A STRANGE STORY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 645, 8 March 1879, Page 2

A STRANGE STORY.

Colonel Thornton, of the East India service, tells thus the romance of his youth : . 11 One clear starlight evening in June, Helen and I were walking on the terrace among -flower beds that were cut in the soft, green turf. Inspired by the stillness and odorous influence of the air, I told her my heart's secret, with all its hopes and fears. " She looked up at me •wonderingly, and tears glistened in her beauuiful eyes as she said : '•'Ah Captain Thornton, are you sure 1 Do you — do you love me ?It cannot be. No, never." /'Why,' I cried, impetuously pressing my BUit and her ; "you love another?' " 'Sir,' she said, almost sharply,- "do you know who I am ?' "' The loveliest girl in England.' "'No, sir; lam not. Great heavens, Captain Thornton, I am your grandmother.' ■ . "My grandmother ! Talk of sudden shocks after that, won't you ? I tried to speak but my voice failedine. I reached out my hands and touched her. Yes ; she was there, real enough, and I was not dreaming. "' Tell me all!' I grasped. "And standing there, by the broad stone coping, she told me all. How her parents had died when she was little more than an infant, and Sir John, her guardian and my grandfather, had watched over her with jealous . care, always keeping her at school, however, until he brought her home— a young lady. "Then, while I was in India, the poor old man fellsuddenly oh his dying bed persuaded his young ward to marry him, just in. order to inherit is vast estate, which she had refused to take as a legacy. " ' And, believe me,' said Miss Helen, 'I I did it only to keep it for you, the rightful heir, whose wildness had temporarily provoked the old gentleman.'"