HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1891-9-24, Page 6IISo Children Pay?
"Do eltilaren payV said old 'twat Seroggs,
aeleaaite on Ins hoe,
" lust walt 111youvbou married, say, some
twenty years or so,
Yeu'll have more eense than to stand up there
and throw yeer time away
By a1ou och fool questiona. Pay Groat
gosh! Of course they titty
'We go home tuekered otit at night, they climb
upon our knees
And when we try to put 'em down they cry for
oee more equeeze
And rear and pitch about As all until, fest that g
we know,
Our joints aro free from aching and our hearts
are ie a glow.
" They pay us whet their frank young. love
"Mines in their jolly eyes ;
Even when our ears are tleafeual there's a
music in thelr erica "aal
Sweeter than all the "ladles aaa planners evei
made -
Don't think it's so Well, now, you wait and
member what l've said.
"The man whose ehildren's hearts are his is the
man who is truly blessed.
The sight at home of his boys an gals is more
to him than rest.
I swots-! There wouldn't be half the Cools in
this weary world to -day
If all men could only understand what big in-
truechildren pay."
-Yankee Made.
THE SISTERS
"Bat -oh, surely he would never have
(mine back to take the property of a mur-
dered brother !" exclaimed Elizabeth, in
a shocked voice.
" His brother was not murdered," Mr.
5L'e1verton replied. " Many people t1tought
so, of course -people have a way of think.
ing the woiet in these cases,not from malice,
but because it is more interesting -and a
tradition to that effect survives still, I am
afraid. But my uncle's family never sus-
pected him of such a crime. The thing was
not legally proved, one way or the other.
There were strong indications in the position
of the gun which lay by his side and in the
general appearance of the 'quit where he
was found, that my uncle, Patrick Yelver-
ton, accidentally shot himself ; that was
the opinion of the coroner's jury and the
conviction of the family. But poor Kings -
cote evidently assumed that he would be ac-
cused of murder. Perhaps -it is very pos-
sible -some rough -tempered action of his
might have caused the catastrophe, and his
remorse has had the same effect as fear
in prompting him to efface himself,
Anyway, no one who knew hanwell believed
him capable of doing his brother a mischief
wilfully-. His innocence was, indeed,
proved by the fact that he married the lady
who had been at the bottom of the trouble
-by no fault of hers, poor soul !-after he
escaped to London ; and, wherever he went
to, he took her with him. She disappeared
a few days after he did, ancl was lost as
completely, from that time. The record
and circumstances of their marriage were
discovered ; and that was all. He would
not have married her -she would not
have married him -had he been a mur-
derer."
" Do you think not ?" said Elizabeth.
"That is always assumed as a matter of
course, in books -that murder and -and
other disgraces are irrevocable barriers be-
tween those who love each other, when they
discover them. But I do not understand
why. With such an awful misery to bear,
they would want all that their love could
give them so much more -not less."
CHAPTER XXV.
OUT IN THE COLD.
Paul Brion, meanwhile, plodded on in his
old groove, which no longer fitted hint as
it used to do, and vexed the soul of his be-
nevolent landlady with the unprecedented
shortness of his temper. She didn't know
how to take him, she said, he was that can-
tankerous and "contrary;" but she tri-
umphantly recognized the result that she
had all along expected would follow a long
course of turning night into day, and there-
fore was not surprised at the change in
him. "Your brain is overwrought," she
said, soothingly, when one day a mom-
punctuous spirit moved him to apologize for
his moroseness; "your nervous system is
unstrung. You've been going on too long,
and you want a spell. You just take a
holiday straight off, and go right away, and
(1.on't look at an ink -bottle for a month. It
will save you a brain fever, mark my
words." But Paul was consistent in his
perversity, and refused to take good
advice.
The next day he want to the Exhibition
again, and again he saw Patty, with no
happier result than before. She was stand-
ing amongst the carriages with Mr. Smith -
popularly believed to have been for years
on the look -out for a pretty, young second
wife -who was pointing out to her
the charms of a seductive little lady's
phaeton, painted lake and lined with claret,
with a little "dickey" for a groom behind;
no doubt tempting her with the
idea of driving such a one of
her own some day. This was
even more bitter to Paul than the former
encounter. He could bear with Mr. West-
moreland, whose youth entitled. him to place
himself somewhat on an equality with her,
and whom, moreover, his rival (as he
thought himself) secretly regarded as be-
neath contempt ; but this grey -bearded
widower, whose defunct wife might almost
have been her grandmother, Paul felt he
could not bear, in any sort of conjunction
with his maiden queen, who, though in
such dire disgrace, was his queen always.
CHAPTER, XXVI.
WHAT PAUL COULD NOT ICNOW.
It was a pity that Paul Brion, looking at
Patty's charming figure in the gaslight,
could not have looked into her heart.
Nor was lie the only one who misread her
superficial aspect that night. Mrs. Duff -
Scott, the most discerning of women, had
a fixed belief that her girls, all of them
thoroughly enjoyed their first ball.
But she was wrong. She was mistaken
about them all -and most of all about
Patty.
And after she found out that she
wanted Paul Brion, who was not there,
her gaity became an excited restlessness,
and her enjoymett of the pretty scene
around her changed to passionate discon-
tent. Why was he not there ? She curled
her lip m indignant scorn. Beeause he was
poor, and a worker for his bread, and there-
fore was not accounted the equal of Mr.
Westmoreland and Mr. Smith. She was
too young and ardent to take into
account the multitudes of other rea-
sons which entirely removed it from the
sphere of social grievances ; like many
another woman, she could see only one side an
of a subject at a time, and looked at that eh
through a telescope. It seemed to her a in
despicably vulgar thing, and an indication an
of the titter rottenness of the whole fabric -
of society, that it high-born mah of distin- srit
guished attainments should by con-nnon con-
sent be neglected ancl despised simply be- he
cause he was not rich. That was how she it
looked at it. And if Paul Beam had not w
been thought good enough for it select th
assembly, why had she been invited 2 as
She had, been dancing for some thINO la
before, the intercourse with Mr, fatint a that ite
110 gratified Mrs. Duff-Seott, set in, The
portly widower tonnd her fanning herself on
a 'sofa in the neighborhood of her elutpont
for the moment stnattended by eat% iers ;
and, approaching her With elle of the fre-
Tient ltttlo plates and spoons that were
handed about, invited her favor through the
medium of three colossal stratvberries veiled.
in sugar and cream,
"And so you don't care about dancing,"
he remarked teaderly ; "you, with these
little fairy feet 1 wonder why that is ?"
" 13acause I ara not used to it," said
Patty, leaning her white arms on the ledge
in front Of her and looking down at the
shining sea of heads below. "I have been
brought up to other accomplishments."
" Music, he murmured ; " and -and-"
" And scrubbing and sweeping, and wash
-
Mg and ironing, and churning and bread -
making, and claming dirty pots and
kettles," said Patty, with elaborate diss
tinctness.
" Haelia !" chuckled Mr. Smith. " I
should like to see you cleaning pots and
kettles ! Cinderella after 12 o'clock, eh ?"
"Yes," said she "you have expressed
it exactly. After 12 o'clock -What time is
it now ?--after 12 o'clock, or it may be a
little later, I shall be Cinderella again. I
shall take off my glass slippers and -go back
to my kitchen." And she had an impulse
to rise and run round the gallery to beg
Elizabeth to get permission for their return
to their own lodgings after the ball ; only
Elizabeth seemed to be enjoying her tete-a-
tele so much that she had not the heart to
disturb her. Then she looked up at Mr.
Smith, who stared at her in a puzzled and
embarrassed way. " You don't seem to
believe me," she said, with a defiant smile.
"Did you think I was a fine lady, like all
these other people ?"
"1 have always thought you. the !nest
lovely -the most charming—"
" Nonsense. I see you don't understand
it all. So just lista:a and I will tell you."
Whereupon Patty proceeded to sketch
herself and her domestic circumstances in
what, ha,d it been another person, would
have been a simply brutal manner. She
made herself out to be a Cinderella, indeed,
in her life and habits, a parasite, a syco-
phant, a jay in borrowed plumage -every-
thing that was sordid and "low," and
calculated to shock the sensibilities of a
" new rich" man ; making her statement
with calm energy and in the most terse
and expressive terms. It was her penance,
and it did her good. It made her feel
that she was genuine in her worthiness,
which was the great thing just now; and
it made her feel, also, that she was set
back in her proper place at Paul Brion's
side -or, rather, at his feet. It also
comforted her, for some reason, to be able,
as a matter of duty, to disgust Mr. Smith.
But Mr. Smith, though he was a "new
rich" man, and not given to tell people who
did not know it what he had been before he
got his money, was still a man, and a
shrewd man too. And he was not at all
disgusted. Very far, indeed, from it. This
admirable honesty, so rare in a young per-
son of her sex and charms -this touching
confidence in him as a lover and a gentle-
man -put the crowning grace to Patty's
attractions and made her irresistible.
Which was not what she meant to do at all.
CHAPTER XXVII.
SLIGHTED.
Some hours earlier on the same evening,
Eleanor, dressing for dinner and the ball
in her spacious bedroom at Mrs. Duff -
Scott's house, felt that she, at any rate, was
arming herself for conquest.
Elizabeth came in to lace up her bodice -
Elizabeth, whose own soft eyes were shin-
ing, and who walked across the floor with
an elastic step, trailing her long robes be-
hind her; and Eleanor vented upon her
some of the fancies which were seething in
her small head. "Don't we look like
brides 2" she said, nodding at their reflec-
tions in the glaps.
" Or bridesmaids," said Elizabeth.
"Brides wear silks and satins mostly, I
believe."
The evening passed on. Mrs. Duff -Scott
settled herself in the particular one of the
series of boudoirs under the gallery that
struck her as having a commanding pros-
pect. The Governor came, the band played,
the guests danced, and promenaded, and
danced again; and Mr. Westmoreland was
nowhere to be seen. Eleanor was beset
with other partners, and thought it well to
punish him by letting them forestall him as
they would; and, provisionally, she captiv-
ated a couple of naval officers by her profi-
ciency in foreign languages, and made ,vari-
one men happy by her graceful and gay
demeanor. By -and -bye however, she came
across her recreant admirer -as she was
bound to do some time. He was leaning
against a pillar, his dull eyes roving over
the crowd before him, evidently looking for
some one. She thought he was looking for
her.
" Well ?" she said, archly, pausing before
him, on the arm of an Exhibition Coznmis-
sioner, with whom she was about to plunge
into the intricacies of the lancers. Mr.
Westmoreland looked at her with a start
and in momentary confusion.
" Oh-er," he stammered hurriedly,
here you are ! Where have you been
hiding yourself all the evening ? Then,.
after a pause, "Got any dances saved
for me 2"
" Saved, indeed !" she retorted. "What
next? When yon don't take the trouble to
come and ask for them !"
"1 am so engaged to -night, Miss
Eleanor--"
"1 see you are. Never mincl-I can get
on without you." She walked on a step,
and turned back. "Did you send me it
pretty bouquet just now ?" she whispered,
touching his arm. "1 think you did, and
it was so good of you, but there was some
mistake about it--" She checked her-
self, seeing it blank look in his face, and
blushed violently. " Oh, it was not you !"
she exclaimed, in a shocked voice, wishing
the ball -room floor would open and swallow
her up.
" Really," he said, "1-1 was very re-
miss -I'm awfully sorry." And he gave
her to understand, to her profound con-
sternation, that he had fully intended to
send her it bouquet, but had forgotten it in
the rush of his many important engage-
ments.
She passed on to her lancers with a. wan
smile, and presently saw him, under those
seductive fern trees upstairs, with the person
whom he had been looking for when she
accosted him." There's Westmoreland and
his old flame,' remarked her then partner, a
club -frequenting youth who knew all about
everybody. "He ealls her the handsomest
woman out -because she's got a lot of money,
I suppose. All the Westmorelands are wor-
shippers of the golden calf, father and son -
a regular set of screws the old fellows were,
d he's got the family eye to the main
lance. Truet him ! I can't see anything
her; can you 2 She's as Sound as it tub,
d as swarthy as a gipsy. I like women"
looking at his partrier-" to be tall, and
ender, and fair, That my style."
This was how poor Eleanor's pleasure in
r first ball was Veiled. I am aware that
looks it very poor and little episode, not
orthy of a chapter to itself ; but then
ings are not always what they seem, arid,
it matter of fact/ the life histories of it
rge majority of us are Made up of juet auch
heroic passages.
ORAPTEll xxvm,
" warns, sus AS ONlt wiso toVaS 1158 aaea,Ow
matt "
Fresently Mrs. Duff.Scott, suitably en-
throned, and with bier younger girls already
carried off by her husband, from her Side,
saw Mr. Yelverten approaching her, and
rejoiced at the prospect of eecuring hie
society for herself and having the tedium of
the chaperon's inactivity relieved by /sensi-
ble conversation. ‘ Alta so you are here !"
she exclaimed cordially ; "I thought balls
were things quite out of your line."
"So they are," he said, shaking hands
with her and Elizabeth impartially, without
it glance at the latter. "But I consider it
it duty to investigate the customs of the
country. I like to look all round when I
am about it."
"H -in -that's not saying much You
don't mean to tell me, I see. Talking of
the country -look at Elizabeth's bouquet.
Did you think we could raise lilies of the
valley like those ?"
He bent his head slightly to smell them-
" I heard that they didgrow hereabouts,"
he said ; and his eyes a,nci Elizabeth's met
for a moment over the fragrant flowers that
she held between them, while Mrs. Duff -
Scott detailed the negligent circumstances
of their presentation, winch left it a matter
of doubt where they came from and for
whom they were intended.
"1 Want to find Mr. Smith," said she;
I fancy he can give us information."
"I don't think so," said Mr. Yelverton ;
"he was showing rne a lily of the valley in
his button -hole just now as a great rarity in
these parts."
Then it flashed across Mrs. Duff -Scott
that Paul Brion might have been Wm donor,
and she said no more.
" Let us go and practise," he said, and
straightway they passed down the room,
threading it crowd once more, and went
upstairs to the gallery, which was it
primeval forest in its solitude at this com-
paratively early hour. "There is no reason
why you should dance if you don't like it,"
he remarked ; "we can sit here and look
on." Then, when she was comfortably
settled in her cushions under the fern trees,
he leaned forward and touched her bouquet
with a gesture that was significant of the
unacknowledged but well -understood inti-
macy between them. "1 am so glad I was
able to get them for you," he said ; "1
wanted you to know what they were really
like -when you told me how much your
mother had loved them."
"1 can't thank you," she replied.
"Do not," he said. "It is for me to
thank you for accepting them. I wish
you could see them in my garden at
Yelverton. There is it dark corner be-
tween two gables of the house where they
make it perfect carpet in April."
She lifted those she held to her face, and
sniffed luxuriously.
CHAPTER XXIX.
PATTY CONFESSES.
A little group of their male attendants
stood in the lobby, while Mrs. Duff Scott
and the girls put on their wraps in the
cloak -room. When the ladies reappeared,
they fell into the order in which Paul, un-
seen in the shadows of the street, saw them
descent' the steps to the pavement.
" May I come and see you to -morrow
morning 2" asked Mr. Yelverton -of Eliza-
beth, whom he especially escorted.
"Not -not to -morrow," she replied.
We shall be at Myrtle street, and we
never receive any visitors there."
" At Myrtle street !" exclaimed the
major, who also walked beside her.
"Surely you are not going to run off to
Myrtle street to -morrow?'
" We are going there now," said she, "if
we can get in. Mrs. Duff -Scott knows."
But a full hour after their separation for
the night, each one was as wide awake as
she had been all day. Elizabeth Was kneel-
ing on the floor by her bedside, still half-
dressed -she had not changed her attitude
for a long time, though the undulations of
her body showed how far from passive rest
she was -when Patty, clothed only in her
night-gown, crept in, 'flaking no noise with
her bare feet.
"Elizabeth," she wispered, laying her
hand on her sister's shoulder, "are you
asleep 2 -or are you saying your prayers?"
Elizabeth, startled, lifted up her head and
disclosed to Patty's gaze in the candle -light
a pale, and strained, and careworn face. I
was saying my prayers," she replied, with a
,
dazed look. Why are you gut of bed, my
darling? What is the matter 2"
"That is what, I want to know," said
Patty, sitting down on the bed. "What is
the matter with ns nil? What has come to
us? Nelly has been crying ever since I put.
the light out -she thought I couldn't hear
her, but she was mistaken -sobbing and
sniffing under the bedclothes, and blowing
her nose in that elaborately cautious way-"
" Oh, poor, dear child interrupted the
maternal elder sister, making a start
towards the door.
"No, don't go to her," said Patty, put-
ting out her hand ,• "leave her alone -she
is quiet now. Besides, you couldn't do her
any good. Do you know what she is fret-
ting about? Because Mr. Westmoreland
has been neglecting her. Would you believe
it? She is caring about it, after all -and
we thought it was only fun. She doesn't
care about him, she couldn't do that-"
" We can't tell," interrupted Elizabeth.
"It is not for us to say. Perhaps she does,
poor child !"
"Oh, she couldn't," Patty scornfully in-
sisted. "That is quite impossible. No,
she has got fond of this life that we are
living now with Mrs. Duff -Scott ---I have
seen it, how it has laid hold of ler-and she
would like to marry him so that she could
have it always. That is what she has come
to. Oh, Elizabeth, don't you wish we had
gone to Europe at the very first, and never
come to Melbourne at all !" Here Patty
herself broke down, and uttered a little
shaking, hysterical sob. "Everything
seems to be going wrong with us here It
does not look so, I know, but at the bottom
of my heart I feel it. Why dtd we turn
aside to waste and spoil ourselves like this,
instead of going on to the life that we had
laid out -a real life, that we should never
have had to be ashamed of 2"
"Patty. dearest, there must be something
the matter with you," her motherly elder
sister cried, much distressed by this abnor-
mal symptom. "Are ,you feeling ill ? Don't
frighten me like this.'
The girl laid her head upon her sister's
shoulder, ancl there let herself loose from
all restraint. " You know what iS the
matter," she sobbed ; "you know as well
as I do what is the matter -that it is Paul
Brion who worries me so and makes me so
utterly wretched."
"Paul Brion 1 He worry you, Patty -
he make you wretched 2"
"You have always been delicate and con-
siderate, Elizabeth -you have never said
anything -but I know you know all about
it, and how spoiled I am, arid how spoilecl
everything is because of him. I hate to
talk of it -I can't bear even yon to see that
I am fretting about him -but I can't help
it 1 and I know you understand. When I
have had just one good cry," she concluded,
with a fresh an4 violent burst of tears,
" perhaps 1 Ethel' get on better."
Elizabeth stared at the wall over her es-
ter's head in dumb amazement, evidently
not deserving the credit fos- perspicacity
accorded to her. "D� you mean," she said
etlowly, "do you really inettn--"
" NO," eaid Patty, he will never think
I was so diegusting as to think that of hhn-
But it is as bad as if he did. That at least
was it great, outrageous, downright wrong,
worth fighting about, and not the pitiful
shabby thing that it appears to him.
CHAPTER XXX.
lam OLD AND 2118 NEW.
"My dear," ehe said, in desperation,
"whatever yea do, you mutt not begin to
ask questions of that sort. We can never
find out the answers, and it leads to endless
trouble. God's ways are not as our ways -
we are not in the secrets of His providence.
It is for us to trust Rim to know what is
best. If you admit one doubt, Elizabeth,
you will see that everything will go. Thou-
sands are finding out that now -a -days, to
their bitter cost. Indeed, I don't know
what we are corning to --the 'general over-
throw,' I suppose. I hope I, at any rate,
shall not live to see it. What would life be
worth to us -any of us, even the best off -
if we lost our faith in God and our hope of
immortality ? Just try to imagine it for a
moment."
Elizabeth looked at her mentor, who had
again risen and was walking about the room.
The girl's eyes were full of solemn thought.
"Not much," she replied, gravely. " But
I was never afraid of losing faith in God."
When it was all over, Elizabeth put on
her hat and walked back through the pat-
tering rain to Myrtle street, heavy-hearted
and heavy-footed, as if a weight of twenty
years had been laid on her since the morn-
ing.
" Patty," she said, when her sister,
warmly welcoming her return, exclaimed at
her pale face and weary air, and made her
take the sofa that Eleanor had vacated,
"Patty, let us go away for a few weeks, shall
we? I want a breath of fresh air, and to be
in peace and quiet for a little, to think
things over."
"o do I," said Patty. "So does
Nelly. Let us write to Sam Dunn to find
us lodgings."
CHAPTER XXXI.
IN RETREAT.
" Is it possible that we have only been
s
away for nine months 2" murmured Eliza-
beth, as the little steamer worked its way
up to the well -remembered jetty, and she
looked once more on surf and headland,
island rock and scattered township, lying
under the desolate moorlands along the
shore. " Doesn't it seem at least nine
years?"
" Or ninety," replied Patty. "1 feel
like a new generation. How exactly the
same everything is ! Here they have all
been going on as they always did. There is
Mrs. Dunn, dear old woman !-in the
identical gown that she had on the day we
went away."
Reaching the crest of the bluff,
and descending into the broken basin
-or saucer, rather -in which Seaview Villa
nestled, they uttered simultaneously an in-
dignant moan at the spectacle of Mrs.
Hawkins' devastations. There was the
bright paint, and the whitewash, and the
iron roof, and the fantastic trellis '• and
there was not the ivy that had mantles' the
eaves and the chhnney stacks, nor the
creepers that had fought so hard for exist-
ence, nor the squat veranda posts which
they had bountifully' embraced -nor any of
the features that had made old house dis-
tinct and characteristic.
"Never mind," said Patty, who was the
first to recover herself. " It looks very
smart and tidy. I daresay it wanted doing
up badly. After all, I'd sooner see it look
as unlike home as possible, now that it isn't
home"
Mrs. Harris came out and warmly wel-
comed them in Mr. Brion's name.
Patty got a dog's -eared novel of Mayne
Reid's from the book -case in her bedroom,and
turned over the pages without reading them
to look at the pencil marks and thumb
stains ; and Eleanor dozed and fanned her-
self; and Elizabeth sewed and thought.
And then their host came home, riding up
from the township on a fast and panting
steed, quite thrown off his balance by
emotion. He was abject in his apologies
for having been deterred by cruel fate and
business from meeting them at the steamer
and conducting them in person to his house,
and superfluous in expressions of delight
at the honor they had conferred on him.
"And how did you leave my boy?" he
asked presently, when due inquiries after
their own health and welfare had been satis-
fied. He spoke as if they and Paul had all
been living under one roof. "And when is
he coming te see his old father again?"
Patty, who was sitting beside her host-
." in his pocket," Nelly declared -and was
simply servile in her affectionate demonstra-
tions, undertook to describe Paul's condi-
tion and circumstances, and she implied a
familiar knowledge of them which consider-
ably astonished her sisters. She also gave
the father a full history of the son's good
deeds in relation to themselves -described
how he had befriended them in this and
that emergency, and asserted warmly, and
with a grave face, that she didn't know
what they should have done without him.
"That's right -that's right !" said the
old man, laying her hand on his knee and
patting it fondly. "1 was sure he would -
1 knew you'd find out his worth when you
came to know him. We must write to him
to -morrow, and tell him you have arrived
safely. He doesn't know I have got you,
eh? We must tell him. Perhaps we can
induce him to take a little holiday himself
-I am sure it is high time he had one -and
join us for a few days. What do you
think ?
"Oh, I am sure he can't come away just
now," protested Patty, pale with eagerness
and horror. "In the middle of the exhibi-
tion -and a parliamentary crisis coming on
-it would be quite impossible!"
"1 don't know -I don't know. I fancy
impossible ' is not a word you will find in
his dictionary," said the old gentleman en-
couragingly. "When he hears of our little
arrangement, he'll want to take a hand, as
the Yankees say. He won't like to be left
out -no, no."
The polite old man looked as if he were
scarcely equal to the weight of the honor
a,nd pleasure they conferred upon him. He
was excessively happy. As the hours and
days went on, his happiness increased. His
punctilious courtesy merged more and more
into a familiar and pateroal devotion that
took all kinds of teaching shapes ; and he
felt more and more at a loss to express ade-
quately the tender solicitude and profound
satisfaction inspired in his good old heart
by the sojourn of such charming guests
within his gates. To Patty he became
especially attached; which was not to be
wondered at, seeing how saseeptible he was
and how lavishly she exercised her fasciae,-
tiona alma him. She walked to his offiee
with him in the morning; she walked to
meet him vhen he came diastenifig back in
the afternoon; she read the newspaper
(containing Paul's peerless articles) to him
in the evening, and mixed his modest glass
of grog for hint before he went to bed. In
short, she made him tinderstand what it
was to have a charming and devoted daugh-
ter, though she htha no design in doing so --
no motive but to gratify her affection for
Paul in the only way open to her. 80 the
old gentleinan was very happy -and so were
they.
" Let's see," he said one evening/ a few
days after their arrival ; "I suppose you
hoavzanir
beento the caves too often to care tea
g
"No," eaid Elisabeth; "we have never
been to the eaves at all."
" What -living within half-a-doSen sailee
of them all your lives ! Well, I believe
there are many more like you. If they had
been fifty miles away, you would have gone
about once a twelvenumth."
"No, Mr. Brion ^ we were never in the
habit of going sight-seeing. My father
seldom left the house, and my mother only
when necessary; and NVe had no one else to
take us."
"Then ru take you, and we will go to-
morrow. Mrs. Harris shall pack us a basket
for
gdoeawlt,ittlilvetil,n
l:aistar,, pity
'1tvy1 Panindk couldn't
aday oit. Deur,be
The next morning, which was brilliantly
fine, brought the girls an anxiously -expected
letter from Mrs. Duff -Scott. Sam Dunn,
who was an occasional postman for the
solitary house, delivered it, along with it
present of fresh fish, while Mr.
Brion was absent in the township,
negotiating for a buggy and horses
for his expedition. The fairy godmother
had given but a grudging permission for this
villeggiatura of theirs, and they were all
relieved to have her assurance that she was
not seriously vexed with them. Her
envelope was inscribed to "Miss King," but
the long letter enclosed was addressed to
her " dearest children " collectively,
tenderly inquiring how they were getting
on and when they were coming back
pathetically describing her own solitude -so
unlike what it was before she knew the
comfort of their companionship -and detail-
ing various items of society news. Folded
in this, however, was the traditional lady's
postscript, scribbled on it small half -sheet
and marked "private," which Elizabeth
took away to read by herself. She
wondered, with a little alarm, what serious
matter it was that required a confidential
postscript, and this was what she read :
"1 have been thinking over our talk the
other day, dear. Perhaps r spoke too
strongly. One is apt to make arbitrary
generalizations on the spur of the moment,
and to forget how circumstances may alter
cases. There is another side to the question
that should not be overlooked. The
believing wife or husband may be the
salvation of the other, and when the other
is honest and earnest, though mistaken,
there is the strongest hope of this. It re-
quires thinking of on all sides my darling,
and I fear I spoke without thinking enough.
Consult your own heart -I am sure it veill
advise you well.
Elizabeth folded up the note, and put it
into her pocket. Then -for she was alone
in her own little bed -room -she sat down to
think of it ; to weeder what had reminded
Mrs. Duff -Scott of their conversation the
"other day," -what had induced her to
temporize with the convictions which then
appeared so sincere and absolute. But she
could make nothing of it. It was a riddle
without the key.
Then she heard the sound of buggy
wheels hurried steps on the veranda, and
the voice of Mr. Brion calling her.
"My dear," said the old man when she
went out to him, speaking in some haste
and agitation, "1 have just metat the hotel
a friend of yours from Melbourne -Mr.
Yelverton. He came by the coach last
night. He says Mrs. Duff -Scott sent him
up to see how you are getting on, and to
report to her. He is going away again to-
morrow, and I did net like to put off our
trip, so 1 have asked him to join us. I hope
I have not done wrong "-looking anxiously
into her rapidly changing face-" I hope
you won't think that I have taken a liberty,
my dear."
IT° be ContinuPti.
The Household Prize.
135 Adelaide St. W. Toronto, Ont.:
"Your reliable preparation, St. Jacobs Oil,
has proved a benefit to me in more ways
than one. I have used it for quinsy (out-
ward application) with very beneficial re.
sults, and for a case of rheumatism, where
its action was swift and sure, and a perfect
cure was performed. I consider it a remedy
to be prized in every household." -THOS.
PIERDON, with Johnson & Brown.
A Girl's Own Brother.
"But he's my own brother."
Is that any reason why you should take
his courtesies for granted, and never say
"thank you 2"
Is that any reason why you should not
try to make an evening at home pleasant
for him, instead of forcing him by your
selfishness to seek his happiness somewhere
else?
Is that any reason why you should not
think his opinion of your frocks, your bon-
nets or your looks worth consideration.
Is that any reason why you should appear
before him in a clumsy wrapper and with
your hair in papers?
Is that any reason why, when you have a
man visitor, he should be made to feel that
you endured your brother when there was
nobody else, but when there was -well --
then it was different?
Is that any reason why you should not be
glad of a dance or it game with him as your
partner?
Is that any reason why you should not
listen to his word of advice about either
girls or their brothers ?-La Mode.
0, this dull, depressing headache,
That won't wear off;
• This hawking and this spitting,
And this hacking cough.
I've lost my sense of smelling,
And taste's going, too.
I know catarrh's what ails mc,
But -What shall Idol
My hacking and my hawking
Keeps up a steady din;
I'm haunted by the fear that
Consumption may set in.
I feel supremely wretched ;
No wonder I'm blue,
I know my health's failing,
But -what can I do.
Do? I'll tell you what to do, my friend,
if you'll lend me your ear a minute. Go
down to the drug store and buy Dr. Sage's
Catarrh Remedy, and take it according to
directions given, and you'll soon find that
this miserable headache is, a {king of the
past; the hacking, hawking and spitting, se
disagreeable to others as well as yourself,
will come to an end, and in a short time
you will feel like a new man. Anew man -
think of that -and all for fifty cents, which
is the price of Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy,
the unfailing cure for this terribie disease.
Righteous Indignation.
Mr. Suburb -Why can't you come and
do the Nvashing as usual to -morrow ?
Washerwoman (angrily) -'Cause I got ter
stay to hem and mend th' childer's clothes
-that's why. It's yer own fault, too, that
ye can't get y'r tvashin' done this week, and
you've got to do it y'rself ergo dirty."
"My fault? how can it be 2"
"What business had ye to go an' put it
barbed wire fence aroundy'r apple orchard
I should like ter know 2"
Rev. Father Huntington, of New York,
preached in St. George's Church, Kingston,
last evening.
AS an evidence of the independence of
American girls it is reported that within the
last six months 150 youhg women have
taken uP timber elaints in the State of
Washington.
'August
Flower"
The Hon. J. W. Fennimore is the
Sheriff of Kent Co., Del„ and live*
at Dover, the County Seat and Cap-
ital of the State. The sheriff is a,
gentleman fifty-nine years of age„
and this is what he says: "I have
used your August Flower for sev-
eral years in my family and for my
"own use, and found it does me
"more good than any other remedy.
"1 have been troubled with what
"call Sick Headache!' A pain comes
" in the back part of ray head first,
"and then soon a general headache
"until I become sick and vomit.
"At times, too, I have a fullness
"after eating, a pressure after eating
at the pit of the stomach, and
"sourness, when food seemed to rise
up in my throat and mouth. When.
I feel this corning on if I take a.
"little August Flower it relieves
me, and is the best remedy I have
ever taken for it. For this reason.
"1 take it and recommend it tarsi
others as a great remedy for Dys-
pepsia, &c."
G. G. GREEN, Sole Manufacturer,
Woodbury, New Jersey, II. S. A.
'7321,11,,IINKIArGITIMINW£01111/%1:11WIMMI{
A QUEER TONGUE -TWISTER.
Odd Sign to be Seen In Front ora New York
Store.
There is a, sign in front of a cigar store cnz
lower Wall street which reads :
DON'T USF: DIG WORDS.
In promulgating esoteric cogitations or
articulating superficial sentimentalities and
philosophical or psychological observation%
beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let
your statements possess it clarified concise-
ness' compacted comprehensibleness, coales-
centconsistency and a concentrated cogency.
Eschew all conglomerations of flatulent
garrulity, jejune babblement and asinine
affectations. Let your extemporaneous,
decantings and unpremeditated expatiation&
have intelligibility and veracious vivacity
with rhodomontade or the thraeonical bom-
bast; sedulously avoid all polysyllabic pro-
fundity, psittsmeous vacuity, ventriloquial
verbosity and vandiloquent vapidity; shun
double entendres, prurient jocosity a.nd pest-
iferous profanity, whether obscurent or
apparent.
In other words, talk plainly, sensibly and
truthfully. -New York World.
Splinters.
Too much beer is apt to put men at lager -
heads.
The roughest roadi'are those we have not
travelled over.
You can't size up an orator by the dimen-
sions of his mouth.
The man born itt it cabin may some day -
name a cabinet.
Many handkerchiefs are moistened by
sorrows that never occur.
Women's sweet disposition is ahvays shown
by her husband's long hair.
A politician left alone with his conscience ,
sees mighty little company.
In diving to the bottom of pleasures, we
bring up more gravel than pearls.
A bridge should never be condemned until
it has been tried by its piers.
Hope builds a nest in man's heart where
disappointment hatches its brood.
Women are not inventive as a rule. They
have no eagerness for new wrinkles.
Minds of moderate calibre ordinarily con-
demn everything which is beyond their
range.-SVeings.
Sweeter Than Honey in the Honeycomb.
" What in life is half so sweet,
As the hour when lovers meet"
Nothing is sweeter to the youthful and
robust in health, but, alas to many "Court
in poetry, and live in prose," after marriage.
This is especially true of the wives whose
changed relations bring on weaknesses and
derangements peculiar to married women,
so that their lives become "prosy." To aIL
such, Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription ia a.
great boon. It cures weak backs, head-
aches, neuralgic and "bearing -down" paina,
displacements and irregularities of the
female organs. It is likewise a restorative
and invigorating tonic, strengthening the
nerves, and imparting new life to the tired
and debilitated, bringing back the "roses to
the cheek," and the rainbows to the eyes."
Sold by all druggists, under guarantee from
its makers of eatisfaction in every case, or
price ($1) refunded.
Gladstone's Son's Grave.
A tombstone has been erected over the
grave of the late Mr. W. H. Gladstone at
Hawarden. It is a plain cross of white
marble on three steps or bases. Upon the
latter are engraved: "Thou wilt keep hint
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
Thee." -Isaiah, twenty-sixth chapter, third.
verse. William Henry Gladstone. Born
3rd June, 1840. Passed away 6th July,
1891.
"Soon shall come the great awaking.
Soon the rending of the tomb,
Then the scattering of all shadows,
And the and of toil and gloom."
A low border of white marble incloses the
grave. Within this pansies were thickly -
planted, representing it white cross on aa
ground of purple. '
For lirbles and Young Wives.
White satin or repped silk is euitable
for the wedding dress of a bride of 2()
years.
Aenprospeetive bride should use the
initial of her maiden name on household
lin.
A tulle veil envelopes a bride so hem's-
ingly that it is often preferred to the shorter
veil of lace.
Inclose your card in a small envelope
scarcely larger than your card -such as in.
intended especially for cards.
Let a gentleman making a call take care
of his hat without your assistance. Ile can
either leave it in the hall or carry it into,
the parlor.--Besaser's Bazar.
Thin reenleray.
No matter how many hundreds &ages of
any other medicine are offered for a dollar,
Da Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery is
the cheapest blood purifier sold, threrngh
druggists, bemuse it's guaranteed, and your
money is returned if it doesn't benefit or
CRTC.
With ite me you only pay for MS geoet
you get.
Can yon ask more,