An Old Man's Darling

open sea; The blue, the

young girl walking along the sands of the s

ll tell your fortune, bonnie maid,

e owner of the voice-a lean, decrepit old ha

h a merry laugh, "fortune will come to m

bird of evil omen; "it aye comes to faces as bonny as your own.

ng a silver piece into the trembling old hand; "be che

and jesting tone of the other, and stood for a mo

presented as they stoo

rt of a sea-shell on her round, dimpled cheeks. Her brow was fair and broad, and fringed with soft, childish rings of sunny hair. Her nose was small and straight; her mouth was curved like Cupid's bow, its short, exquisite upper lip lending a touch of archness to the patrician mold o

and youthful grace the old sibyl appea

ession was the prevailing cast of her wrinkled features, and her cheeks and lips having fallen in upon her toothless gums, converted her grim smile into a most Satanic grin. The dreadful old beldam was attired in a melange of ancient and faded finery, consisting o

stone there, and let

nd in the world for inspection-a lily-white hand, small, and dimpled, and tapering, with rosy palm and ti

lesh and blood into her brown, wrin

l-born," she

shape of my nose, I suppose," l

egant, aristocratic little me

tly: "Not but that it is written on your

re," said the girl, with her

. "Do not pride yourself upon that fatal gift! You are

istener, artlessly, while a rosy bl

ins hate, too. The love that is lavished on you will be shadowed and darkened by the hate your fair face wi

e girl, with an i

d this little pink palm as I do, you would go[Pg 3] wild with the horror of it. The

her small head with a queenly gesture of

le words, proud girl? No, no; there will be a stain on the whiteness of your life that your tears can nev

irl's cheek. Apparently the latter prediction did

all my life," she said gently. "

r I tell you, girl, a cloud is gathering over your head; gathering swiftly to burst over you in a tempest of fury. Fly! Fly! Go a

t of inspiration. She cast a strange look upon the trembling girl, and, dropping her hand abruptly, turn

sibyl had left her, looking curiously into the pink palm from which such dire prophecies had been re

s there in my hand but a few lines that mean nothing? She saw that I did not believe in her art, and predicted those dre

along the shore, looking a little more thoughtful than when she had trip

and the wild flight of the sea-birds wheeling in the sunny air, and darting down now and then for some object of prey their keen eyes discerned in the water. After w

t coming around a curve of the shore toward her. The skiff was very dainty, with trimly cushioned seats. It was painted in shining blue and white, and bore around about the

een detected in the theft, may I not persuade you to leave your lonely eyrie th