Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-02-26

mise, given up with full confidence the en-.
tire domestic economy to Herthas manage.
ment II allowed hera certain sum month.
Iy for this purpose but interfered no furih-
er in any of its concerns.
HeSiha was so deslrous Of rewardinp her
fathers confidence, so solicitous TO rive
him satisfaction, that she soon overcamp
her natural repngnance to, aud even her
want Of experience in the business Of house
hold economy; and never before had the
Director been so satisfied, and contended
with the management of his family. Be
sides which, since he had left everything in
his daughters hands, he no longer enuuired
after every glass which was broken, or ev-
cry sixpence that was expended, and this
saved him many petty vexation and an
noynnce by means of which he used for
merly to embtter his own life and that of
others. ..
BY degrees also little beauty began to
be introduced into the house; and although
the Director at first regarded these innova-
tions with suspicion, he became reconcilel
when he observed that they did not cost
him anything. Some of these were orna-
DNuAbl WIN hnhuO Wy lDG UduuS vi HIS
daughters; others also were purchased by q
portion of the present which her father had
given her, and which Hertha thus appro-
priated to the beautifying Of his new home.
The Director Annt Nelly had passed
their youth tOget her, aud it ssaid mutual
affection existed between them, particularly
on her side, When her young more wealthy
hnf-sister returned home from the school AT
Stockholm, where she had finished her edu-
cation, and at once gained possession of
the heart which Aunt Nela had begun to
regard as her own property. But she ten
derly loved this sister; with bitter pain,
hut without anger or complaint, silently
drew back, so that nothing might interfere
with her sisters happiness. This was the
unknown but beautiful, romantic episode
in Aunt Nella'S life; ami to it belonged al.
so the increasingly faithful devotion with
which she adhered o her sister, her brother.
iu-lnw, their children. OF her brother-in-
law she entertained dread mingled with
love, which made her, indeed, often suffer
under his power, but never blame him
She had been conlended with living in his
house She had seen her sister fade away
amid the gloom of an inharnOnious mar
riage, aud had watched and wept over her
and sometimes silently thanked God that
she herself had not been married; vet. new
threSS, she preserved regard for her first
aud her Ouly love, which made her, to GER
tam degree, blind to her brother-in-law's
faults
Aunt Nella's conversation and reminis.
,.nI had "a uunSuai inf ;n, Il
ing the long summer evenings. He lpnged
for Iea'timr, and evening, because now, in
stead Of taking his tea, as formerly, alone.
he desired the company of Aunt NeIla-
Her heart thr0bhed, as she hasteHed out to
p he porch and seated herself opposite her
brother-in-law, who commonly said:
We'll, Aunt, can you tell me about
such ard such an occurrence, or person,
who had figured in the days of their youth.
Aud immediately the little old lady was
ready to diSentnngle the threads of in-
nUmerable youthful memories.
But the great lawsuit was to Aunt Nclla
he reality Of life, and she could not help
Il. 1t came up again aud again; and when
t, by degrees was placed in new aud pecn-
liar points of view, and became mixed up
with legal process, in which the Director
himself was involved, be began by little
aud little to listen to the story with Ger
:lin degree Of curiosity. There might pos.
SbIy, after all, be something in it.
Aunt Nella felt herself, in the meantime,
probably rs II night-lump wonld feel--if it
ever feels at all-whch was advanced from
a corner in the nursery to the drawing
room.
She felt herself quite important, and
happy, TO be thus called out every evening
and lighted for her dreaded, yet, in reality, |
always beloved, brother-in-law. She felt
herself important to the whole family, and |
SO she was in fact, when she could thus
lmuSe the master of the family and her |
histories bacame more and more animated, !
and the great lawsuit assumed greater sig |
nIcance aud more rem arkable form. Thus |
passed on the summer. and many things in |
The family had become brighter Hertha |
was allowed to employ her time as she liked, |
md enjoyed this freedom If her father !
lny saw her at meal-timeS he was satisfied. |
One subject, nevertheless, continued to
cause her trouble. 1t was that her father |
look no steps for the accomplishment of his
promise as regarded her becoming legally
independent She had twice ventured, with !
, beating heart to remind him of his prom
Sc to her; but she was always put off
The emotion and the goodwill which had
been excited by the events of the fire, aud
and by Alma's death, seemed now TO have
died away again, aud his selfish disposition
was once more in the ascendant.
A young woman placed in circumstances
such as those of Hertha is very helpless.
The nobler and the more delicate and SEN
'itive are her feelings the more difficult is
her position. There are people who, with
'nt any desire to act unjustly, have yet an
ndiscribable difficulty in giving out of their
'wn hands either money or power
Hertha would have felt still more acutely
ler fathers breach Of faith towards her,
lad il not been very evident to her that his
powers of mind were declining. and that
in This might lie the grounds of
his procrastination She saw with uneasi.
ness that his memory for later events was
ailng, aud that it was difficult for him TO
Understand money affairs. Yet, at the.
ame time, he contnned with inaexiLle ob.
itlnacy. tile sole management Of them, aud