'IS'W'-'i' 
110 
RONDEAU 
chaser for her trinkets, at a fair price, through 
the Intervention of a friend. 
The budding months blossomed into years and 
fructified Into the seed that Is sown lu the eter¬ 
nity of the past, and wo knew that the moans 
thus procured were exhausted. Wo felt, deeply 
Interested In our tenant. In spite -perhaps be- 
causc-of her strange habits, and feu Into a cus¬ 
tom of concerning together about her, as If she 
had been a frloud. If these Jewels were her last 
possessions, whut was to become of her t What 
was a woman of her age to do ? 
Her age ? That was a question. Wo felt some 
doubts about her age. Kitty, who saw most of 
iff, thought ahe bud not passed so many years In 
tho world as we at drat, supposed. She appeared 
to have no friends or acquaintances. No letters 
i,ue name or a lone woman. I have 
name ; will you not write It ? ” 
l said uo more, but Inscribed the 
rented. But the appellation was 
ed. 
" Your age ? " 
“ Twenty-eight.” 
The pen actually dropped from 
said twenty-eight 
BY JOHN l'AYNE, 
Life lapses by for you and me; 
Our sweet (lays pass us by and floe; 
And evermore death draws us nigh; 
Tho blue fades fast out of our sky; 
The ripple ceasrs from our sea. 
What would we not give. you and I, 
The early sweet of lifn to buy ! 
Alas ! sweetheart, that cannot we; 
I,lfo lapses by. 
But though our young years burled lie. 
Shall Love with spring and summer die? 
What If the roses faded bol 
Wo In each other's eyes will see 
Now springB, nor question how or why 
Life lapses by, 
my hand as she 
and l looked up very ouiekiv 
out abo'i' HU h r ° PUed ’ meeMu & ™y Raze, and with¬ 
out alter lug her monotonous tone, <• It la the aim 
pic truth. Are you very surprised? I suppose 
with my white hair, r look an ohl woman,” P 
' 1 oau thirdly believe, my dear madam, that 
strato. r0 nUrtftk “'" 1 ve »tured to rornou- 
“ I havo given you reason to doubt me mir- 
hapa; but I have unsworn! your query with re 
8"“, “ WSIralJ. . OutMebS^nJ- 
barely elght-and-twenty.” ^ 
Good heaven ! thought 1, what can havo been 
the circumstances or your life that, your liulr is 
gray, your face thus lined, your,,,,' aU hut Zn- 
ed from a being or Ueah and blood to a thing of 
atone 7—that yon are thus self-immured ami ^ 
tary, that yon shun our society and have refused 
all our efforts at, kindness? We had gathered 
oven from her scanty denials of Our oUers of 
amusement that ahe wOB a linguist, a musmTan 
an artist; and yet there she sat all dav on t ,r’ 
chest, nursing her hands, or at uJ/mh im 
darn to her won, u. An ttlJ(,,I1 tf 11 
A LIFE-WATCH 
BY GKOKGIANA C. CLARK, 
We do many foolish things In early life, I did 
what the world esteems a very foolish thing,— 
married for love. Harry and I were equally poor, 
and tho affronted world turned its back upon us. 
The wealthy heads of both houses, determining 
to give as leisure to repent after having married 
In haste, left us to ourselves. Harry obtained, 
through an old friend of the family, a situation as 
clerk in a mercantile house. The salary was a 
small one, and many a shift and contrivance were 
endured by us In those days. And yet we were 
very happy. Like an obstinate fond young couple, 
wo refused to learn the lesson our offended elders 
set us, and we would not repent, but struggled on 
through r.he battle or lire in the ranks with the 
rest. Yes, I am proud to say that we fought and 
conquered, I can look back aud call to mind 
many an Incident of our early life with pleasure. 
There Is oue story, however, mixed up with those 
days that Is fraught with Inexplicable horror. 
And this Is the story I promised to relate. I must, 
premise that wo considered It—la those early and 
struggling days—a rlso In life when we took a 
small cottage, with woodbine growing over the i 
door, and resolved to eke out the very 
moderate rent by the assistance ora , 
boarder, it was a rise, because wo 
had previously occupied apartments, 
and one who has not experienced ' 
similar feelings can hardly fancy T -"^rV 
with what joy we hailed the Idea of 
dwelling at last under a roof of our 
own. ^§§£931 
We entered Into possession of our 
cottage, and then came our boarder, % v- X 
through the ready Intervention of 
the Herald, In the Bhape of a lady, jg &y [j 
and a singular one. We took her to 
be about fifty years of age. She was SSSfe; V 
a tall, fine woman, but distinguished stlW' 
unpleasantly by remarkable rigidity jfcjJI iTft | 
Inner movement*. Her step was Iff]) li] 
f ima :Tu C ' 1 - 1 r0H<1 ^ some 
time, and thought the words were 
comforting, when she started up, her 
manner wild, her eyes starting, 
l ook ! look ! look ! ” she cried 
pointing with her foretlnger un i 
whit e-druped arm to t.ho Iron-bound 
u st, < look 1 look ! look !” and with 
a low cry the poor lady sank back on 
her couch dying. The struggle was 
soon over, and all was quiet. 
“ Look 1 look r look >” wi iat had 
She seen ? What vision had fancy, 
or conscience, or sudden delirium’ 
roused before her? i know not .1 
saw only the large, dark chest In tho 
place where It. had ever rested— dun 
shabby, and cumbrous. 
We were worn out and tired, and 
glad 1,0 retire early to bed. I do not 
know how long Harry and I had been 
asleep when we were star tied by a 
heavy noise In tho room underneath. 
Harry sprang up and seized tho 
night-light. Surely it is the lid 0 f 
tho heavy chest suddenly slammed 
and there are thieves In the house,’ 
thought 1, as I ran arter my spouse, 
lest there mlghi.be danger for him 
alone, and Just as if a feeble wo¬ 
man in her night array, like myself, 
could be any protection, in mo¬ 
ments of sudden fear wo do not stay 
to reasou, but act upon Impulse, in 
another moment wo stood in the 
double chamber below, it was un¬ 
tenanted, save by the dead. The 
great box stood fts 1 bad last seen it. 
I tried the lock ; It was quite secure. 
We culled up Kitty, and searched the 
house; bobs, bars, and locks were 
all Intact. Then we began to reason 
how absurd we hud been to suppose 
that thieves would slam a box-lid, or 
make a noise loud enough to wake 
the Inmates of the house, had they 
entered, we could not sleep any 
more that night, but dressed our¬ 
selves and sat up watching; and 
Kitty lighted a tire, prepared some 
tea, and shared our folly. The truth 
Is, wo had all been ragged arid dis¬ 
tressed, and our nerves were un- 
