LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1665, 21 June 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

DOOMED. BY ETTA W. PIBRCB. ( Concluded,) One afternoon when, at my own request, I had been left alone, I arose from the slippery, harsh hair sofa, and stole out into the graveyard. The rusty gate creaked as I passed through. I stumbled through the nettles and blackberry vines till I reached the family lot. There -I knelt down and laid my face on Emily’s grave. ‘Oh, Emily ’ I sobbed, ‘why do you torment me T I have tried, I try still, to keep yon in his memory. I do, indeed! Leave me in peace. I have lived suoh a little while 1 Oh, I cannot die ! I cannot die 1’ A step came hastily through the grass at my side. Somebody bent over me—lifted me up. ‘ Hetty!’ cried the shocked voice of Philip Kent. * What are you doing here, Hetty V * Leave me alone,’ I answered, straggling with the arm which held mo. ‘I am doomed!’ He gathered me to his side, and wrapped his cloak around me. ‘ Hush! hush! You are not doomed 1 You need only be removed from these associations to become well and strong. You hare no settled malady.’ I pointed to the vacant corner. * Do you see that P It is waiting for me. I have been warned. In two months I shall lie here,’ 1 Hetty, Hetty, what do you mean f Neither in two months, nor in two years, nor in two score years, please God, shall you lie here ? I shall take you far from this place. Here, by Emily’s grave, I ask you to let me save you. Be my wife, Hetty, and leave this place forever.’ He kissed mo again and again on brow and eyes and mouth. For one raptuious moment I lay powerless in his embrace ; then with a despairing cry, I broke away. * Oh, let me go 1 ’ I cried, ‘You must not say such things ! You must think only of Emily! I dare not listen to you—l dare not 1’ ; Hetty, I began by loving Emily in you, and now—l know not how it is—you two stem merged in one. She lives In you, and my love to you is my loyalty to her ! ’ ‘ Oh, stop I ’ I shuddered. * You deceive yourself. Why do you talk to me of love ? i 'eath is bitter enough without that. Hero ia my grave waiting for me, and I shall fill it before the snow falls! ’ He held my hands and looked into my eyes. ‘I cannot be angry with you, Hetty,’ he answered, in a tone of infinite tenderness, * for I see that you are wild with excitement. I have but one question to ask you. Do you love me ? ’ Love him ? Yes, in spite of all the treachery to Emily which such a confession implied, I did, and told him so with bitter tears. Martha Dynock was down on the parlor hearth, coaxing the parlor fire into a blaze as we entered. ‘ You are imprudent, Hetty, to bo out such a night,’ she said. Philip Kent seized my hand, and led mo forward to the fire. * Martha,’ said he, ‘if you have any influence with Hetty, use it now. I love her with all my soul and strength. I wish to marry her, and take her abroad ; and she drives me wild with talk of treachery to Emily. Speak to her. She will die if she is not removed from this place, and swiftly. Persuade her to listen to me ’ Martha Dynock stood like a stone, as gray and rigid, staring first at him and then at me, ‘Don’t speak to me !' she gasped, * I hate you ! How dare you talk of love to a poor creature marked for the grave ’And you ask Hetty to outrage her sister’s memory, to think of you and marriage? And Martha Dynock is the same to you as she always was—a stick, a stone, an ugly woman i ’ I did not wait to hear more. She had loved him a long time, no doubt, I left him confronting her and flaJ to my own chamber. Ha came no more, Philip Kent had left me with her to die. One dismal twilight, as I was creeping down the stairs, in the dark hall at the foot, Emily appeared suddenly. She lifted to mine her face. She raised one shadowy hand with the old stern, warning gesture, and with a great shriek I fell headlong down the stairs, and there I lay till Miss Dynock found me and carried me to my sofa. ‘ I have been warned for the third time. I am going to die at once ! ’ I cried. ‘ It ia my duty, Hetty, to call the minister to talk with you about your soul. You looked unusually bad to-night. It’s plain to me the end is not far off.’ She lighted the lamp, tucked me up on the sofa, and went out, locking the door behind her—that is, locking me into the cottage. A step in the garden walk around me, I ran to the window. I cautiously lifted the sash and peered forth, and lo! the blue eyes cf Philip Kent looked steadily into mine 1 •I cannot let you in,’ I called, “for the door is fast, and Miss Dynock has the key.’ ‘I watched her,’ he answered, * I do not want to como ia. It is you who must come out to me, Hetty. Put on your hat and jacket —a thick one, mind. Do, darling !* ‘The door is fast, I tell you.’ ‘ But there is the window.’ I forgot Miss Dynock, I forgot Emily’s ghost, I forgot that I was going to die. I put on my hat and walking-jacket, and, scrambling over the sill, dropped into his out-stretched arms. ‘ Have you missed me, Hetty V very humbly and lovingly. . 4 Oh, so much 1’ I answered,

‘ How thin yon have grown —how pale I I have been watching the cottage all tbs week for a chance to Bee you.’ He drew me through a aide gate into the darkening village street. I looked around, and saw near us a carriage. Before I could speak, Philip Kent lifted me in, and took a seat beside me. The next moment we wer e rolling rapidly down the street. * But 1 am in a wrapper 1’ I cried, in snddon dismay; ‘and my hair is dresaed like a mandarin’s. I really cannot go ! Besides, Mies Dynook has gone to bring the minister to talk with me about my soul!’ A quiet laugh stole into" his eyes and rippled round hia lips. ‘Your wrapper does not matter in the least, and your hair ia suberb. As for Martha and the minister, let them cultivate the goodly gift of patience, [for I do not intend to bring you back for hours to come.’ * What are you doing V I cried oat. ‘ Where are you going.’ Ho pressed my face against breast and kissed. ‘My darling, I am running away with you! lam going straight to Springfield to be married ! You shall never see Martha Dynock, or that abominable cottage and its graveyard, till yon are my wife!’ ‘ I sank back in the caariage and began to cry. He soothed and coaxed me, and kissed my tears away. Just as the moon rose we entered Springfield, and in a quiet parsonage parlor. I stood up in a wrapper and loose braided hair, and was made Philip Kent’s wife. ‘ My darling,’ he said to me, ‘ I have been planning, this for days. I could think of no other way to save yon. Left to Martha, you would have dic'd in a month. ’ ' I shall die as it is! ’ I cried despairingly, as I flung myself into his arms. ‘I am called ! ’ And then I opened my heart and told him how Emily’s restless wraith had haunted me, and how I had seen it that night for the third time. Perplexed at first, he soon grew fnrious. ‘ Let us go back to the cqttage at once ; ’ he cried, * and talk with Martha Dynock.’ In the old parlor, Miss Dynock and a score of neighbors wer* in solemn consultation over my mysterious disappearance. ‘Martha,’ said Philip, going np to his cousin, ‘‘you are relieved of all further care of Hetty, for she is now my wife. You have done your utmost to kill her. You have personated Emily’s apparition three times before her, in the hope, no doubt, to shorten her life. Shame I shame ! Confess the trick at once to Hetty, and to satisfy her as to the warning she has received.” Well, there was a scene, but in the end Martha Dynock acknowledged all. I am strong, I am happy; and Philip and I both feel that Emily knows of our love, and rejoices in it