Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1904 — Colonel Lisenby’s Romance [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Colonel Lisenby’s Romance

By ANCUS BLANTYRE

“An old man, Mlas Edith, who begins to feel his age,” said the colonel. “But you are not old, Colonel LlsenJjy. I am sure that few of the young men of today hold themselves as erect as you do, and I am quite sure that I have met few of them who have that graceful, deferential manner of yours in the presence of women. I think you are wrong to say that all romance must be dead for you," said the girl laughingly. They were sitting on the piazza of a country house on the Hudson. From open windows streamed lights and the ibuzz of conversation, which showed that the guests were enjoying themselves after the fashion of guests In country houses. Before them and beneath them lay the moonlit expanse of the Hudson, and on the other side they could make out the bold line of the precipitous shore. Tall, slender and graceful, the youth of the girl’s twenty years showed in sharp contrast to the fifty odd years of the handsome, soldierly looking man who stood at her side. “When you were younger, Miss 'Edith,” said the colonel, “you used to be very fond of having me tell you stories, and I think I will tell you one now If you are sure it will not bore you.” “Please do, colonel. 1 used to think that there was no one who could tell such delightful stories beginning, [•Once upon a time.’ ” “This story begins In the same way, •Miss Edith. ‘Once upon a time’ nearly forty years ago a young man was very |nmch In love with a very beautiful [Woman. The two lived In a little southern village on the Mississippi rivfer and had been playmates through Childhood. It was an understood thing iwtween the families of the two that Kne boy and girl should be married iroen they were grown. T *One day a foolish little quarrel came up between the two young people, and It was not made up as soon as it should have been. Perhaps the

man was wrong; at any rate, he was heartily sorry afterward that he did not say he was wrong and make peace In that way. "Before the quarrel was made up the dvll war broke out, and the young man considered It his duty to go to the front In the ranks of the southern army. It was his luck to see a great deal of fighting and to win promotion move than once. At Gettysburg he was badly wounded and captured. For months

he lay in a hospital' and on his recovery was confined in a northern prison until the end of the war.

"When the war was over, he was released and hurried back to the little vllluge he had lived in. There he found that the woman he loved was dead. Her mother told him that It had been said In the village tihat hy was killed at Gettysburg and that when nothing was heard of him afterward the girl had died of a broken heart.

“If the man could have had his wish, he would have died also, but he was not cowardly enough to resort to suicide, and he lived. He came to New York and sought forgetfulness In the hardest of hard work. Success came to him In ample measure, and, what he valued more, he found In his work something of the forgetfulness he sought.

“Memory of the woman be bad loved did not leave him. The man himself In his bitterest moments never wished for that

“The man, as the old memories became dulled after many years, began to wonder If it was best for him to always live a solitary life. Then he began to wonder If he was not In love with' a beautiful young girl whom he knew and then resolved to ask her to marry him. Do you think he did right?” The girl did not answer for a moment and then she said In a voice so low and sympathetic that you could almost detect the ring of tears In It: “I am thinking of the woman who died. I do not believe the man will ever forget her If he loved her as much as you say. I know that if I were to die I would want Jack to love me alwuys, as the man you have told me of loved the woman, ahd not to think of another woman.”

The girl was looking with tear dimmed eyes across the river to where the lights of West Point could be seen on top of the Palisades. The man’s glance followed hers. Neither spoke for a moment, and then, with an effort which he hoped was not visible to the girl, the man said: ‘‘So you are engaged to Jack Carter? I thought I was too old a friend not to have been told of this before?” “I meant to have told you this evening,” said the girl. “Jack says you wore so good about getting him appointed to the academy that we have both felt grateful to you. But we neither of us thought that you would be at all interested In a romance.”

“You do me an injustice,” said the colonel, with a little dry laugh. “I am always Interested In romance—for instance, the one which I have been just telling you. I know the man and have taken a great deal of Interest in the case. I shall advise him not to propose to the girl. But you must permit me to tell you that I wish you all happiness and that I consider Jack a very lucky fellow.”

“They are beginning to dance, colonel. Won’t you come in with me?’’ “Thanks. I fancy my dancing days are over. I think I will stay here and 6moke a cigar.” The girl stepped in through one of the open windows, and the man lit a cigar. Perhaps it was the moonlight on the water, perhaps It was the old waltz tune which floated out of the windows of the house, perhaps the old memories were brought up so keenly by the story he had told the girl on the piazza. Whatever the cause, the effect was to carry the mind of the man back to another time and another scene. The Hudson became another river, the Palisades on the farther side became a low, wooded shore. The breeze which came from the river seemed heavy with scent of magnolia. The man who paced slowly up and down the piazza was young again. At his side there seemed to walk a woman as beautiful and as young as the girl who had just left him. But the beauty of this woman was of the south, and her dress was of the fashion of forty years ago. The measure of forgetfulness which time had granted the man slipped away, and the old keen heartache woke once again to poignant life. And the man walking with memories and ghosts in the pure, calm moonlight thanked God that the heartache was alive once more.

See those new yash goods at Bowles & Parker’s.

“YOU DO ME AN INJUSTICE,” SAID THE COLONEL.