F Jit si J 7. M ft It TIM EU, ) Editor and Proprietor. i Vol. XV. (Ll) Ulnomfitlb (fimr Is Published Weekly, At New Bloomfleld, Penn'ai. BY FRANK MORTIMER. SUBSCRIPTION TE11MS. ONE DOLLAlt 1'Elt YEAll ! OR lO CENTS PElt MON'TII, IIY A.1V-A.ISTC1C. ROMANCE IN A RAILWAY. I1Y JUSTIN M CAKTIIY. T WO YOUNG BARRISTERS travelling from London to Live pool, took their scats one evening in a first-class carriago of tlie five o'clock express at the Enston Square si atiou a Nat ion known, I ventui o to think, to every American wlio lias ever invaded the old country. There were only two other seats occupied iu the compart ment entered by the two young men. Two ladies at least a lady and her maid were the other occupants. The lady was young and pale and pretty ; the maid was a fresh blooming, round-eyed north country girl tho moment she spoke a word her ac cent made it plain to one of tho two advo cates, himsolf from the lakeland of North ern England, that the girl came from dear old Cumberland. Two gentlomen, one ap parently tho young lady's father, attended her to the carriago door, aud waited at tho door until tho train actually moved off. They both, especially the one who seemed to exercise parental authority over tho young lady, kept incessantly casting ex pectant, eager, suspicious eyes about tho platform, as if they looked for or dreaded the arrival of somebody. These little facts tho two barristers, accustomed to note small things and construct them into ev idence, observed almost unconsciously, and by the sheer force of habit. Tho older man whom both tho youths learned in law assumed to bo tho father of the departing young lady, at last nodded significantly to tho other.and said, in a low tone, " It is all right Cunningham. Ho is not hero. Thank Ucavcn !" "Ho can't como now," said tho other. "It would not havo much mattered even if ho did," tho elder observed. "Ho should not havo exchanged a word with her not one word I But I'm glad to escape scones and tears and confusion for all that." Tho lady in the carriage had heard noth ing of this. She sat at the farther side of her compartment. Doubtless what was said would never havo been spoken were she near enough to hear it. One of our lawyer friends, however did hear it in fact, ho could not help himsolf; ho had no chanco but to hear. Tho elder of tho two speakers had taken a farewell of tho girl whon he put her into the carriage that is, ho kissed her very coldly, and said good-bye, and added a few whispered words which seemed to bo something in tho nature of a caution or a nienaco. Now, as the train moved off, ho only nodded a farewell. He had a form ally handsome faco, regular, cold, and harsh, with thin lips and very white teeth. Tho train then wont on, and soon whirled through tho pleasant suburbs of that side of London, and away into the open coun try. Tho young lady seemed very melancholy and absorbed. Sho replied gracefully to a few civilities and attentions offered by tho two barristers, but was evidently not much inclined to any manner of conversation. 8ho exchanged a few words every now and thou with her maid, but for tho most part remained silent. It was growing to bo lato in autumn, and dusk soon began to como on. Tho evening AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY IVov Blooiuliold, 3Pjx., October -4. 1870. was soft and beautiful : the faco of tho country looked tender and poetic, with all its autumnal chai-m and melancholy grace around it. Our two friends talked together on many subjects, at first iu a low tone, then as the young lady appeared to bo asleep, or wholly absorbed in her own thoughts they begau to speak a little more freely and loudly. Something or other, perhaps tho gray poetic sadness of tho evening, set them talking of tho old world ghosts tho dear delightful, torturing, hair-lifting, blood-chilling spec tres who used to haunt our childhood. They actually began telling each other ghost stories, and did not observo tho shuddering terror of tho Cumberland lass, who could hardly sit still in her seat, so great was her interest, excitement, and superstitious dread. "I don't know," said ono of the two young men, Lewis Rossmore by namo, "why railways should be supposed to havo necessarily banished ghosts. I can quite imagino a ghost making his appearance in this veiy train, for instance." "Can you?" replied Fred Sargent, "I confess I can't ; but I think you Northmen near the Scottish border, have more imagi nation than we prosaic cockneys." At tho same.timo ho happened to irlance at tho young lady in tho corner, and her pale sad faco seemed ghostliko enough in tho gray evening light. Sargent thought for a moment of tho legend of tho company who sat ono evening telling ghost stories until at last the turn came to a pale young lady who had been silont all tho time, and who now when invited to contribute her sharo to tho entertainment, said, in a low, tone less voice, " I have no ghost story to tell, but I am a ghost myself 1" and so van ished. "Yes," pursued Lewis Rossmoro ; "I can easily imagine it ; and I think it could be done with rather fiuo effect. Look here, Sargent, take a note of this idea, and make something of it for ono' of the magazinos. Two people, are traveling alono in a rail way tho express and havo just passed ono of the only stopping-places Behold as the train is rushing at full speed across tho open country, fifty milos an hour, and tho ovening is growing dark, like this, thoy suddenly perceive that ono of tho scats has an occupant, whoso presence was not ob served before " " God's sako ! don't ye go on in that way," broke in tho Cumberland girl, un able t o contain herself any longer. " Don't ye go on so, gentlemen ; it's enough to raise a ghost right i' the midst of us all t" Tho young men laughed at first but tho superstitious fear of the poor girl was so obviously genuino and profound that Ross moro discontinued his goblin invention, and they reassured hor and talked for a few moments of something else. Then tho train stopped for ilvo minutes at the ono only station where it was to niako any halt during tho long journey. Ko one got out of the compartment in which our friends were, and no ono got into it ; and when the train had fairly moved off, and our two friends felt securo against further distur bance, they settled themselves for sleep. Tho young lady appeared to bo already asleep. Both yoftig men slept. Suddenly a loud shriek caused both to startup and rub their eyes. It was tho Cumberland giil who had given tho alarm. " It's a ghost ! it's a ghost !"' sho c; ied. " That's what conies of your deviltry and your talk you've brought a ghost among us !" The evening had sunk into almost com plete darkness ; tho ono lamp, the highest luxury in tho way of illumination, to which even first-class passengers in an English ex press aro ijeated, was burning very dimly ;i but it needed httlo light to seo that the' was a fitih figure in the caniage the j of a man. Therehevas assuredly ; a tall slender man, stooping because of the low ncss of tho roof, and apparently about to take tho scat, which was vacant, opposite to that on which the youns: lady was seated. She had started up with a half scream on hearing her servant's alarm ; but tho back of tho mysterious intruder was turned to her and she perhaps, saw nothing sui-prising in his presence. Both the young lawyers however, saw something very surprising in it. An Eng lish railway train cannot possibly bo enter ed by any ono after it has moved from the station Nor has it any outer platform or other means of communication, by which passengers can go from ono can iage into another. Tho carriages open at the sides and each first-class coach is a room closed up and complete in itself. Nobody had entered this compartment when it stopped at tho station ; nobody could have eutered it since then ; yet hero was a fifth occupant where only four wei e present before. "Hallo ! who are you?" exclaimed Sar gent. How did you get in where tho devil did you como from?" fiercely demanded Ross more. " It's a ghost 1" sobbed tho Cumberland girl, 'faithful to her original hypothesis. " Don't bo alarmed, gentlemen'" the in truder very calmly observed. "You havo not a ghost among you ; although if I had remained under cover a little longer, it is quite possible you might have had a ghost in tho carriage before the end of the jour ney." But tho sound of his voice created a new agitation. The young lady sprang from her seat and cried out, "Oh, Harold! my dear Harold 1" aud throw herself upon his neck, and sobbed and laughed and sobbed again, and committed other such extrava gances, to which the intruder lent himself wuh great apparent cordiality, giving back embrace for embrace, and with compound interest. Tho Cumberland girl said, " God be guido to us it's Master Harold himself!" Tho two barristers resumed their scats and looked on much amazed, but with that outward calmness which distinguishes vour true Briton under almost all conceivable circumstances. The intrudor, whoever he might be, was clearly neither ghost nor robber. " Olf, Harold !" exclaimed tho young la dy : "how did you come here ? Whero did you get in ; and what havo you come for ?" "Come for? "Why, to seo you love, of course. They thought they were quite safe, I beliove, when they were a littlo mis taken. "We'll surprise them a littlo more yet, Alice." " But how did you como here, Harold !" "Do satisfy our curiosity, sir," Sargont interposed. "It is really quite lesitimato on our part, seeing that your sudden ap pearance looks very much like a fraud up on the railway company, of which for aught you know, my friend and I may bo leading directors and then you are posi tively accused of being a ghost." Tho young man laughed. " Gentloman," he said, " You shall have a full explana tion. I have been for years engaged to this young lady. Lately her mother who was a widow, thought fit to marry again, and her now husband, this young lady's step-father you saw him at tho station to clay de tests mo, has poisoned his wife's mind against mo, and has persuaded her to re fuse her consent to our marriage, of which she quiio approved two years ago per haps because we were then too young to many. I am going to the West Indies, and may bo absent Heaven kuows how long and they had set their hearts upon pre venting mo from seeing . Alice before I go. Now I had, very naturally, set my heart on seeing her; and yet I didn't care to ask her to do any thing directly in opposition to hor mother's commands." " Quite right, sir," said Rossmore, with a look of infinite solemuity. " Vei y commendable indeed," added Sar gent, paternally. " So," Harold continued, "I found that NEWSPAPER. she was being sent back to tho ctmntry to day, in order to get her quickly out of my way and my course was clear." " Don't see it yet," murmured Sargent. "Don't you seo it? I camo to Euston Station, took a ticket to Liverpool so you perceive there is no question of fraud on tho company used audacious efforts iu the way of bribery, and thus induced the guard, first to allow mo to hido undor tho scat, and ne.it to manage so that the young lady, whoso photograph I showed him, should bo conducted into this particular carriago. Gcntlomon, this was done, and, in short, hero I am." " Lucky that you we e not smothered," said Sargent. "Or shot as a robber, on emerging from your hiding-place," said Rossmoro. "Dear Harold, how you must havo suf fered," Alice whispered. Ho pressed her hand tenderly. "Why did you not como out befoe?" sho asked. Harold smiled. "Blamo these gentlo men for that," he said. "They will not bo offended if I say that I thought them just a little de trop ; and I fancied, from something they said, they were about to get out at tho station we have just passed, and so I waited. But when I found they were coming the whole way, I saw it was useless waiting any longer, and I came out, and nearly frightened poor Polly thero" (the servant) "out of her senses." " Very sony we should have been in you t way sir," said Sargent. "But it may in terest you to know that I am the very pro foundest sleeper who ever traveled in a train, and that I feel terribly sleepy al ready." " And I said Rossmoro can hardly keep my eyes open." So the discreet ban isters at onco turned round in their seats, coiled themselves up, and closed their eyes, and were apparently buried in slumber deep enough for the Em peror Barbarossa or the Sleeping Beautv in her immortal wood. Then Harold sat besido Alice, and took her hand in his ; and the servant, Polly, seemed to follow the example of her legal travelling companions, and sink into sleep. So Alice and Harold talked and talked, and were happy. About to part, apparently for years, yet they were happy in the pres ent. Surely that is ono of tho most excel lent and exquisite properties of love ex quisite in its delight and iu its pain that it nover looks beyond tho present hour, but finds happiness now in a momentary meet ing, though the agony of a long parting threatens near at hand agony now in a momentary parting, although tho hope of a spoedy re-union may smilo and offer conso lation. These two then weie happy for the hour. But after all, tho whole journey fiom Lon don to Liverpool by express is only some five hours affair ; and two hours had been wasted before our advent urous lover emerg ed from his concealment. So tho prospect of Liverpool and scpara; ion began to look very threatening and imminent ; aud Har old, dreading and dotes; ing tho thought of such a parting, began to urge a wild propo sal. Why should they not escape at Liver pool tako tho first train in tho morning only a very few hours to wait and go on to Scotland and be married there ? Then let tho family do its worst ; and Harold would not go to tho West Indies, but would push a caiecr at homo. Or, oven if they had to go, ho would at least leave behind him a wedded wife, whom no ill-conditioned step father could tako from him. " Bo my wife como and bo my wifo that first ; that of all hazards !" So rang tho refrain of the passionate outpouring which for nearly an hour Harold kept whispering into Alice's ear. The girl had spirit enough, and was not unwilling to yiold. Indeed, thero were few risks life could offer which sho was not ready to encounter rather than to go back to the dreary and odious home life, with Harold far away. Now sho was being sent, Terms: IX ADVANCE One Dollar per Year. IVo. -tO. as she perfectly well knew, t tho custody of an uncle and aunt in Liverpool, in order that sho might bo kept out of tho way un til Harold should have left London and gone out to the West Indies, where he hoped to make a fortune. " But, Harold, dear," the girl whispered, "the thing is impossible. My uncfe will be at the station waiting for mo with, the car riage. Do you think ho would be likely to fail into our plans ?" "No, Alice ; I have thought of that. If you have courage and I know you have and are very quick, wo can escape ancldefy him. Now listen, and don't bo afraul. Just before we get to Liverpool the train enters a tunnel, and insido the mout& of the tunnel we stop for a minute a bare mo ment to make sure that all is clear. I will havo the door open, and I will tako you in my arm and got out ; it will be perfectly easy and safe ; and Polly shall follow witli out ono instant of delay. Then wo hoi our breaths, and stand in the darkness closo up to tho tunnel wall for only a mo ment, until the train rushes by ; and then we get quietly out, take to the road, get a caniage at tho nearest inn, and drive to any station on the lino where we can wait for the Scottish mail. Your uncle will ouly suppose that you have put off coming for a day; he will grumblo and wait for you to-morrow with out doing or even suspecting any thinr, and then it will be too late." "If we are killed" "Dearest, do you think I would expose you to any danger?" "No, Harold, it was not that. I was only going to say that if we aro killed I mean if we are killed wo shall bo killed together !" Harold embraced his intrepid and des perate fiancee, and tho plan was resolved on. A few whispered words conveyed the whole to stout-hearted Polly, who had a romantic heart, and would have gone with these lovers any whero leaped with them out of an express train flying at full speed rather than desert thorn. The moments went by ; tho tunnel was near ; tho two youug hamsters had long since been fast asleep in good reality ; Harold softly open ed the door, and stood closo to it with Alice in his arms ; tho faithful Polly loaded her self with such of her mistress's cloaks and shawls and things as she could attempt to carry ; the train began already to slackon its speed ; they were at the mouth of the tun nel; Harold said, in a whispor, "Now, love !" And Alice shut hcreyes, and press ed hor face against his shoulder. Tho train rattled and crushod through the echoing tunnel. Tho hollow, hideous reverberations aroused our sleeping barris ters. Sargent started up, and rubbed his eyes. "Hallo, Rossmoio, this is tho Edgehill Tunnoll ! Wo shall be in Liverpool in a momont. Shake yourself up, old boy !" "All right," replied Rossmore, yawning. "Glad we're in. But I say, Sargent look hero why did wo stop anywhere ?" " Of course not. Why do you ask ?" "Then where are our fellow-travellers?" " Good Heavens ! To be sure, where are they? I forgot all about them. But they were hero that's certain ; and wo stopped at no station, and now they are gone P " Confound it, I nover knew anything like that ! That man, Harold, whoever he was, camo in mysteriously, and uow ho lias gono out even more mysteriously, and spir ited away tho two women along with him !" " I say, Rossmore, how if your sugges tion of this evening should have turned out a prediction? Havo we had ghosts in our railway train?" Both laughed both were incredulous ; aud tho train rushed into the crowded, bust ling, blazing station at Liveipool. Our friends spoko to the guard of the train, who was much amazed at first to hoar of tho disappearance of tho three passengers ; but ho seemed to think that, in the easo of so audacious'a lover as Harold Rivers, any thing was possible and then, there was a momentary stoppage in tho tunnel. So tho ban isters made no further inqui ries, but took it for granted that all was right somehow, and went to their hotel. They heard tho end of tho story, how ever, even before they returned to London, for they met Harold Rivers and his youn" wifo in Liverpool ten days after. The pair had just returned from Scotland, where they were married. They had, of course, written off" at onco to Alice's mother, an nouncing their marriage, and thoy were in good hopo that sho would soon accept tho ' ' "J wwm nituiu IU Willi, H 111- tlo, for they were married and happy, and Harold had mado up his mind that he would not go to the West Indies.
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