HIS BROKEN PROMISE. A New Year Sketch.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 84, 10 January 1885, Page 5

HIS BROKEN PROMISE. A New Year Sketch.

[By Mbs E. Burke Collins.]

" You will promise me, Richard?" Lillian Danforth's brown eyes were lifted pleadingly to the handsome face of the man at her side, and she laid one white hand up, on his arm, as though in entreaty. Richard Ashleigh's dark face flushed, and his c yes for a moment did not meet hers. " 1 don't see how an occasional drink can hurt a man, Lilly dear," he said, a trifle impatiently ; "but " " You ivill promise ?" pleaded the girl, eagerly. " Oh, Richard, remember how you nearly broke my heart last New Year's Day ! I cannot understand how ladies — refined, gentle women — can deliberately offer to their gentlemen friends that which they know may occasion great misery. Richarc I believe that you love me, and " He caught her in his arms and strained her to his heart. " Love you, Lilly !" he cried, fervently. " I would lay down my life for your sake, my darling !" And ho spoke truly ; he would indeed have imperilled his existence and his own welfare — present and future — for the woman whom he loved ; yet he would not willingly relinquish the single bad habit which he possessed— that of "taking a social glass " with ill-judged friends. They were standing in the great, oldfashioned garden which surrounded Lillian Danforth's home in the city of New Orleans. The golden lances of sunset were quivering upon the green grass ; the birds were sing ing like mnd in the tall magnolias ; the flowors bloomed as lovely and fragrant as though it were July instead of December. But a strange shadow crept through the sunshino and rested heavily upon Lillian Danforth's heart ; some premonition of coming sorrow ; and she shuddered as she hid her face upon her lover's shoulder. "Oh, Richard," she whispered, "I would sacrifice much for your sake, and in return I ask you but one favour. I bog you not to touch intoxicating liquor upon New Year's Day ; for I feel that the events of that, day will decide my whole future." "Superstitious child!" laughed the young man, stooping to press his lips to her bright hair. " Well, Lily, sinco nothing else will satisfy you, I promise I will not drink a drop of any intoxicating beverage on New Year's Day." " Thank you !" the girl answered, simply, as she lifted her lips to his. But her head had grown light at last, and the burden had dropped from her shoulders. For she believed in him ; ho had never broken a promise once made to her, and the possibility of such a disaster did not trouble her. New Year's Day came— bright, clear, beautiful. Lillian Danforth's friends and admirers calling at the Danforth mansion as usual, found that she had instituted a " new departure ;" for, although her friends were most hospitably received and her collation was recherche, there were no wines or liquors. Richard was the first to call, and when he left his betrothed she whispered, swiftly : " Don't forget your promise !" He gave her a loving glance. "Asif I could !" he returned. Then he ran lightly down the steps, entered his carriage, and was driven rapidly away. Half an hour later he stood in the elegant drawing-room of a fashionable up-town belle. Three quarters of an hour later he had taken from her white, jewelled hand a glass of champagne while her red lips showered badinage upon him for his unaccountable refusal. She urged him to accept—she insisted upon it. " Only one glass," she cried, seductively. It was humiliating to that proud, high-spirited young man to know that this gay leader of fashion, this pretty butterfly, was laughing at him for his total abstinence as she gaily offered to fasten a blue ribbon in his buttonhole. And he never knew exactly how it came about ; the temptation was too strong for him — he drank the champagne, and his doom was sealed. " Only one glass !" you cry, in contempt ; " how can so small a matter work so much evil ?" Alas ! upon such small pivots turns the destiny of the human race. One glass imbibed, it was not easy to refuse the second ; and a few moments later Richard Ashleigh left the aristocratic mansion flushed and excited. He refused no more the wine and other liquors proffered him on all sides from his various "friends." The hours passed, and ere the shades of night came down the story was circulated about the great city wherever he was known — the shameful story of beastly intoxication. But the rumour had not reached Lillian's ears, and when the carriage paused once more before the Danforth mansion, she thought that he, having concluded his round of calls, had stopped for a moment that she might know how well he had kept his promise. But, alas ! he entered ncr presence with unsteady gait, flushed face, and disordered apparel. She shrank back with a low cry. " My God !" she wailed, in bitter anguish. He tried to look into her face, but his own gaze wavered and sank before her clear eyes. Reproaches were useless she well knew, and she stood trembling before him in utter silence which had no words to express itself. Something of his own baseness must have penetrated his clouded intellect. Became to her side with unsteady, reeling steps. She was standing before the fire which burned in a capacious grate ; one small hand had clutched the marble mantel for support, and she was shaking like a leaf. " Lilly," he cried, in a hoarse, unnatural tone, " Ive — broken my promise — you see ! Can you— forgive me ?" She made no answer. How could she speak when she saw before her the complete ruin of all her hopes, hor dream of happiness broken— her whole life wrecked ? Ah, me ! this is the darkest hour that can come into a woman's life ! Worse than death, worse than any other loss, is the loss of confidence and trust in our fellow-creatures. Lilian Danforth's life was wrecked and broken — utterly ; and she knew it. And still she stood there before him, powerless to speak. The silence goaded the'mtoxicated man to insane fury, He wheeled suddenly about, and drew from his pocket a tiny revolver. " I am not fit to live !" he panted wildly. " I loathe myself— let me die !" Before the terrified girl could utter a word, he held the revolver to his temple and deliberately pulled the trigger. But at this very instant Lillian darted forward like a mad creature, and caught his uplifted arm in both her frail hands, and pulled it toward her with all the strength \ born of despair. And then ! Ah, Heaven, it was horrible ! The weapon was discharged and the contents entered the poor girl's breast. With a low cry — no more — she sank upon the floor at his feet, the crimson life-blood dyeing the marble tiles of the hearth.

Wandering about the world, a very Pariah, heart-broken, desolate alone, Richard Ashleigh reaps the reward of his

own wrong-doing. But from the moment when he saw hiß betrothed wife, the woman he loved, lying dead at his feet— murdered by his own hand, through his insane folly, he was a changed man. From that day to this not a drop of intoxicating liquor has ever passed his lips, or ever will. But all his remorse is unavailing, and his repentance cannot bring back to life the beautiful girl who had loved him so. He is a wanderer upon the face of the earth to-day, homeless, loveless, with the brand of Cain upon his brow. Earthly punishment did not reach him, but he carries his own punishment ever with him, and the worm remorse gnaws at his heart. And all, all his utter ruin" and desolation were the result of that broken promise. Can the gay leaders of fashion, who throw open their hospitable doors to "receive " on New Year's Day, read no lesson, no warning n this Bimple story? For, alas! it is no fancy sketch, but "an ower true tale."