lfilM7; a a a III 1 1 II lilf 1 1 111 """'riTcIr- AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY NEWSPAPER. YZ",Zsim?' YQlt VHI, iVoAV Hlooniflcld, Tii., Tuesday, .Time S3, 1874. IVo. 35. IS FUDLISIIKD BVEHT TUESUAT HOHNIHO, BT FEA1TZ MORTIMER & CO., It New Illoomfleld, Ferry Co., Fa. Being provided with Steam Tower, and lnrge Cylinder and Job-Presses, we are prepared, to do nil kinds of JobTrlntlim In good style and at Low Trices. ADVERTISING II ATMS t Trtmtient H Cents per lino Tor one insertion 13 " " ' twolnsertlons 15 three insertions Business Notices In Local Column 10 Cents per line. .For longer yearly adv'ts terms will be given upon application. THE UNFAITHFUL GUARDIAN. CONTINUED. TTT HO can it be ?" said Nellie, sha- T T ding her eyes with her band, and looking down the avenue. " Why, it's Robert Morris, 1 do believe," she continued, as the ritlor appeared through the trees. The boy caught sight of her eager face and waved his cap in a gay salute. Nellie drew back a little ashamed of her own eagerness, but there was a glow of girlish happiness in her checks and eyes which would not be restrained. "You see I am come," exclaimed "the boy, riding up to the steps, and springing off his horse. "Take care of him, John," he said to the servant who approached, " I rode very fast." He hurried up the stops and grasped Nellie's hands, and gave Mrs Dexter a re spectful greeting. M Are you glad to see me, Nellio ?' he asked. " Very glad, Robert, I am always glad," she replied, with her truthful simplicity. "I did not expect you, though." "Of course you didn't, I always come when I am not expected I do everything in that way I like surprises." "And you are very certain of giving us a pleasant one when you come, Robort," Mrs. Dexter said. " Thank you, ma'am, I am glad you like me to come, for I am never quite happy anywhere elso." "Did you see my guardian?" Nellie asked. " No, I called at his house, but he was not in. I have only been home a few days." " We thought you were still South," said Mrs. Dexter ; " we had not heard from you." " Oh, I wanted to astonish you ! Why, Nellie, you are growing tall, I do declare, and your hair is longer than ever." , Nellie laughed and went into the house. Robert seated himself by Mrs. Dexter's side, who smiled kindly-down at him, for he, in spite of bis boyish spirits, was a great favorite with the quiet, placid lady. He had such a frank, generous face, and it Kghted up so pleasantly when ho spoke, that Mrs. Dexter felt her lioart yearn to ward him poor, motherless youth, so very boyish, although he was fust growing into a young man. But he had one of those fortunate natures which avo really fitted for tliis hard world good, sterling sense shrewd, clever talent, which would make him a prominent man not a paiticleof genics, and none of the over sensitiveness which goes with it but a kind heart over flowing with generous impulse, which was better than all. He was a singular contrast te the youth described in an earlier portion of this story night and morning could not have been more uulike. The one was a boy, finding his happiness in the pursuits and pleasures of his age the other had no childhood, and no spring of life tortured by wild dreams and mad hopes, of whose brightness his Ioetic intuition taught him the talsity. Oh, they were a contrast, but Robert Mor ris, though not a genius, would mnke by no means an ordinary or a common-place man, and tiie coarser mould in which his nature had been cast, was much better adapted to this earthly sphere in which we dwell, hemmed in and fettered by bonds which many never fuel, than the dollcato organization of William Bears. " Tea is ready," said Nellie, returning to the verandah ; " come out into the arbor you shall both be my guests ! Here is your shawl, Mrs. Dexter, -I thought you might need it." " You are always thoughtful," said Mrs. Dexter, smoothing down hor fair ringlets ; "you may not boa fairy, but you are a dear, good girl, and that's a better thing I" ' " Now, Robert, you shall sit by me on the green root sofa, Mrs, Dexter shall have the rustic chair, and we will be so very comfortable if my guardian were horo " "Now, that's not polite,"broke iuRobert. "do for once be content with seeing mo." " Well, so I am ; there take your tea, I have put in the extra lump of sugar to show that we are reconciled." They jested and made merry as the hap py of their age should do, and Mrs. Dextor looked on with smiling satisfaction, no re straint to their mirth or enjoyment. " Oh, I had quite forgotten 1" exclaimed Robert, suddenly. "Wait a moment, Nellie !" Ho drew out of his loose sack a small package, and untying it hold up a couplo of neatly bound volumes. "New books 1" said Nellio j "I wanted somothing to read." "Yes, but listen 'Poems, by William Scars !' " " Give me the book do 1 Another vol ume of poems I isn't it astonishing, Mrs. Dexter?" " They were published in England," said Robert, " but a friend sent mo an early copy. They beat his other books all hol low oh, he's vory famous now he's written a play that had great success only fancy it." " Just to thiuk I never saw him, and ho so intimate with my guardian," said Nellie ; " but be hurried off to Europe while I was away." " Well, we've got his poetry at all events," returned Robert, "it's better thait he such an odd fellow as he was." Then they opened the book and began to read. Nellie's check glowing with enthu siasm, and Robert himself looking excited and moved. "But it is so sad," Nellie said, almost below hor breath 4 " oh I how unhappy he must be." " But a despondent, reckloss misery un worthy of a man," said Mrs. Dexter ; "he must have suffered though, poor fel low." " If you want gloom, hoar this, said Robert. Peno., troubled souloh ! suffer aud be itill -Marie In the tailing lorm how lust youth flt-os! Look ou that ueariuir Krave no lone and chill The wue in paat thou d'jat but drain It leoa !" I'Oh! don't read any more," exclaimed Nellie. "I can't bear It, it's so sad 1 I must ask my guardian what tronblcs him I did once, and he said his digestion was bad, that he -would cat all sorts of trash, and out of that came the poetry fancy what a speech!" " There .may bo more truth in it than you imagine," returned Robert, while he and Mrs. Dexter laughed heartily at her look of profound horror. -Dn't you think poets have to eat?" ' " Oh, I don't know 1 but I am very sure Mr. Soars is unhappy." "Mr. James says a bilious man always is," said Mrs. Dexter ; and then the two children for they were little else laughed again not that they were unsympathizing orlow to fool but from very light-hearted hobs. " Ilore is auothor book, Nellio a novel,' that is dividing popular favor in England with Sear's poems. 'Resignation,' by Catharine Grant." " What a singular name 1 but as sad as possible." lie opened tUo book and read -on until the gathering twilight rendered it impossible to distinguish the words. Then they en tared the house, and continued the perusal ot that book, which filled NeUio's wholo soul with the iutorest fiction possesses for the young. CHAPTER VI. And now we will follow our wanderers across the sea, and leave these young folks to enjoy their books. Pacing up and down his solitary room, restless and impatient the old fovcr burn ing ia his eyes and lightning up the weary face, was William Sears 1 Three years before, lie had left America, had wandered far, won fame and distinc tion, but the nameless desire which deso lated hi boyhood was still unquietcd. The dreams of the past had given place to the reality of life, but he found nothing now, nothing which he had not before un derstood by those mysterious intuitions which are tho blessing or the curse of na tures like his. The fresh laurels with which they crowned his brow only cast another shadow ovor his heart. Praise never once dazzled him into, forgotfulness of the wearing pain within and William Sears, famous and the idol of the day, waa as utterly alone as the dreaming boy of six years; before, ' ' Of all these things was he meditating as he paced his lonely chamber. The moon light lay without hazy and beautiful, the soft spring wind blew in at the casement, and the hum of a great city was borne faintly up with a musical murmur like the flow of far off waters. The solitude at last became intolerable he wanted to hear voices gay music and hastily changing bis dress, ho went out into the thronged streets of that brilliant Parisian world. "Sears, is it possible? Why, my dear boy I thought you had become a regular case of mysterious disappearance." William was standing in one of the stalls of the Italian Opera, whore he had strayed for want of amusement, and turned with quick gayoty to answer his friend. In a moment his thoughts had fled the prima donna burst into a flood of song, giving him an excuse for silonce, but the melody was equally unheeded. A thrill passod like a magnetic shock through his frame, and by its revelation he knew that some event of importance was at hand ; for fool ish as it may sound, there are natures so suscoptible to those mysterious influences which find a source in some unknown law of our being, that they ait) thus affected by the approach of those who are to ex erciso a control over their destiny, whether for good or ill. " Scars glanced across the house his eyes rested upon a box nearly opposite he bo held the face whtoh ho had twice seen, years before, but which had haunted him like a prophetic vision. Often had it risen in fancy before him, sometimes as palpable as now, and for an instant ho could have believed that it was only the work of his excited imagination. " Do you see that woman in whito yon der?" whispered his friend. Scars was breathless beneath the startled bound which his heart gave. "There, in that box you must know her you re member my powers of magnetism I tell you that sho is akin to you 1 One of your countrywomen 'you have read her books the first was published anonymously Ingola." It was the romanco William had so lov ed, with which he had always connected that woman's memory ! "Who is she?" he asked, in a tone which sounded indifferent and cold. "Mrs. Grant Catharine too isn't she like one of Shakspeare's heroines stepped into the real world t She interests me strangely, as sho does every one who comes near her. Such eyes! one might think she wore constantly awaiting some one who never came, U10 sound of a voice which would never reach her ear." ."True, truo, for it nover comes," mut tered William, " never i" " Let me present you, I know her very well now, that's a lie, for she is ice to everybody 1 At all events we exchange bows and polite, frozen speeches I want you to know her." "Another time," said Sears, hastily; " not now." Sears turned agaia toward the box whore he had been gaxing. Tbore it was still, that face, in its spiritual quiet, beyond any mere beauty that he had evor beheld. Her eyes were flxod upon the stage, but Sears remarked the expression of which Duval had spoken. She did look like one who hod awaited for years the coming of footsteps and the sound of a voice awaited them in passive wretchedness, with no power to arouse herself from tho engrossing do sire. How his heart weut back to that lonely evening ride of the long uga,' when tho sight of that face first sent a glow to his heart like the transitory breaking of sun light over dark waters. Every painful memory of his past lifo welled up ou the troublod tide every unquiet aspiration, every restless dream then ho looked again upon that broad forehead, where the bands of hair lay like waving light, and the tu mult in his breast was stilled as if by mag ic power. sOuval turned toward him at tho conclu sion of tho aria, and wondered at tho change In his face. " What has come over you ? you look " " How do I look ?" " I can't describe I am no poet, only a' painter I You look as if you had found a new hope." "Ay, a new hope," murmured William, and tho whisper thrilled liko music across his heart, " a new hope." " I say, William, what has happoncd? tell me, what is it ? Are you only dream ing? afpoetio fancy perhaps." "Perhaps," faltered William, and the light faded from his eyes, the glow from his check there had come the thought if it should prove only a dream, a delusion like the rest. Strange, but even in that momeut Scars hesitated 1 The interview of which he had so long dreamed was at hand, yet he trem bled some premonition from the future seemed to moan in his ear. lie felt that the whole course of his life was to know a change that all coming time would be colored by the events which should grow out of that meeting, and therefore it was with a strange feeliug of awe, that he ac companied his friend to the box to receive the promised introduction. " Don't touch that everlnsting pen to day, mistress, I am sick of the sight ot it." "You ought not to abuse it Janet, we are growing quite rich through its assis ance.'? "And you are wearing yourself out, mistress; surely we've got money enough now to live here quiet and nice, since you've giveu over flitting about." "Ah, Janet, I have nothing now to in duce me to wander farther you know well, that nover in this world shall I find that which I sought so long." " I didn't moan to make you think of that mistreBs don't got sad, oh, don't 1" " Do not fear, Janet, the thought that my sister is dead brings mo no pain ; it was only the knowledge that she was living, and that I could never see her, which madden ed mo ; now I know that one day we shall meet whore no human power can part us." " Ah, you are an angel, mistress, dar ling 1 Now let me lay these papers all away, and don't touch them again this morning. See, here is a book the verses you like to read so much take this while I go out." Catharine suffered the kind old woman to remove the sheets of manuscript, and when ' sho was alone sat idly holding the volume the attendant had placed in her hand, bnt making no effort to read. Some thing of the old unrest had gone out of that face, there was a patient, melancholy sadness in the lineaments, but tho fover and passion of grief had faded, leaving neither gayoty nor happiness, but an un murmuring submission beautiful to look upon. Hor sister, the little child so watched and cared for, so eagerly sought and wildly mourned, was dead at least these were tho tidings that came after two or three years spent in fruitless search. After that she sank down wholly, prostrated by a terrible illness, which was the result of toil aud wearisome journeyingstoand fro, when ever there seemed the slightest possibility of obtaining information concerning the dear one. For weeks the angel of death hovered about her couch, and faithful Janet Brown watched upon the other side ; human love and tenderness were for once rewardod, and Catharine recovered. She hod labored faithfully, and only as those who tax body and soul, devoting all her earnings to that search for her lost sister. Several works had been given to the world, attracting much attention from their singularity and the genius displayed in their pages, and the popular favor thus gained had furnished her with sufllcient means to live at least with comfort and elegance. But the child was doad she had nothing to struggle or hope for more ! At longth, another and not loss important aim pre sented itself that doubt which rested upon her post upon tho numo which she had cast aside, choosing to work 0110 out for herself could she live to clear it could the mysterious plot but be unraveled and laid bare 1 For this she now toiled and bore on ; not so much for her own sake, as to leavo no stain upon the memory of her doad husband in tho minds of those to whom the misery of that time had been revealed. Was thore still another reason now had lifo suddenly caught a gush of sun light which never brightened it bofore? A month hud passod since her mooting with that passionato-soulod poet, whoso lays had so long thrilled hor heart with their fervid eloquence a month iu which had been conccntiatcd a whole life of rest and happiness to tho fiery heart of that youth who had so long sought in vain the likeness of that ideul form which reigned supreme within his bosom. Was it of these weeks that she dreamed, sitting there in her silence, with those earnest eyes seeming to look far boyond the prcseut scene, to catch a glow from the tranquil beauty whereon she gazed? Thore was a low knock at the door, and unannounced, William Soars entered the chamber. That month had changed him greatly ; the worn, tired look about the eyes was goue the proud, impatient curv ing of the mouth had softened into a smile, which changed the whole expression of his face into one of even child-like sweetness. " I did not think to find you at home," be said, iu a voice whoso softness a casual acquaintance would hardly have recognized " so I came in to wait for you even to wait here is a great pleasure to me." Catharine smiled dreamily, and a faint sbado of color stole into her checks. " I have been in doors all morning," she said, in her clear, distinct tones ; " I meant to have written, but Jauet positively for bade that, so I have been reading I be lieve " " Dreaming, you mean 1" " How do you know that ?" " By your eyes. I can see tho bewil dering fancies playing there still." "And you what havo you been doing since last evening?" " Wondoring if last mouth were all a dream, and if I must at length wake again to the suffering which went before." "Never, I hope," she Baid, gently; "never again." "No, at least I shall have the memory of these weeks to look back upon, even fate cannot deprive me of that." " Fate is often kinder than man, I am not afraid of her it is only the agency of human beings that I dread. ' "Those ldefyl" " Because you have never been placed in a position where one man could take your whole future destiny into his hands and fling it out wheresoever he willed, and you powerless to struggle against the misery forced upon you, unable even to point the source from whence it came." " I cannot understand that it is one of those mysterious allusions which you make at times but never explain I will not have you sadden yourself on me this morning 1 I wonder if you know how much happiness you have given me during these weeks 1" "Havel iudeed? Yon make me very happy when you tell me that I yet possess the power of giving pleasure to any living soul, Mr. Sears." "You promised not to call me by that cold, formal name say William !" Ho sat down on a low ottoman at her feet, with that winning childishness of manner which he could assume at will, but which had nothing unmanly in it. "William, she murmured; "it is a pleasant name, 1 do not wonder you like to hear it." " It sounds very sweet to me when you repeat it," he replied, not in the tone of one paying a compliment, but raising bis eyes to her face full of beautiful revela tions, to which no language could havo givon expression. " You were to read to me this morn ing. " she said ; " have you forgotten your promise ?" " Do I ever forget? It is only a fragment from my new tragedy I want your advice and assistance." " I who have never written a line of . poetry the idea of my advising you I" " You have never written a page which was not teeming with it ! I don't consider that language must be divided into a cer tain number of feet and lines in order to bo pootry." " I am glad you think so I was afraid it was only another of my heresies which gave me the belief. But como, I must not be cheated out of my reading. Take this easy-chair poets should have lofty seats." So he sat and read to her those burning poesies, while her face was as a glass in which he saw mirrored every varying emotion called up by his tones. He ceased at length and closed the vol ume, waiting for a moment in a silence which Catharine did not strive to break. " Shall I complete the tragedy?" he ask ed, at length ; " is it equal to my last one ?" " You feel, you know that it is immeas urably superior you could not leave it un finished if you would." It is superior," be replied, "because I have caught my inspiration from a higher source I thought of you as I wrote, and in the intervals of my labor I have sat down in the sunshine of your presence until my whole soul was kindled with it." "That past seems I can hardly realize that it was I who thus suffered and strug gled ! Tell me that I shall never be con demned to return to it promise me that you will keep uie from that terrible agony which was like madness." " If I have any poVer to bring you peace it shall never come upon you again," she replied, iu a low, steady voice, which was like an inward prayer ; "never again." " Bless you for thoso words, Catharine I During these weeks I have lived so wholly in their happiness, 1 had tcarcely told you of my past." "The past," sho answered, and her clasped hands began to tremble, "the past I" 'But you know how I havo suflered,and you will not condemn me 1 Speak to me, Catharine, assure me that is indeed the real lifo tell me that you love me." "Your words have wakened me," sho said, in a changed tone, and the light went out of her face, leaving it pale aud cold ; " why did you break the spell with that terrible word ? I too have had a past a past of which you know nothing, but I can be silent no longer." " There is no gulf so deep," he inter rupted, " that my great love cannot bridge it over no cloud so dark that the sun shine beyond will not disperse it." Ho rose from his seat and would have taken her to bis heart, scarcely heeding the almost terrified expression of her face. "Catharine," he murmured, "my Cath arine I" Before she could answer or stir from her shrinking attitude the door opened, and without warning some one entered the chamber ; tho sotiud aroused them each looked toward the door William started forward iu amazement, but Catharine sank back in bur seat, pale and ligid as if some ghop.t of past suffering had suddenly started up before her thore in the door-way, calm and impassive, stood Mr. James I" To be continued. 1
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