth to plague men and make them sin, and some say that when all the plants in the garden of Eden were pulled up by the roots one bush that the angels had planted was left growing, and it spread its seed over the whole earth, and its name is love. I do not know which Is right, perhaps both. There are differ ent species that go under the same name. There is a love that begins in the bead and goes down to the heart and grows slowly, but it lasts till death and asks less than it gives. There is another love that blots out wisdom, that is sweet with the sweetness of life and bitter with the bitterness of death, lasting for an hour, but it is worth having lived a whole life for that hour. I cannot tell. Perhaps the old monks were right when they tried to root love out; perhaps the poets are right when they try to water it. It is a blood red flower, with the color of sin, but there is always the scent of a god about it" "The accompaniment of a song. 8he fills up the gaps in other people's lives and Is always number two. But I think she is like many accompaniments—a great deal better than the song she is to accompany." She removed the shawl that enveloped her, and the stranger rose to offer her his chair, but she took her seat on a low pile of sacks before the window. "I hardly see why I should be outlawed after this fashion," he said, reseating himself and drawing his chair a little nearer to her. "These are hardly the quarters one expects to find after traveling a hundred miles In answer to an Invitation." : let me call you Em still i brother to you till I go," "She Is not half so good as you are," said Gregory, with a burst of uncontrollable ardor. He felt a strong Inclination to stoop down and kiss the little lips that defied him, but he restrained himself. He said quietly, "And you loved me"— and Em thanked him so hum : be wished she hadn't It 3 easy after that to think him- "She is so much better than I that her little finger has more goodness in It than my whole body. I hope you may not live to find out the truth of that fact." "Because you are strong. You are the first man I ever was afraid of. And"—a dreamy look came into bei face—"because I like to experience, 1 stood some time his whip and from one leg "I said, 'Come if you wish.' " "And I did wish. You give me • cold reception." , "1 could not take you to the house. Questions would be asked which 1 could not answer without prevarication."lu Uir OlLlCifc - . i%i~. "I think I'll Just take a walk up to the camps and see how your birds are gettinf oa. Now Waldo's gone you've no one to see after things. Nice mornlag,' fsn't Itr Then he added suddenly, "I'll Just go round to the house and get a drink of water first," and somewhat awkwardly walked off. He might have found water in the kitchen, but he never glanced toward the buckets. In the front room a monkey and two tumblers stood on the center table, but he merely looked round, peeped into the parlor, looked round again and then walked out at the front door and found himself again at the storeroom without having satisfied his thirst. "Awfully nice morning this," be said, trying to pose himself in a graceful and indifferent attitude against the door. "It isn't hot, and it isn't cold. It's awfully nice." "You are like an angel," be said, the blood rushing to his head and face. "Yes, probably. Angels are of many orders." "You are the one being that I love!" said Gregory, quivering. "I thought I loved before, but I know now! Do not be angry with me. I know you could never like me. But if I might but always be near you to serve you I would be utterly, utterly happy. I would ask nothing In return. If you could only take everything I have and use It! I want nothing but to be of use to you." She looked at him for a few moments.like to try. that" You don't understand called der, be He smiled. "Well, since yon will not marry me, may 1 inquire what your Intention* are, the plan yon wrote of? Yon asked me to come and bear it, and I have come." bat she lay there crying bitterly, behind him. She was only come to tell him th his cup of soup was ready, and whC he could hear that she was gone i picked up the nightcap again and "Your conscience to growing to bare a certain virgin tenderness," he said in a U.w, melodious voice. the living soul will cry to the dead agd the creature to its God, and of all this crying there comes nothing. The lifting up of the hands brings no salvation. Redemption is from within, and neither from God nor man. It is wrought out by the soul itself with suffering and through time. J di w k »U}. think you le said In a "I have no conscience. I spoke one deliberate lie this evening. I said the man who had come looked rough. We had best not have him In the house. Therefore I brought him here. It was a deliberate lie, and I hate lies. I tell them if I must, but they hurt me." I did so soon "I said, 'Come If you wish.' If you agree to it, well; if not, I marry on Monday." "Well." great brown sun "kapje," Just such a* "kapje" and such a dress as (me of those he remembered to hare seen a Sister of Mercy wear. Gregory's mind was very full of thought He took down a fragment of an old looking glass from behind a beam and put the "kapje" on. His beard« looked somewhat grotesque under It He put up his hand to hide It That was better. The blue eyes looked out with mild gentleness that became eyes looking out from under a "kapje." Next he took the brown dress and, looking round furtively, slipped It over his head. He had just got his arms in the sleeves and was trying to hook up the back when an increase In the patter of the rain at the window made him drag it off hastily. When he perceived there was no one coming, he tumbled the things back into the box and, covering it carefully, went down the ladder. voice. ■. . "I can't bear what you say. What makes you mumble so? Well, good light, Em." Ha stooped down hastily to kiss her. "I want to talk to yon. Gregory." "Well, make haste." be said pettishly. "I'm awfully tired. I've been sitting here all the evening. Why couldn't you come and talk before?" "I will not keep you long," she answered very steadily now. "I think, Gregory. It would be better If you and I ware never to be married." "Good heavens! Em, what do you mean? I thought you were so fond of me? Tou always profelaed to be. What on earth have you taken into yOur head now?" "I think It would be better," she said, ? ■ Us Doss, on the kitchen doorstep, shivered and wondered where his mistress staid so long, and once, sitting sadly there In the damp, he had dropped asleep and dreamed that old Otto gave him a piece of bread and patted him on the head, and when he woke his teeth chattel ed, and he moved to another stone to see if It was drier. At last he heard his mistress' step, and they went into the house together. She lighted a candle and walked to the Boer woman's bedroom. On a nail under the lady In pink hung the key of the wardrobe. She took it down and opened the great press. Prom a little drawer she- took £50, all she had In the world, relocked the door and turned to hang up the key. ~ Then she paused, hesitated. The marks of tears were still on her face, but she smiled. She was still looking beyond him at the fire. "Well, you do not tell lies to yourself, at all events. Ton are candid so far." Slie Interrupted him. "I cannot marry you," she said slowly, "because I cannot be tied; but, 11 you wish, you may take me away with you and take care of me. Then when we do not love any more we can say goodby. I will not go down country," she added. "I will not go to Europe. You must take me to the Transvaal That is out of the world. People we meet there we need not see again in our future llvea" f "How do you know," she said slowly, "that you could not do something to serve met *ou could serve me by giving me your name." "You got my short letterT' Gregory would bare made a remark, but.she said. Without noticing: "Yes; that Is why I come. You sent a very foolish reply. You must ♦*«"D It back. Who Is this fellow yon talk of marrying?" "There are as many kinds of loves as there are flowers—everlasting that never wither, speedwells that wait for the wind to fan them out of life, blood red mountain lilies that pour their voluptuous sweetness out for one day and lie in the dust at night. There is no flower has the charm of all—the speedwell's purity, the everlasting's strength, the mountain lily's warmth. But who knows whether there is no love that holds all—friendship, passion, worship? He started and turned his burning face to her. "You are very cruel. You are ridiculing me," he said. "A young farmer." "Lives here?" "Yes," said Em. "Yes; he has gone to town to get things for our wedding." "What kind of a fellow Is her "A fooL" of fever. Colon, never experl day's fever. Not until ten yea inoculation did a touch of fevC and then no alarming symptoms reloped.—Chamber*' Journal. "Your cousin, now," said Gregory In an aimless sort of way—"I suppose she's shut up in her room writing letters.""No, I am not, Gregory. What I am saying Is plain, matter of fact business. If you are willing to give me your name within three weeks' time, I am willing to marry you; if not, well. I want nothing more than your name. That is a clear proposal, is it not?" "Oh, my darling," he said, bending tenderly and holding his hand out to her, "why will you not give yourself entirely to me? One day you will desert me and go to another." "No," said Em. "And you would rather marry him than me?" Dunm'i Secoad Rrror. The Earl of Dunraven ruined his reputation in America by his charges against the yacht Defender, which afterward b* —. uer u&nda orer each other, very much as though she were praying. "Better, Em! What do you mean? Bveo a woman can't take a freak all about nothing! Ton must hare some reason Cor it, and I'm sure I've done nothing to offend you. I wrote only to- "Gone for a drive, I expect? Nice morning for a drive." "No." "Yes, because you are not one." "That 1b a novel reason for refusing to marry a man," he said, leaning his elbow on the table and watching her keenly. She shook her head without looking at him. Em was still at ber work, trying to adjust a new needle in the mushing. Gregory drank bis soup and then sat before ber, an awful and mysterious look in bis eyes. "Gone to see the ostriches, I suppose?""Such a love," she said in her sweetest voice, "will fall on the surface of strong, cold, selfish life as the sunlight falls on a torpid winter world; there, where the trees are bare, and the ground frozen till tt rings to the step Uke iron, and the water is solid, and the air is sharp as a two edged knife that cuts the unwary. But, when its sun shines on It. through its whole dead crust a throbbing yearning wakes. The trees feel him, and every knot and bud swells, aching to open to him. The brown seeds that have slept deep under the ground feel him, and he gives them strength till they break through the frozen earth and lift two tiny, trembling green hands in love to him. And he touches the water till down to its depths it feels him and melts, and it flows, and the things—strange, sweet +hinvo—that vitre locked nn in It. It rings as It runs, for lute of bun. Each plant tries to bear at least one fragrant Uttle flower for him, and the world that was dead lives, and the heart that was dead and self centered throbs with an upward, outward yearning, and it bas become that which it seemed impossible ever to become. There, does that satisfy you?" she asked, looking down at Gregory. "Is that how you (ike me to talk V He looked up. Was It contempt, loathing, pity, that moved in the eyes above? He could not tell, but he stooped over the little foot and kissed It "No; life Is too long. But I will go with you." "Fifty pounds for a lover! A noble reward!" she said and opened the wardrobe and returned the notes to the drawer, where Em might find them. was unable to * impaired hia popu. liahmen object to a making an exhibition ot genera] Impression here it ship acted foolishly. Only Lord Dunraven received a er that his fatuoua ch, American yachtsmen were by any means. He ia one ol ary members of the London If only dtisena of the € knew how Londoners have popular education ' Toryism they ~ ignorance with in thC metropolis board achC ing, aa he and on k. the diw Lobb, quite also a member making a r up with the _  this case turns out to be a second occasion on which the noble lord mistakenly believed a gentleman to have taken on an unjust amount of ballast."—Saturday Evening Post. "No." After a little silence Em added, "I saw ber go by tbe kraals to the •kopje.'" "It Is a wise one," she said shortly. "If I marry him, I shall shake him off my hand when It suits me. If 1 remained with him for 12 months, he would never have dared to kiss my hand. As far as I wish be should come he comes and no further. Would you ask me what you i&ight and what you might not do?" "When?" She smiled. "Tomorrow. I have told them that before daylight I go to the next farm. I will write from the town and tell them the facts. I do not want them to trouble me. I want to shake myself free of these old surroundings; I want them to lose sight of me. You can understand that It 1b necessary for roe." "I am going to town tomorrow," 1m aald day to my slater to tell her to come up naxt month to our wedding, and I've been aa affectionate and happy as possible. Come, what's the matter?" He pat bis arm half round her shoulder rery loosely. "I think It would be better," she answered slowly. Gregory crossed and uncrossed bis legs. "Do you really mean It?" he whispered."Yes. You wish to serve me and to have nothing In return. You shall have what you wish." She held out her fingers for Doss to lick. "Do you see this dog? He licks my hand because I love htm, and I allow him to. Where I do not love I do not allow It I believe you love me. I, too, could love so that to He under the foot of the thing I loved would be more heaven than to lie In the breast of another. Come. Let us go. Carry the dog," she added. "He will not bite you if I put him in your arms. So-do not let his foot hang down." Once In her own room, she arranged the few articles she intended to take tomorrow, burned her old letters and then went back to the front room to look at the time. There were two hours yet before she must call him. She sat down at the dressing table to wait and leaned her elbows on It and buried her face in her hands. The glass reflected the little brown head with Its even parting and the tiny hands on which it rested. "One day I will love something utterly, and then I will be better," she said once. Presently she looked up. The large dark eyes from the glass looked back at her. She looked deep into them. 'TriTalmostafrald you won't be'abte( to go," said Em, who was intent on her needle. "I don't think it is going to leave off today." "Well, I think 111 just go and have a look about" be said, "and see bow things are getting on before I go to the camps. Goodby. So long." "I am going," said Gregory. Em looked up. Em left for awUUe the bags she was folding and went to the window, the same through which, years before, Bonaparte had watched the slouching figure cross the yard. Gregory walked to the plgBty first and contemplated the pigs for a few seconds, then turned round and stood looking fixedly at the wall of the fuel bouse as though he thought It wanted repairing. Then he started off suddenly, with the evident intention of going to the ostrich camps, then paused, hesitated and finally walked off in the direction of the "kayje." H "Oh, well," be said, drawing himself «p, "If you won't enter Into explanation* yon won't, and I'm not the man Her companion raised his mustache with a caressing movement from his lip and smiled. It was not a question that stood in need of any answer. He seemed lost in consideration. Then he said; "But the 'sloots' are as full as rivers. You cannot go. We can wait for the post," she said. A - against thick headed . would not wonder at the ind drunkenness that are met ooorer quarters of the mighty Dun raven was hauling a Jmaster orer the coals for heclaimed, the worse for liquor, ▼estigation it turned out that was quite unfounded. John « character in his way and ' of the school board, in report of the matter wound it ' following words: "In fact. "It is better to have you on those conditions than not at all. If you will have it let It be so." "I am not going for tbe post," said Gregory Impressively. to beg and pray—not to any woman, j and you know that! If you don't want to marry me I can't oblige you to, ot MM" She stood quite atill before bim. "You women never do know your own minds two day* together, and of eonrse yon know the state of your own feelings best, but It's very strange. Have yon, really made up your mind, Emr "T nr "Well, I'm very sorry. I'm sure Fye not been In anything to blame. A man can't always be billing and oooing; bat, as yon say, if your feeling for me has changed, It's much better you phpnldn't marry me. There's nothing lb foolish a* tg marry some ope you 0on't ler», and I only wish for your feappiness, I'm sure. I dare say you'll tod some one can make you much happier than I could. The flyt person we love la seldom the right one. Yon are very young. It's quite natural yon aboukl change." She said notning. "Why do you wish to enter on this semblance of marriage?" Em looked for explanation. None came. "Because there is only one point on which I have a conscience. I have told you so," He sat looking at her. Ob her face was the weary look that rested there •o often now when she sat alone. Two months had not passed since they past- "When will you be back?" "I am not coming back." "Are you going to your friends V Gregory waited, then caught her by the wrist "Then why not marry meV They descended the "kopje." At the bottom he whispered: "Because If once you have me you would hold me fast. I shall never be free again." She drew a long, low breath. o ed, but the time had set Its mark her. He looked at her carefully, "We are all alone, you and I," she 'hlspered. "No one helps us; no one ; ::Vft|§J "Would you not take my arm? The path Is very rough." tie, crossed feet on the floor. A  look had grown over the little face, and It made Its charm for him stronger, for pain and time, which trace deep lines and write a story on a human face, have a strangely different effect ou one face and another. The face that Is only fair, even very fair, they mar and flaw, but to the face whose beauty is the harmony between that which speaks from within and the form through which It speaks power la added by all that causes the outer man to bear more deeply the impress of the inner. The pretty woman fades with the rosed on her cheeks and the girlhood that lasts an hour. The beautiful woman finds her fullness of bloom only when a past has written Itself on her, and her power is then most irreuUtihle when it seems going. From under their half closed lids the keen eyes looked down at her. Her shoulders were bent For a moment the little figure had forgotten its queenly bearing and drooped wearily. The wide dark eyes watched the fire very softly. the brown, smooth forehead to the "Look here. Em." he Bald between his teeth. "I can't stand It any more. I am going to her." She rested her fingers lightly on It lerstands us. But we will help our- ........ - Then Bm went back to the corner •od folded more sacks. "I may yet change my mind about marrying you before the time comes. It is very Ukely, Mark you!" she said, turning round on him. "I remember your words—you will give everything and expect nothing. The knowledge that you are serving me is to be your reward, and you will have that. You will serve me, and greatly. The reasons I have for marrying you I need not Inform you of now. You will probably discover some of them before long." "What have you done with the ring I gave you?" he said. Reives." The eyes looked back at her. There was a world of assurance -in their still depths. So they had looked at her ever since she could remember, when It was but a small child's face above a blue pinafore. "We shall never be quite alone, you and I," she said. "We shall always be together, as we were when we were little." Since that day when he had come home and found Lyndall gone he had .never talked of her, but Em knew who It was who needed to be spoken of by no name. "Sometimes 1 wear It Then I take It off and wish to throw it into the fire. The next day I put it on again, and sometimes I kiss it" On the other aide of the "kopje" Gregory caught eight of a white tall waving among the stones, and a succession of short, frantic barka told where Doss was engaged in howling imploringly to a lizard who had crept between two stones and who had not tbe slightest intention of resunning hluiself at that particular moment. A Twin Romance. She said when he had released her hand: Lloyd Lowndes and Richard Lowndes, sons of Governor Lowndes of Maryland, are twins and look very much alike. According to a story going the rounds, Richard was traveling through Ohio a year ago, when a man came through the cars and slapped him on the back. "Hello* Lloyd," he said, "stop over and spend the night with me at Chillicothe." Richard said be wasn't Lloyd, bat the man wouldn't believe him, so he stopped over. Among the people he met was Miss May Quinn. She liked him, and he liked her, but Richard had been married for several years. So he told his brother Lloyd about her, and In process of time Lloyd went to see her, fell in love, proposed and was married last week. When he told his fiancee that he was not the Lloyd sh« first met, but that the first Lloyd was a false Lloyd and really Richard, he had A hard time convincing her he was speak* tag the truth. "Oh, yes!" said Gregory. "That la what I have already thought. We have the same thoughts about everything. How strange!" "So you do love me a little?" "If you were not something more to me than any other man In the world, do you think"— She paused. "I love you when I see you. but when you are away from me I hate you." "But you do not know where she Is?" The beautiful eyes looked into the depths of her soul. "Yea, I do. She was in Bloemfontein when I heard last. 1 will go there, and I will find out where she went then, and then, and then! I will have her!" The dog's mistress sat higher tip. nnder the shelving rock, her face bent over a volume of plays upon her knee. As Gregory mounted the stones she started violently and looked up, then resumed her book. "Very," said Lyndall, working with her little toe at a stone In the ground before her ,, . Gregory felt he must sustain the conversation. The only thing he could think of was to recite a piece of poetry. He knew he had learned many about love, but the only things that would come Into bis mind were the "Battle of Hobenllnden" and "Not a drum was heard," neither of whlclj seemed to bear directly on the sflbjject on hand. "We are not afraid. We will help ourselves!" she said. She stretched out her hand and pressed it over them on the glass. "Dear eyes! We will never be quite alone till they part us— till then!" "Then I fear I must be Bingularly invisible at the present moment" he said. "Possibly If you were to look less fixedly into the fire you might perceive me." Em turned the wheel quickly, and the 111 adjusted needle sprang into 20 fragments. "J only want to be of some use to you," he said. It seemed to Gregory that there were pulses Id the soles of his feet, and the ground shimmered aa on a summer's day. They walked round the foot of the "kopje" and past the Kaffir huts. Aq old Kaffir maid knelt at the door of one grinding mealies. That she should see him walking so made hla heart beat so fast that the hand on his arm felt its pulsation. It seemed that she must envy him. » "Things often seem hard at the time, but Providence makes them turn out » for the beat In the end," said Gregory. "You'll let me kiss yon, Em, Just for "Gregory," she said, "she does not want us. She told us so clearly In the letter she wrote." A flush rose on her face as she spoke. "It will only be pain to you, Gregory. Will she like to have you near her?" "I hope I am not troubling you," said Gregory as he reached her side. "If I am, I will go away. I Just"— "No; you may stay." He moved his chair slightly so as to come between her and the firelight She raised her eyes to his face. chapteh-xxiii. OBXOOBT BOSK HAS AS IDKA. Gregory Rose was In the loft putting It neat Outside the poured. A six months' drought had' t)roken, and the thirsty plain was drenched with water. What It could not swallow ran off in mad rivulets to the great "sloot" that now foamed like an angry rtver across the flat. • Even the little furrow between Jthe farmhouse and the kraals was now a stream, knee deep, which almost bore away the Kaffir women who crossed It. It had rained for 24 hours, and still the rain poured on. The fowls had collected—a melancholy crowd—in and about the wagon house, and the solitary gander, who alone had survived the six months' wajtf of water, walked hither and ner, printing his webbed footmarks "If you do love me," he asked her, "why will you not marry me?" old friendship's sake." He stooped down. "Too most look upon me as a dear brother, as a cousin at least. As lot* as I am on the (arm I shall a(- jrays be glad to help you, Em." (Soon alter the brown pony was cantfftoi along the footpath to tbe daub fuid wattle house, and his master fia h« fodis whistled "John 8 peri wig" and tbC «TJiorn Kloof Schottische," • 1 "Yes; your step Vas firmer than It generally la. I thought It was that of some one else." "I fear I startled yon." "Because If I had been married to you for a year I should have come to my senses and seen that your hands and your voice are like the hands and the voice of any other man. I cannot quite see that now. But It Is all madness. You call into activity one part of my nature. There is a higher part that you know nothing of, that you never touch. If I married you. afterward It would arise aud assert itself, and I should hate you always, as I do now sometimes." There was an answer he might have made, but it was his secret, and he did not choose to share it. ,He said only: "I am going." Eut unexpected relief came to blm from Doss, who, too deeply lost In contemplation of his crevice, was surprised by the sudden descent of the stone |Dyndall's foot had loosened, which, rolling against his little front paw, carried away a piece of white skin. Doss stood on three legs, holding up the paw with an expression of extreme self commiseration. He then proceeded to hop alowly upward In search of sympathy. "Who could It be but me?" asked Oregory, seating himself on a stone at her feet. "Will you be gone long,  "I do not know. Perhaps I shall never come back. Do what you please with my things. I cannot stay here." . W Just then Em looked out again at the back window and saw them coming, She cried bitterly all the while she sorted the skins. It certainly was not In her power to resist him nor any strength In her that made his own at that moment grow soft as he looked at her. lv,,V "Do you suppose you are the only man who would find anything to attract him to this 'kopje? " He rose from his seat. m . -..m - » not yet toucnea iuo uuv m of the prickly pear and the early pocks •trotted about stiffly aftroost, when Waldo stood wagon house saddling the Every now and then he np at the old familiar objects. id a new aspect that, morning. be ■cocks, seen In the light of , bad a peculiar Interest, and with conscious attention But that night when Lyndall had blown her candle out and half turned round to sleep the door of Em's bedroom opened. He touched one little hand that rested on her knee. "People say forget, forget!" he cried, pacing the room. "They are mad! They are fools! Do they say so to men who are dying of thirst—forget, forget? Why is it only to us they say bo? It Is a He to say that time makes It easy! It is afterward, afterward, that It eats in at your heart! All these months," he cried bitterly, "I have lived here quietly, day after day, as If I cared for what I ate and what I drank and what I did! 1 care for nothing! I cannot bear it! I will not! Forget, forget!" ejaculated Gregory. "You can forget all the world, but you cannot forget yourself. When one thing is more to you than yourself, how are you to forget it? V ♦•Ob, no," said Gregory. He was not going to argue that point With her nor any other, bat no old Boer was likely to take the trouble of climbing the "kopje," and who else was there? "Poor little thing!" he said, are only a child." » "You gffs "I want to say good night to you, Lyndall," she said, coming to the bedside and kneeling down. She did not draw her hand away from his and looked up at him. "You are very tired?" } •r 1 "You have hurt that dog," said Gregory."I like you when you grow metaphysical and analytical," he said, leaning his face upon his hand. "Go a little further In your analysis. Say. 'I love you with the right ventricle of my heart, but not the left, and with the left auricle of my heart, but not the right, and, this being the case, my affection for you Is not of a duly elevated, Intellectual and spiritual nature.' I like you when you get philosophical." "Miss LyndaU," he said at last, "1 don't know why it Is you never talk to me." She continued the study of her book. "Hare I?" she replied Indifferently and reopened the book, as though to resume her study of the play. "I thought you were asleep," Lyndall replied. "Yes." he mud, to have them washed ont next instant by the pelting rain, M'lch at 11 o'clock still beat on the "Yes, I have been asleep, but I had such a vivid dream," she said, holding the other's hands, "and that awoke me. I never had so vivid a dream before, She looked into his eyes child might whom a long had saddened. "He's a nasty, snappish little curf said Gregory, calculating from her manner that the remark would be Indorsed. "lie snapped at my horse's tall yesterday and nearly made It throw inp. I wonder bis master didn't take him, Instead of leaving him here to be a nuisance to all of us!" "We had a long conversation yesterday," she said without looking up. Be lifted her gently up a. on his knee. Gregory as he worked in the loft took no notice of It beyond stuffing a sack Into the broken pane to keep It out, and. In spite of the pelt and patter, Em's clear voice might be heard through the open trapdoor from the dining room, where she sat at work, aingtng the "Blue Water"— 'alls and roofs with unabated ardor. Dwed clear and loud as it pigsty wall. He wished S softly to the Kaffir woi coming up from the huts re. He was leaviug tbero i llff* nnd from hi* heipM rn on them pityingly. So MP on crowing and eom- "Yea; but you ask me questions about sheep and oxen. I don't call that talkng. You used to talk to Waldo, now,*' ie said In an aggrieved tone of voice. 'I've heard you when 1 came In, ani| fhen you've just left off. You treated pe like that from the first day, and [fen couldn't tell from Just looking at "It seemed 1 was & little girl again, ancj | came somewhere into a large room. On a bed In the corner there was something lying dresBed in white, and Its little eyes were shut, and Its little face was like wax. ) thought It was a doll, and I ran forward to take It, but some one held np her finger and ■Md: 'Ilu&h! It to a ttttto tad t*hy/ told. -Uto 1 She turned her face to his shoulder and burled It against hlB neck. He wound his strong arm about her and held her close to him. When she had •at for a lone while, he drew with hla band (he face down and held it against Ui arm. He kissed It and then pnt It hack to tto aid resting place. yon want to talk to mar "Poor little thing!" he said. 8he looked quietly at him. He was trying to turn her own weapons against her. Lyndall seemed absorbed In her play, but he ventured another remark. "I read," be said—"yes, and then I come to a word she used, and it is all "You are acting foolishly, Lyndall,** he said, suddenly changing his manner and speaking earnestly, "moat fooliahb. Tw are acttac Oka % MtUfe child. 1 "Ami tab M A»dtrt« — «—r. mm that 1 couldn't talk aboat the things "Do you think now. Miss Lyndall, that he'll ever have anythlag la the back with me again! I go to count ■beep, and 1 Me h« face before me, j —4 1 ■D»»C mrnA kt the ■he en run hv