An Old Man's Darling

of Eternal Justice. In the stillness of the summer night while he rested in fancied security beneath his own roof-tree, the angel of sleep pressing

g

sed by that piercing shriek of agony-and found him sitting there dead, with Bonnibel lyi

rlet stain on his white vest where the deadly weapon had entered his heart. The blood h

r, looking at the dismal scene. Her pale face was paler than ever, and her large, black eyes looked wildly about her. She made no effort to arrest her mother's frenzied cries, but stood

yes upon the faces around her just as a shrill and piercing whistle announced the departur

e of that lifeless form, Felise Herbert, just waking from her apparent trance

one this dreadful deed. That was what he

illed him!" echoed

cried out fiercely, wild with grief and horror; then suddenly she looke

idle? Why does not some one bring a doctor?

e pale corpse down stairs that would nevermore want the physician's potent art. They had taken her by

d without a good-bye kiss, without a forgiving word, you are gone from me into the darkness of death! They have killed you, my dear one!-who could have bee

ng wish. She had rushed out of the house in a fit of anger, and moped about the seashore until late into the night. Then she had returned, and seeing him s

eld next day, blushing crimson when they asked

r," she answered, hesitatingly.

her it was

drove him away from the house with cruel, insulting wor

very angry wit

unkind to me before, but indulged me in every wish, and petted me as my own father might have done had he lived. I was almost wild at first with surprise and an

om, threw herself down upon the bed, from which she did not rise again for many weeks. Grief and excitement prec

ing-room windows which opened out on the piazza they had overheard the conversation between the two men relative to Bonnibel, and they detailed every word, maliciously misrepresenting Leslie Dane's indignant words so as to place the

is. If she had known she might easily have cleared her lover from that foul charge by provi

nce at a darker hour than this, and at

uried from thence with all the pomp and splendor[Pg 22] due to his wealt

sick unto death in her luxurious chamber, tended carefully by hirelings and strangers,

d adrift now on the wide sea, and the kindly uncle l

ng so feebly day by day, that it seemed as if it must surely go out in darkness. They were all who heard the wild, passionate

weeks, attending to business affairs and superintending

Bonnibel. She sincerely hoped that the girl would di

r illness and desolation, would willingly have died

the bed waiting for the crisis that the doctor had said would come at midnight.

eslie Dane. It was rumored that he had sought refuge in a foreign land, but nothi