Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 4, Number 10, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 6 September 1873 — Page 6

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THK VOYAOS.

Two little boats dlifting

wa.

One vu tor yoa, the othe

Ser for me.

Silently. softly, they came to the show And taking us In, pot oat once more.

Gently we glided by ride, Ttio' the wind w«i high, the ocean wkle.

For what eared we for wind weather Life was bright, and we were together.

After awhile we drifted apart, But 1 left In the boat with you my heart. Van inay never know what the parting cost, N«r dream of the wealth of the love you

Jo-rt,

Until, when all 1* silent and still, We meet In the haven under the hill. At the city's gate, on the other shore. Where we anchor our boat* to sail no more.

Tkixik.

McLean Grier's tune.

For-

On the 30tb of April, 1865. McLean Grier's soul came back from the shadowy limbo wherein it had been drifting. It* first faint coHRciousnees recognized a pleasant earthly smell of hyacinths, and mortal sunshine streaming down the long white ward. lie stirred feebly. A figuro on the next cot lifted up itself and its voice

O, »ur»\ nurse! Crayton is awake. Grier had a

mhiho

He convalesced well enough after that. Thero was a dogged, persistent vitality in him that would pull him through worse things than that shellwound. Doctor, and nurses, and bis immediate neighbors took a kindly transient interest in tho broad-shoul-dered, silent man, with his unhandsome face and dreamy eyes, who had been so near dying, and who took living so quietly.

Jrier bad seen almost fonr years of active service. No matter on which side. He bad lounged in camp, marched, done picket duty, fought, been slightly shot two or threo times, and spent some dull weeks in getting over it, all with an uncomplaining phick and coolness that in no wise distinguished him, becauso so many thousands of other men developed the same qualities under war pressure. Through Hall ho never rose out of tho ranks. A certain haughty, shy llstlessness pat any manifestation of ambition in that direction quite out of the question. For (Jrior had ono of those strong, positive temperaments destitute of nope that need hot sunshine to ripen them into poworand sweetness. And he had had.shadow mostly. Life had given him some hard hits.

When he was a dozen years old his father brought home a second wife. Hbo never liked McLean, and the next four years wore not wholly a little hoaven below. When he was sixteen he wont away to college. He knew what allowance had been made for his four years' course, and ho spent that and his vacations as ho pleased Ho did not see his home nor his father in all that tlmo. During the first two years his letters wero answered at long intervals

after

the

that it was himself

the figure meant. lie tried to speak the ghost of a voice, that sank into a sob of weakness.

that, all communica

tion coaled. When he graduated ho was as nmchaloueas Adam was. Moro alono, perhaps. Ho lind not oven an Kvo. Everybody liked iflm well enough, but he had made no near frlonds. llo had not mot tho tbousand-and-ilrat man—or woman—who could penotrate tho constitutional unexpectancy that sheathed him. Not that he was moody, or morbid, or sullen. As I havCi said, he bad no hope and no Imagination. His tenses were all past and present. He had no futuro he saw life

wIthout any perspective. lie promised est relative. to drift out of lielng utterly without achievement. Ho had not a bit of solfooMciousnesA whereon to base the chance of a cure. When a man can analyze aud label his own mental conditions, it Is always safe to assume that tho Instinct of self-preservation will sooner or later make a struggle against circumstances. But Mclean Grier had never spent flvo minutes of his life in introspection.

Commencement being over and bread an inevitable necessity, for two years he earned it bv his brains In a fashion destitute of anv other purpose. Then nil at onco he found stirring in his heart—in some such blind, Inexpllcaway as tbo spring sap stirs, perhaps—a longing to seo the old home that had apparently closed Its doors upon blm. Waiting in Ualtimoro for the outwardbound train, he overheard a few sentences that changed his purpose wholly.

Just come from homo one man was asking another. Yes. Judgo Grier, of O County, Is dead.'

Sudden wasn't it Led everything to that youngest boy, I suppose?' Yes, and to hi** mother.

«t was 110 more his own than this »e. He gave himself a little shake, if getting rid of the last remnant of is individuality, and let the mistake

One day, crawling feebly about the streets in the spring warmth, he met an oflWr of a regiment In his old brigade. He and Grier had fraternised on a common ground of education and breeding. The man's brown,worn face lighted up with recognition. 'So wore In the same boat. What did you brinf oat of the crash •So much of a body, and another man's name.' «Then you at« better off than I. I can't fol rid of mine. If could, I ahoula be orer the water looking after tome business that is going to the dog* left alone.*

Four week* later, McLean Orler, •till bearing the nane of Crayton, was •teaming past Sandy Hook on hw way

wer to manipulate tbe somewhat Jelloate matters lntruatod to him. Major Dare was sUit in the city where they had met, detained by urgent governmental demands.

Three montha after, Orler had tbe and throat revealed, .utisfaction of meeting his friend, as be of her heavy dress came ashore from the New York steam- vidnal exprewion than

unDrecedented

U: uo Bi»»v mo and the property bad gone to her near-

Going

stay up long?' Mcl*an let the train go out withou* him. If he had cherished any vain hopes that any tartly paternal tenderness still walled his coming—that after all, the years of estrangement and silence might have been his own fault, and, as such, might still be atoned for —the hopes went out in the darkness of this terrible finality.

Then the war broke out, and, without a tli rob of excitement, ho enlisted, sinking his identity under an asaumed name, uklng the next fonr years as he had mken the last two.

Crayton they called him in the hospital, and he responded. There waajto conscious drearineas lu the half-smile with which he read it on the card at the head of his bed, and slowly remembered how the mistake had come about. A letter, written to a man he had never a*«n, by a wife away In the Southern distance, picked up on the field while bis regiment stood waiting their time to advance, waa the ouly paper about him. Some sort of a name wis necesMry among tho million* of wntiMtt atoms In the world. The one be had lost was 110 more his own than this one. as his go uncorrected.

wfanJof~rendering that night an ao- other women's drapery. And her count of his successful stewardshl

sissfs

Through the Intermediate time he had lived In a wandering fashion that strate had taken him pretty thoroughly over bad gone out. Furone He had had a good deal of 'You are rash, Katie. \ou know •mh asenne of freedom as a disembod- really nothing of the man. fed c*iostn?igbtb a ve, as tor as all I don't know his capabilities for this earthly claims could touch him. His work, certainly but I think he agon manv-slde talents earned him always tleman.' the full measure of his requirements In Mrs. Prior raised her eyebrows. nAm fnrto SsA in

ISewiKor^-^Ti'w.Ttbr™^ tnVoV ,"^^section of u,. Rome privileged visitor in half the country.

feeling that might

no more reason for resisting than for yielding. So. ono night, after a mild moonlight orgie in the Coliseum, he lingered a little over his good-night to the last of the party, and announced bis intention of going back to the States. Next day, accordingly, be van isbed from his old hauntB, and landed

'S^te&sisszs

followed it "with as little delay as though the fatted calf and tho gold ring lay at the end of it.

He knew better than that, of course. He was likely to meet but soant courtesy from the present holders of the old place. His purpose in going at all was indefinite enough, even to himself. He certainly had no Intention of declaring himself in his true character.

He came to tho end of his journey in tho dusk of an early spring evening. A cloud of tender, misty green filled all the happy valley, ana, as of old, the mud was ankle deep. Tb© war had not deeplv scarred this fortunate nook among the mountains, and Yankee enterprise bad not yet troubled its calm.

Going down into the little village beyond, he called the old names, and spoke face to r*ce with men who were among his earliest recollections, as secure from recognition as though he had Indeod, been that ghost whose freedom he had emulated. It was not strange. He had gone out a smootbed-fuced boy. He came back bearded, and manly,and brown with sea-wind and foreign travel, and with tho rhythm of divers strange tongues the local tricks out of his own.

Thero were enough who were willing to tell tho story of the Grier estate. The affair was a cherished bit of neighborhood history. Malcolm Grier had given everything, without reserve, to the mother of his younger child. The boy had been drowned, and the mother had died soon after. She had left no will,

'But whnt became of the older boy? You said there was one?' O, ho? Well, he was a no account sort of fellow, 1 reckon. Anyway, he never came home after he went away to college. There was a report around that he was dead—killed in a streetfight. That was before tbe Judge died. After Miss Chilton came down here she took to advertising for him, and found out that he had 'listed under another name—a pretty sure sign that his own was Inconvenient. Got killed at Petersburg.' •Miss Chilton?' •That's the girl that the property fell to.' •Ol* McLean said, rising listlessly, ss Iftbe subject had exhausted Itself.

Ho did more hard thinking that night than ho had ever done before. There was tho whole world before him where to choose, except this particular corner, which in all moral equity belonged to him. He might,perhaps get thatoy a logal struggle. But, then, ihis girl who had taken possession was as really alone In tbe world as be—had been a govornoss, or some other unpleasant thing of that sort. She was doing ten times tho good with tho estate that he should do—a 'no-sccount sort of fellow,' after all. She had outlived the prejudice that bad inet her first coming —a triumph in that old-fashioned crystalixUion there among tbe hills. So much be had learnod from the gossiping hotel-loungers. What good in disturbing her with what must be, after all, a doubtful struggle?

It wss his first attack of acute Intro spectlon. It *what kind of yon so determinedly sought to find him.

The landlord stared In great astonish

scions of the proudest State blood bad ton'

Three days afterwardt McLean Orler found himself aceei and general superl Kate Chilton's stables, and

toL.r.'Wi»frrtiriLVJ! floe skin ran th# New England blood, clear and bright the lerr* steady eyes were blue and bright,crisp hair, gathered carelessly tri back, left all 5he pure outlines of free

int.

eptea as coachman rlntendent of Miss only wait-

Ing that young lady's return to have equality, his engagement by her agent ratified and confirmed. And that without a

There

studious and recognized comrade by in the fossil remains of Massachusetts half

brotherhood of the pencil and and South Carolina. It was not In Mre. nalette Prior's creed that a person who took During the two months of tho chilly wages for servlcecould by anv poss bll Italian winter, be saw and heard more ity claim to that mysteriously sigulfi Americanism than in the whole two cant title. years before. And with it grew an 'I should hardly *se that term in odd

speaking

TFRttF-HAUlK SATURDAY EVENING MAIL. SEFTEMBER D.J87A

of him, my dear.

have^en bomeslckness, If he bad had *Mlss Chilton's fair face Hushed a lit any home to be s^ck for. He struggled tie. The days of her bondage In a 1 ....m school-room made ftnally^oafurredPto hi m^t hat there was between her and this

I expect to bo called a lady, nunt, in spito of ray having earnod my living.

That is quito a different thing, Kate,, unfortunate as I shall always feel tbe step to have been aud so on and on

And Grier? He was twenty-elgbt years old, and had the average share of common seuse, besides the acquired kind. Ho had entered into his present position from an undefined longing to know familiarly once more the old places, and as vague a desire to see what manner of woman tho new heiress might bo. Before the month was over his studies in that direction bad assumed a phase which had its own peculiar features.

I tell you the truth when I say that he had never been in love in his life. I do not mean that he had never played at it as men do, but you will see that his opportunities had been limited. Women do not fancy that kind of a man. He was too irresponslyeand cool. Some lovely-faced, gracious-mannered memories haunted his recollections of that Roman winter, but those exotlo slips of womanhood touched only that shell of rosthetio sensibility that has nothing to do with any man's heart-life. He was so unacquainted with the sensation that he did not understand tbe preliminary symptoms.

It is the old, old story, told so manv times that there is no new way of telling it. Tho rustle of her dress, the sound of her vaice, the sight of her bei.I longings, stirred him after an altogeth-

cot"'n8*

..^btfo.-rd look Sub.™-mgyjvej-

nrMSffiSrih.eh.^m.h^

Miss Kate Chilton returned that daughter* lionised him, and the Major

the

J* S

belonged to sorry to lose my

th. hSK what he b*ddooo, bed toon Mta Chll- logtb» moonm h«U, whllj he w«Dt out b" rol°rD-",d

This sP-^

er unprecedented fashion. En New igland girl, with ber level-look-ing, fearless eyes, her jDroud lijjs, had

ber level

ir proud lip

put'him into a state of mind which Iim

thought was raised to the heights of worshipful reverence—when he thought of it at all.

One day there was an arrival of guests —Major bars and bis family, just returned from Europe. They had known the young lady in the days when she earned tbe dollars that paid for her own apparel, and had found her as admirable then ss now.

The Major came in the day after his arrival, with J»orP^,,e_r^y_ l®B*bl» on his face.

anything. Plenty of Miss Chilton to.a vno v. —J"

a coachman have

The clear red rose in her ftioe.

S^ailS for wme tJSn of him. It youthful and famlnlne fashion, and chose to acoept her own internal con A .« mAM of fixed purpose victions concerning her new servant. th?n ^f one? Std thar was little Mrs. Prior did® propriety for Miss tuan of Dion©) .A »n./i i.A ma nKUtAnftt supplyli satEKr-r— »&»*•£» sraMsirsrta to the surface in Rome.

»ide opinion a^haTTb^ri: .oo.ro .or dwith the young lady after Grier tbetrn

So Plymouth Rock is, In its way^U... tho Major found her uhviw

And tbore bouse—three

/.tUn

fxf

tVia

Vau

apa Anniliriff

is a striking similarity

"th. r.S«Vi°t

The younger lady assumed a democrat ic standard of belief which was not ull

You are spoiling those boys a little talk on various matters. 'I know it,' plaintively.

lnN,„ York rro„, the fleet stealer ove, th,•EES^SrhS'S'^ SSjttS

liked horses, and had somewhat extrav agantly gratified her likings. For a month, McLean did his work as faithfully as if he had been born to the station. He had sent for his baggage— not much of it, and that little mostly odd fragments gathered up in his out-of-the-way wanderings—and established himself in his new quarters with an easy accommodation of circumstances that bad oefore now been worth a fortune to him.

The young lady be saw every day. Underlying everything else in her temperament, was a vein of unobtrusive, willful determination,that needed only such provocation as Mrs. Prior had given to make her cling to her expressed beliefs as tenaciously as any martyr of old who got himself burned for his pains. She treated McLean as if he had been, what she had called him, a gentleman. Please infer no contemptible romance from that statement. He took her money, and did the work he had agreed to do, unconsciously gauging his demands tor consideration by tbe station he tilled. She required service of the station, aud, apart from such service, no guest who laid claim upon her hospitality was treated with more quiet delicacy of her deforenco.

Miss

A verv good ono. Isa't he? Chilton said, looking up quickly. A very remarkable one, I should gay. One of the grooms sent me u~ Into bis rooms for a whip 1 want"

mn™

felt that necessity. There wero Carville 'Miss Kate, theresre more *meos consun* wi"" J,

express

down the Talley road. But, for all tbeae encouraging precedents, mine host hesitated a little about naming the •nly thing of which he knew.

MfflMM

and Talbot clerking It In Baltimore and broom, [htTroidarkly over his fa&. Brooke and Efflagbam were driving such costly trash, In those two TO®"** presumed. You are angry street-cam In Richmond and Ktherldge over the ^rrisge-hoose tb« you have Ibave P™"rnea. 8 was fireman on tbe nine o'clock expwSs In this whole building. What Is th« I am vory sorry man's name?'

Th^fajor aUtied, but be did not explain. When McLean returned that night. Miss Chilton beheld her guest -t giving a most enthusiastio greeting mast tomiodher liveried servant, who, on his part, Owojj received It with the quiet assurance of

night. Grier met ber next morning. ^Sh to frtendtlne* ever Jfftaned You thin He was summoned to the dining-room frbe only mention that she nude of for that express purpose. As be saw ®o®®-Jrter'"J Miss Chilton waa, to announce some

ment at tho end of It. close of tbe evening.

It came at tbe

1 have my bread to earn to-morrow as So ho should not see her much as Ibsd yesterday, I should bej began "king himself^rhatdifference 1 made If he did not, and by a persevering ooorse of snch inquiries came so near an answer that he skat his eyes avoid it.

^8fl®,55r£

•jaassft.ta Mr*

hattiA lmH left bis widow with three gay voices below. By and by he was bovs to pilot up to man's estate. She summoned to the tea-table. Miss Cbilhnd faUored and faTled by tho way. ton stood beside the window. She And Kate Cbllton, knowing that tbe turned as he approached her, gave him too much of her hand, aaldthe conventional words

It dawned on him by degrees. Iu June, Miss Chilton went north with soma friends. Mrs. Prior remalned.and Grier was to stay with the boys until July, when be was to take them to a quiet sea-shore resort for the rest of the hot weather. Tbe lady's determination to go had been suddenly taken. She came into the school-room one evening, and with equal suddenness announced it.

Grier looked up at her. She stood beside a west window the level sunshine fell about ber like a glory. He bad hardly spoken, and when she stopped, silence fell. Miss Chilton found It oppressive after a minute. Grier was so Dusy with a new train of reflections that he was not conscious of the stillness. Miss Chilton began again—she had told him of her plans for ber young charges, and he had given his assent to his ahare of it very briefly.

This does not interfere with your own arrangements I do not mean to be nrbitrary, Mr. Crayton

He bad no plans, he told her no one had more claims on bis tlmo than herself. Ho did not know with what an air of hopelessness he said it.

Miss Cnllton turned quite away from him. She stood so for a little, her Angers tapping the casement. Thon she came towanl him suddenly andswiftly: •Noone knows better than I,'she said, 'that this is not your place. I can't think that you are bappy or even contented in it. You will believe that

nil surprise very wu I ««n your friend?' with jlUtle plead McLean was away on a short ing softness of *P*?9h. -hnaH? persons In th® world had ev«r beard*

Ho bowed, not being ready of apeech.

(Hipping.

|t wV0ny

thfl fauMifheIf

jjoung siivages—In iovo wlth their new answered them gently and_ Patently,

Afe"and~their"young protrectress. and seeming still in some far-off stato of ex M^^r action after the.r

In the hall whero Grier had left ber, well how beautiful. picture she^made.

And you will not Bend tbcin away to

ou win not aeuu She was to stay throe days. So much school?" Why don't you get a tutor? he gathered from the talk at the table Thera'a

Cravton I will assuro his brains iu which he took no part. and^rLdinV took him two days to organize the Late ss it was Major Dare aud Mc- chaos into which be bad fallen. In the I eau Grier had a long conference that interval, Miss Chilton treated him with

IUU WUlinj M**VS 7 anythlug of the young lady persistent course of advertising, and, in his preoccupation, he had not given very close heed to the story of her good fortune. So, by ono of those chancea of which life is so full, Grier bad stood lace to face with discovery and escaped it.

It so happened that, forseveral weeks after Major Dare's departure. Miss Chilton's house was full of visitors. Her duties as hostess absorbed her time almost wholly. She found always a few minutes in every day for a visit to the school-reoin where Grier was exorcising his new vocation. Scant food wherewith to satisfy a .lover. But McLean, not recognizing himself in that character, entertaining tbe divine passion in a smothered condition as it were managed to find existence endurable, if not comfortaHe.

Of course, various disquieting incidents came into those weeks—or rather incidents that might have been disquieting, had put himself into an attitude fer such a result. Socially,be was almost as far removed as ever from her immediate sphere. Men came and went, gifted with all tho graces supposed to be irresistible to young ladles. Grier found his perceptions wonderfully quickened. He who had taken small note of his human surroundings heretofore, knew every one of tbese cavaliers who did homage before the royal Yankee goddess. He knew whose visits lasted longest, with whom she tode, walked, lingered in the sweet May moonlight. And all the while, because ho always had escaped the universal malady, it never occurred to him what lay at the bottom of all this.

m"""1!1

It was with a long breath of relief, his resolution, on ^that thira^ciay. in

however, that he said farewell to his much the same spirit as ho had taken friend Unconsciously the Major held certain hazardous advances in his cam

ClflUoif's search fo°r the'lightfui hei^f ^1? i«'characteristic of the man th all these acres had loft him dead under be had identified himself with his ap his assumed name on the battle-field of parent circumstances, and did not for Peti?bu« on which the newspapers an instant base any future possibilities

"for myself. If ySu would

consult with Major Dare, and allow

•You are

tho fla,b

n™n*d

DOi

"£l!£0to

and keen the b*r*ftw?^n unwonted hesitation shut up when we go this man's lift, the McLeans always -Id, quite coolly.

ilHi

tho allaht«a?aD- Killed

comforting. Once they told him: •Aunt Katals not coming back here

He it

Just a week after that, coming homo from a long solitary walk, there, before the door, stood a pony photon. Across

irons uo woub the cushion ana foot-mat trailed a

rbt bave gone unaer me wmu ao -r to U.<p></p>mBseasp

An old friend, killed In bis room. There waa a confusion of

was in a bad dream.

felt as he was in a bad dream The boys ohattered incessantly. She

they wero now In the riotous, Irrepressible UUW BUOTTHI VU HMVMM ~Z W

She wore white, with some glancing •#fter golden ornaments in tho glow of tbe sunset, the pure clear tints of her face had anew brilliancy.

*^5

aooU on°tl.bat thlMd"?'Id

„e asked a few minutes Interview, aud she granted it at oace. He told her that he must terminate hU engagement with her events had made it necessary for him to go avay.

She did not raise ber eyes. Orcourse she must speak by and by. Grier stood and waited, studying every line of ber face, meanwhile, with the intentness of a man who knows that his opportunities will be few.

I am very sorry,' she said, constrainedly, at last 'but I have no right to ask you to stay. Shall you go away quite at onco?'

Not until my place is filled, if you wish me to stay.' Are you going out of the country, may I ask •I don't know—I have no definite plan.'

Only that tbe place is irksome to you. You have never forgiven the bluudor I made before I went away. I am always blundering, I think,' half petulantly.

It is not that—you have no right to do yourself such Injustice. There is no reason—' and stopped.

No reason, Mr. Crayton I wish you would stay. What am I to do with those dreadful boys?' •Those dreadful boys, Miss Chilton, shall stay under my care until I have a successor, provided the successor comes by the time of your return here.'

Anothor stillness. The tragic minute had gone by. He should go away with safe commonplaces. She was musing with knit brows and clouded face. She spoke suddenly:

I have no right to ask, but will you toll me why you go? Is anything in your position uncomfortable?'

Nothing that you can help. Staying is dangerous, that is all.' •Dangerous? I don't understand her face not quite so innocent of comprehension as her volco.

Because I love you. That is sufficiently explicit? Perhaps you will see that having committed that folly, tbe only remaining thing is to go away.'

She was looking at him steadily, her face very pale, i,' as If sorry

Yes, her lips trembled 'I am He bowed and turned away. She took a single step toward him.

We will part friends? You are not angry ?'—tbe tears not far off. •lam not your enemy, certainlv,' a bitter smile about his Hps 'but—I am not your friend.'

Aud so that was over. Grier was to go to the shore as had been proposed, there to stay till bis successor appeared- Aud then that chapter of his experience waa to close for him.

A week after Miss Cbllton had gone, just as he and his charges wero on tbe eve of departure, McLean Grier fell 111. He had been struggling with disease for days, and when he succumbed, tbe surrender was entire.

Mrs. Prior, finding that the man was really 111, devoted herself to caring for blm with an energy that was purely owing to the illness, and not at all to tho subject. When typhoid developed Itself, and there was a prospect that be would need nursing for weeks, though she sighed a little over her defeated plans, she never thought of abandoning him, even to the servants.

Of course, Miss Chilton learned what had happened. One burning day that

•I'wUh you'd lei1me help yol^If I ^1 way to afternoon, can There are not many ways open, she came. And having como, sbe staid, but'lf you would let me—if you would sgainst Mrs.Prlor's remonstrances and command—I don't mean to Insult you,' entreaties. hurrying on, as If that were easier than And Grier, tossing and moaning in stopping. *i know something of the delirium, guarded still his secret,

u. Ih/tnoh Ilia tallr Mva allrnnMf of a Daat of a past wonder and

toward hopelessness. for Major Dare be

alone held some clue to the sick man's past. But Major Dare was in some remote western wilderness, aud bis return was uncertain. About that time, Dr. Griswold, having spent half an

am verv sorry. hour witb bis fingers on the patients

very kind. I am not angry, pulse, and bis eyes on the livid face, yon do not understand.' started off with tbe air of a man who No.' humbly, 'I see I was wrong.' has a new and somewhat aatonishlng

And then, after a little pause: idea. He went straight to the lawyer I shall go away in the morning. It who had bad the business of tbe Grier by now, Mr. Crayton.' estate la hand for twenty-five years.

Tw Kn diw'n"dfiSTkm®of'emind'dlMp' ^hoto fhffcrmytoil op at th. Orler "'.ToLtotho.

Dr. Griswold baa dispensed pills and po-

He opened tbe door for her without lions forth© neighborhoodias long, and looking at her, bowed as the passed tbe two men had been friends since

her^hlng* Wharfs a rnvsierv^mewbere In

•mIh

°W

at Petersburg, wss he not? think I haven't got so far as the1. But this man, whoever he la, has tbe McLean jaw—I've seen McLeans without it, bat I never saw that peculiar outline without that blood.' 'The papers reported him killed. Miss Chilton left no means ontried to trace him.'

hadafrah.onof taking tbe wrong si3e

of a chance. Any other woman than Mary McLean would have got well where she died. Who knows what that boy haa been about?'

So tho two men went up to tbe hoase where the sick man lay. In that nearing shadow of the grave, oonventlonal scruples slipped out of sight. Miss Chilton assented to the proposal that Crs vton's papers should be searched.

Five minutes gave satisfaction. How"*ever much it might please Orler to masquerade, be baa kept the proofe of bis Identity with scrupulous care. Miss Cbllton, awaiting tbem on the threshold of the room, saw In their faces that something had happened.

Half an hoar later she knew it all. He must get well now,' she said, gravely.

And McLean Grier did get well, and having emerged from that inevitable stage wherein the getting enough to oat is tbe chief concern, he began to notice a difference iu the domestic atmosphere.

After that he was speedily Introduced to bimself. It is astonishing with what facility human nature accepts surprise*. He took the revelation quite calmly, being used to facing disagreeables. "And tkon be askod for Miss Chilton.

That was not quite so easily taken. She had disappeared. Later, having come to his every-day senses about the matter, he bad In tbe old lawyer, and learned^ after what fashion sbe had goue. Everything bad been arranged with as scrupulous care as If she had been going out of the world. There was a letter for him, and that he laid aside till he should bo able to read it by bimself. She had done everything quite ooolly and calmly, and then one night she had gone. The lawyer knew nothing whatever of ber destination or present whereabouts.

Grier said a bard thing or two, but was speedily brought to bis senses. We had uo authority to interfere with the young lady's movements. You were too ill to give us any hint as to your intended proceedings.' fie opened Miss Chilton's letter to himself, after a little. It was written briefly and quietly. Sbe had given up to the rightful heir tbe estate on which she had no moral claim. A deed had been formally executed, putting him into legal possession. Mrs. Prior had taken the three boys under her own care, and so—farewell.

Ho brought bis will to bear on getting well, after that. He dismayed everybody with the rapidity of his convalescence. Before the time appointed for his liberation from dressing-guwn and slippers, he was whirling toward New York. -Mrs. Prior, having a recovered man to deal with, tound her old dislike return upou her with full force—with added acrimony. For was it not his fault that her niece bad stepped out of the sunshine into some unknown depths of shade Mrs. Prior absolutely refused to givo him tbe slightest hint as to Miss Chilton's affairs, and gave him to understand, in no very equivocal terms, that be had better devote bimself to some other object than a search for the missing girl.

But ho did not give it up till three montbs had goue by. Then ho went back to bis empty house, und set himself about living.

It was not so easy to accept this turn of the wheel. The habit of years weighted him. A gentloman In the grain, he could not fail of a certain de-

Kood.ofInpopularity

ree in tho iielghborthose old, sleepy, long-estab-lished communities, the clan feeling is uo mere tradition. The 'king had come to bis own,' and after the first excitement was over and Grler's romantic story had worn oil. a personal liking sprung up.

And he? The empty rooms were haunted by a ghost that swept across tho glimmering lights and shades of his days and nights. He heard her voice, he felt ber presence, and found all other compauionabip somewhat flat and dull. He was an excellent case in point of a man given up to one Idoa.

Being able to afford experiments, be indulged in a wbim or two. Her rooms were Kept as she left tbem. Tbe keys were in his possession. Besides himself and the housemaid who swept away the week's dust, no one ever entered them. He lived bis life as if another and a dearer one lay parallel—divided by tbe barest shadow of distance, and yet wholly beyond bis reach. Tho weeks wore a strange mixture of dreams and reality. Through tbem he never once quite woke up to a sense of bis new responsibilities.

And so the autumn waned. Grier sunk into his isolation as a man or his temperament might be expected to. He bad no thought of consoling himself he accepted his loss as final. It was not likely that she would ever come back, more unlikely that be should ever cross her path. And yet tbe beautlftil vision never vanished from bis thoughts. No other woman would ever take tbe plaoe of this one, no other dream bring with it sucb a sense of loss in vanishing.

Winter came. Half aimlessly, Grier bad drifted into tbe metropolitan maelstrom. He was seized with a wild sur-

rise at the numbers of acquaintances seemed to make. One night, be found himself in oveuing dress presenting a card at the door of a house where somo kind of private entertainment waa being given for tbe benefit of a fashionable charity.

It was after the usual style. Cards out for five hundred, decent accommodations for perhaps two hundred. So tbe halls and staircase and tbe outlvIng rooms were packed with people, who buned and crowded, and maybe secored, and maybe not, a glimpse of proceedings.

Grier was not one of the outsiders. Ills Mat he relinquished, but be stayed in the room because it waa less trouble than the attempt to get out. Affairs on the little stage did not particularly interest him. There were young ladles who sung, and other young ladies who recited, and various tableaux, and a small piece of drama, the asual programme, long enough to sapply two evenings with entertainment.

And then, all at once, It seemed as if tbe rustling, heated room, and tho reatlesa crowd contained In It, wero

Sbe waa reading. 3rd*

w— He became con

scious of tbe words after awhile. It was not so far away from tho war days that the audience had forgotten tbe old sensation. He felt the sympathy tbat bushed the chattering group about him.

For some things are WottMesa, and others to good That nations who buy them pay only in blood."

She raised ber eyes from the page. If she bad known that he was there in the standing circle of dark figures that fringed the room, ber glance could hardly have sought him more directly. And then, on the next line,

And here I pay my share,"

the Voice fluttered—broke—sunk al« [Oonduded on Seventh Page.]

SflfiiialilBli.