The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-07-04 00:00:00

WAITING FOIL AN ANSWER.

This is a Alert and simple, but well told, love story in
last month's Canotite Family Magazine, by George
Manville Faun. Somewhat abridged, the tale runs as
follows
Jack and I were engaged. It was all such a simple
homely affair. We had known one another for years—the
children of neighbouring farmers. Jack—l still call him
by the simple old pet name of those days—Jack had been
away at • good school, and being bright and shrewd and
clever, he had won his way on, taking to engineering
instead of his father's farm life; and now it had come
to this, that he had been staying at home for a month,
previous to going out to a good appointment in Mel-
bourne.
. . . . . . . . .

That month in spring. how it passed! We had met
again and again, and in his honest, manly way, he had
asked me to he his wife.. _ . .

You know, Grace, that I have always loved you," he
said ; "and now I have hopes and Erospects, it cannot be
wrong to ask you for your promise.
We were walking by the river side as he said this, and
how well I can picture it all—the soft gliding water
mirroring the trees on the opposite bank, the young green
buds just breaking from their cases, and, above all, the
soft tender blue of the spring sky—the blue, he had told
me, that was like my eyes.
' Do you want me to promise, Jack r I said simply, as
I looked up in his face.
da,rumg • tam satisfied," he cried, as his strong
arms held ma darling;
his broad breast, and that was all. No
oaths could have bound me more tightly to him. I felt
that! was his wife when he should remote claim me.
We were late that evening, and entered the house
shyly, for there had been so much to talk of and plan. In
a month's time Jack was to sail for Melbourne; then he
was to work very hard for three years, and come and
fetch me to be his wife. . . . .

That month glided by, and the last day had come. It
was as I told you, spring time—joyous spring time.
I could not feel sad, even though I Was going to meet
Jack for the last walk before he went away; but, as I said,
mingled with the feeling of ecstasy there was a strange
tearfulness of eye, and my breath would come at times
with a sob.

-
Ile wa y the stile, waiting for me—the stile down by
the long mead, half•way between the two farms—and as
he took iny hands in his, we neither of us spoke, but
stood gaging away over woodland and meadow, all clad in
their wondrous beauty, and listened to the birds..

We could not talk, our hearts were too full for Jack
was to he off at daybreak the next morning. But there
was no need for words. We loved each other in the
simple nature-taught way that has been since the world
began, and we knew that every joyous song around that
thrilled upon our ears meant love, and even in our sorrow
we were happy.
"Only three years, darling," Jack whispered to me,
"and then—"
The tears rose to my eves as I tried to answer him, but
I could not speak • word.
"And you will let me find a long letter when I get
there," he said, tenderly.
" Yea, Jack, I promise," I said ; and then it was time
to return, for the hours had glided by, how we could not
toll. . . . . . .

Jack spent the evening with us at home, and then he
left no hurriedly, for our farewells had been said in the
wood, and it was one hearty kiss, given and taken before
the old people, and then good-bye.
But I saw him pass soon after daybreak, and he saw
me, and waved his hand, for I had sat by the window all
Bight, lest I might let him go by, and I asleep.
And then time glided on sadly, but pleasantly as well.
Mine was a busy life, for soon my father took to his bed,
ill—a bed be never left again, for he gradually sank and
died, leaving my poor mother in very indifferent circum-
stances, and at the end of two years I was standing by
the bedside where lay poor mother, sinking fast. She
had had no particular ailment, but had literally pined
and wasted away. The bird had lost its mate of many
years, and when at last she kissed me, and said "Good-
bye," it seemed to sue to be in a quiet rest-seeking spirit,
and she spoke like one looking hopefully forward to the
meeting with him who had gone before.
But she could think of me even then, and almost the
last whispered words were—
.... . . , . . .

"Only eleven montha, Grace, and then he will be back
to fetch you. '
It woe very hard to bear, and for a month I was terribly
depressed ; but there was that great hopeful time ever
drawing near-92e end of the three years, when Jack

would come to fetch me to be his wife.
But I had to he up and doing, and before another month
was over, through the kindneaa of people whom we had
known, I wan placed where I could work iwntentully for
the bread I t earn till Jack *hold.' come tw fetch me
away. . . . . . . .

It wax at a largo West-end dresst—eker's, and it was hanl
work to get ined to the hurry and excitement of the place,
where there were twelve girls living in the house, awl me
many inure CAVIIe every day.
There were all kinds of petty pieces of tyranny
submit to at iirst, and I suppieie some id the fooli:i girls
were jealous of me awl my looks, In much MO thm. I found
they nick-named me "The Beauty!' Pnoi girl.! If they
had onlyl known how little dote I put on lily looks, they
would have behaved at first as they did later on.

The first thing that won them to we was when Mary
Sanders was taken ill with a terrible fever. Madame
I:rainger was for sending her away at once on account c..;
her business, and the infection • but the doctor icho was
ailed in, a young, impetuous, hilt very cloves Wan, told
her tht it would be at her peril if she so. for Mary
Sander's life was in danger. So the swot girl was shift up
in herinni.ronni, without a sl to go near her except a
hired nurse, and after tha first night this woman stayed
. .

No one .lared go near the poor girl then, so I timidly
asked leave to nurse her, for I felt no (carol the
and it seemed so hard for her to be left there alor,e..
I obtained leave, and went up-stairs, stayiuy with her
till she recovered; and from that day •,to,o was always a
kind look for me, and a kiss front z.ery girl in the place.
What was more, oddly ennugla, perhaps because I was
no quiet and restrain.., first one girl and then another
came to make we she confidant of her love-secrets. and
ask my advice. . . .

I gave it, such as it was, though heartier.: 111rGeli, for
Jack's letters to me had suddenly ieased. Wr, had corms.
ponded so regularly : but it struck me Lista his teat two
letters had been formal and constrained : they were full of
business matters too. and ho ha,' hinted at its being
possible that he should not be able to keep time about tie
three years, in conmeuence of some contract.
I did not think this when I had read these letters, me
then I had kissed and cried over thou : hut when no reply
came to my bolt, I re-read them and the whinges* seemed
apparent.
hut I waited and waited, and thse news Gnu*: from the
country. Jack's father, a widower, had died suddenly'
and I said to myself, with throbbing heart, • s I longed to
he at his side to try and comfort him in his affliction,
Poor Jack, he will come honor now."
but he did not come, neither did I get any reply to my
last two letters. Another month, and the three years
would be up; and as I sat over souse work one spring
morning by the open window, with a bunch of violets that
one of the girls had brought me in a glass, the soft breeze
that caine tloatiuguser the chimney-pots and sooty roofs,
wafted to me the scent of the humble little blossoms, and
my eyes became full of tears, for in an instant the busy
workroom had passed away and I was down house y theriver-side, listening to dear Jack, as he asked it., to be his
wife.
I waited till the three years had e-esrsa, and then, with
what anguish of heart no werd,., csa.;l4 tell, I wrote to Jaek
again-my fourth letter -pegging him, imploring him to
answer me it I:t4 tc tell me he was weary of his promise,
v‘i,hel to be set free; and then, making a super.
human effort over myself, I waited, waited, month by
I month, for an answer. though I knew that it must he at
I least six months before one could come.
I had given up expecting one in the interim, and I was
too proud to send to his relatives-distant ones, whom ;
had never seen, and who bad probably never heard ef w.
The thought that Jack had grown tired of witi,t;ogs and
grown to a feeling of certainty; but ; wasted for my
answer.
Three months -six month:: months passed away,
and hope was dead wlltiiii'mi heart, when nue day a
sharp knock and ring at the door echoed through the house,
following lestantly upon the dull fall of a letter, and the
sharp Oick of the letterbox.
It was like an electric shuck to me, and without a word
darted into the hall, panting with excitement, and my
hand at my throat to tear away the stilling sensation.
But it was a letter. I could see it through the glass in
the letter-box, and I seised it with trembling hand,
inspired as it were by sonic strange power.
"Jack ! dear Jack at last r I rasped, as I turned it
and saw it was • strange, blue, oflicial-lookia. letter,
formally directed to me.
Even that did not surprise me was from Jittk, I
knew, and I tore open the bleaearnlope.
Yea I knew it I Th? ;r.net envelope was covered with
Australian poet rArke, and ignorant as I might be of its
content..; was raking it to zny lips to cover it with paw-
:eaalie kisses, when I saw it was open.
Then a mist came over my mental vision for a moment.
but only to clear away as, half stamilled. I turned the
missive over and over, held it straight fur a moment: and
then, with asigh of misery and despair, stood mute, and
as if turned to stone.
" ('race, my child! In eisar's Rune tell me—
n was allednie. who ?naiad her arm around Si;and
looked horror.stricken at my white face and lips. The
next moment remember she had caught the letter
lefites.,--my letter- from my hand, and read it aloials
ldr. 'John Braywood, Markboro, R. County Melhearise,"
and then, in her excitement, the great official sentence
like brand upon it-" Dead r
That was the beginning of my tint am! only illness,
during which Madame tended ins l'sku • mother, even to
giving up her business afterwards, mut retiring to live
with use are in this quiet streets where she died, and left
Inc well-to-ds, as nii see. I have grown old since than,
cam:,isidlienidtat:les,wy'u'alul'aw.samenrcattwreh4"l4o.nhalonuldporlileserrolyiureelairz.thotrcibfeedteir_wwainiagt.thathisadttoraLdduhe.rol iffisindihowie. Atvhiahack diwnhamadd.,
MA I ass but waning till we shall Meet again.

HUNYADI rialeoa Mtxxttat WATEIL—The best and
most agreeable natural aperient.- -" Those who hays used Pullna and Friedrickshall prefer the If ,bmos water to either, because the bulk of the udnyasom
less than either of thr,se waters, and the action is les/ drastic, producing no distress or uneasiness,"_.
Professor Aitken, F.R.S., Professor of Pathoi
Army Medical School, Author of the "Sekmee'Z'a
Practice of medicine." Sixth Edition. h original bottles, price :hi. and is. fist, of all cheMists. —A wins glass full a dose.
A MISZILIBLE If oax.--Great excitement was manifested
In the metropolus the other evening. and especially in a*
eastern Tarts of London, ,iwing to the rumour that the
lives had been lost. It
Alexandra saloon steamei had
vVell state overturned, and that rub
stated that more
hundred constables of the K 411V1,4.1, "ho hal gone lor an excursion in the steanp_r, hat been drowned.
Bow, Stepney, Lialehouse, and Blnclswall t.evite,":::
,
in consequence was at one time intense. Happily ;;,'
Alexandra returned safely about a quarter to
k.n.
much credence did this alarming rumour ohts,in that tg:
company to whom the vessel belongs thought it
to have have bills printed denying the report
extensively circulated about Poplar, but had little
in allaying the anxiety. It appears that this is nor tekel
first cruel report of its kind that has been put tete
lation regarng their steamers, end they are If possible, to trace them to their origin.
arnvel of the ship at Blackwell hundreds of peevie
waiting at the pier, and the approach of the veski
the signal for a round of the most heartfelt cheerisi,7.!
was ever heard. These cheers the pleasure.seeker7Z
board were at a loss to understand. It seems that thy
had a most njoyable trip, and they were very warm is praise of Captain Luke, who had charge of the aeanw.