The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1865-06-16


Christian name Is household word
here. Was it Mary --?7 was checked
again by Blundell's look.
You promised to listen, - he growled,
and now you are cross-examining
Have little patience and forgive me
too, if repeat what / have already
told you. Mary Percival and l were
friends from infancy Our mothers
were friends before us, and my earliest
recollections are associated with her
and hers. When we came to be man
and woman, we read and argued and
were happy together, as we had played
and qurIelled and made up again in
childhood. The old friendship had
increased, but had not changed its
character; at least can speak for my
self. You remember what Tennyson
says in Dora
''ihc youth, because
Hc had been always with her in the house,
Thought not OF Dora
1t was something like this with me.
Yet l admired Mary very much, and
after fashion, very dearly and
would have done or suffered almost
anything to give her pleasure or to
spare her pain. You have heard all
this before. don't mean to inflict
any more Of it on you. Now take
yourself back to Cambridge for mo-
ment, and try to recall Trinity man
named Horner Handsome Homer
they called him.
Il remember him perfectly" l said
Gle was in the second Trinity, and
rowed seven in the first boat when
they bumped us in the Long Reach
A broad-shouldered man, with curly
hair and white arms"
Regardless ofgrammar l cry, That's
him, was the reply. "He and I had
a slight acquaintance at the University,
in the last term when we both read
with Smith; and meeting in town after
we took our degree, we became very
good friends. Some time after this,
he wrote to ask me to go and see them
at his fathers rectory in Surrey. /
went and saw the dear old rector and
Horner's mother, and, more than all,
saw his sister. Recalling her broth
er--fancy him a woman-refned,
frightened, intensely identified, and
you can form some idea Of Mary Hor-
ner. 1t is impossible for me to de-
scribe fifty the effect she produced
upon me from the first. My acquain-
lance had included some very pretty
women. might have said of myself,
if it were not conceited, Militant non
sane giorlq: not as a tlirt though, mind
but Mary Horer was new expert
ence. She fascinated me, and was a
gone graduate You may be sure that
did not get any better the longer
staid within the charmed circle. | was
not disliked by her You know what
| mean. But Ineyer could detect any
thing like symptoms of-what shall |
! call it ?-.receprocity of affection.
Don't laugh, there's relief in such a
way Of putting it.) On the contrary,
she treated me with cordial but thor
oughly self-possed fliendliness. She
was not the sort of woman TO encour-
age any lover, however acceptable in
ocular demonstration and that kind
Of thing, and it never occurred to me
to try it on; and then the exercise, and
/ the general atmosphere of the place,
were so conducive to health and spir-
It's that the lady had no reason, on
that first visit, to suspect from my ap-
pearance the condition of my heart.
This was in the summer; but the fol-
lowing winter found me again at Shall
lowford Rectory, | met some pleasant
people there whom l had not seen be-
fore; among others, Mr.. Horners GU
rate, Charles Oxenden.
He was really good fellow
heartily devoted to his work, as
an accomplished man and an agreea-
I BILE companion. All this / could but
acknowledge, in spite of shadow Of
a consciousness that was something
in the confidential relationship subsst
ing between him and Mary Homer
But then / consoled myself with the
thought that they had common in
terest in parish matters, that involved
a good deal discussion. And there
was nothing in the conduct of either
that / could complain of as loyerlike
even if l had possessed any right tc
complain at all, which hadn't any.
i had never told my love. am not
prepared to state that on this second
visit | might not have, almost involun
tarily, BETRAYED myself; but there haC