Gratia's Trials — page 54: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

GRATIA'S TRIALS. 45 “‘T can hardly tell you, Raymond; I do not quite know my- self. Somewhere to escape from /Azs hideous life—somewhere, away from her.” ‘*Oh, take me, too, Gratia!’ sobbed the little fellow. ‘«'There ll be no one to love me if you are gone.” How she wished that it had been in her power to consent to his prayer ; how bitterly the iron of her desolate condition en- tered into her soul at that moment. , ‘«Some day I will take you, Raymond,” she answered, trying to speak encouragingly. ‘‘Be brave and don't give up. Iam going to try and make a home for us both, where we can live together always, you and I.” ‘‘Good-by, sister! You're sure it won't be long—‘cause I shall be so lonesome !” | ‘«Only a little while, dear. I won't tell you where I am go- ing, because I want you to speak the truth when they ask you ——to be able to say that you dont know. But I shall come back one of these day, and take you with me.” He felt her kiss upon his forehead, and the next minute he was alone. Se CHAPTER IX. OUT INTO THE WORLD, As Gratia Kempfield let herself out at the kitchen door and hurried across the lonely fields, the dreary darkness of the hour before dawn was just beginning to be dappled by the coming glow of sunrise. The sweet air from the ravines and hollows greeted her with delicious breath ; the clear whistle of birds, just rousing to the new life of the spring day, sounded in her ear like the cheery voice of friends. A walk of four miles lay before her ere she could reach the depot, where a train bound for the distant city stopped at.a Gomicboo (ele) 3