[CHAPTER LI.]
STARTLING NEWS.
"Say an encouraging word to the weary,
They to whom life seems all darksome and dreary;
One kindly sentence the sad heart will lighten,
One smile of love the existence will brighten.
"Say an encouraging word to the erring;
Sin-blasted, hunted down, crushed, and despairing;
Even when vice his worst form is revealing,
One word in season may wake better feeling."
Francis S. Smith.
Cameron Clemens had indeed gazed with longing eyes after the carriage that bore Miss Carroll away from his sight.
The old love, stifled so long by hopeless pain and absence, had leaped to life again full-grown within his fond heart.
And although Cissy had been painfully shy, seldom speaking to him, and then only in her role of a new acquaintance, he had read in her glance that she did not despise him now. Something had come over her that looked almost like forgiveness of his fault. He began to have a little hope of winning her after all.
"I will try my fate once more, if she is as gentle when we meet again as she was to-night," he resolved, joyously.