The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1863-11-19

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my head that | should not marry Johr
Blaiklie. From my childhood, even, ]
had been taught to look upon him 4a
my future husband. Through tn,
whole neighborhood our engagement
had grown to be such settled affair
pand Of such long standing, that tbs
people forgot to tease us about it., anf
Epassed by Us as 'indifferently al
though We had been a married couple
for years, instead Of interesting engag
ling young persons. But somehow, as
| said before, / cannot tell why it came
to me, the idea that marrying Johr
Blaiklie was not the, best way of. set
ting myself for life, after all I; and SO
working upon this, grew to believe
that | did not love him, and not low
ing him, what could / do but assure
him that | should never be his wife
And that assurance ! gave him as
have already shown. n =; 6,as,.
But after he left me that morning,
felt anything but comfortable; indeed,
the tears came constantly to my eyes,
and though tried as well as / could
to keep them down, they conquered me
at last, and sinking down in my chair
l gave up and had good hearty cry.
l felt little better after that, and tried
to persuade myself. jimmy own mind,
that had done just the best thing
could do for the insurance of, Johns
and my own happiness. But the worst
was yet to come. ,.,.,-9 ,reH 10 ro;,
The next Sabbath John, attended
cousin Fannie to Church. This was
such new and strange order of things
that it set the whole congregation to
staring. Cranston could not sleep un-
der anything SO incomprehensible, and
for that Sabbath at least, good Parson
Green preached to a wakeful set of
hearers. But they could only conjec-
ture as to the cause of the change, and
conjecture they did without leaving
but little time for any mental specula-
tion. Some were ready to declare
that cousin Fannie had supplanted me
in Johns affection, and that / was
breaking my heart in secret kind of
a way about it; others said that the
fault rested with me, and that l was
looking in another and higher direction
for lover. But l had the truth, and
most sacredly did guard it. 1t, grew
to be a very plain truth before the
summer was gone. AS time wore
away, and lcsaw plainly into the depths
of my own heart, knew that for a
childish, girlish whim, 1 had put the
happiness of lifetime away from me.
But 1 could only wear brave face,
and keep my secret from the curious,
prying gaze of those who were search
ing for it, baf 591eas go .e5t -..+-
l did not even meet John, but twice
during that summer were we thrown
into each others's company for a suf?
fcient length of time to exchange a
dozen words. Once we met at picnic.
From the moment that l stepped upon
the ground l knew that he was intend
ing to speak to me-. Perhaps felt it
by the way he watched me asI went
from place to place. When he came
to my side it seemed that the whole
party hushed their voice, heart and
soul to listen to us. He smiled at this,
and commenced taking in a pleasant,
gossipy way about the weather, ap-
pearing not to notice my flushed face
and slightly disturbed manner. II n
care you, enjoying the best of health
this summer ?'' he asked, at length,
with, thought, faint touch of mis-
chief in his face. t.et r2-.glhl
''The very best of health, Mr. Blaik.
lie," l answered curling my lip. '3Per,
haps you have been informed to the
contrary, however" l continued, more
in answer to his smile than aught also
"CranstoD gossips, have believe CIV
H..r
en- me credit of bearing up under
settled heart disease" /
q "They are inferior Judges Bessie.
Do not class me among them" T %
81 never have," l answered dryly.
"No, suppose not" he said, smil-
ing again. "This is beautiful grovew
"Very!" ! answered, feeling that it
was my turn to smile now.'rfur = ~,
slave you noticed the arrangements
made for dancers ?'' fsob
/ shook my head. bear sdt i
"Come this way, then, if you please"
He offered me his arm, which | took
without THU king to thank him. For a
little moment 1 forget that the right OF