The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1867-06-27

me and am answered at once"
He put his arm over my shoulder at
| leaned forward. with my face buried
i" c.y lap and whispered.
II think you don't love me, Hester y
"Oh, do, Mark, I dor cried lift.
ing my heao but cannot marry you,
| shall have to give you up"
"Givc me- up, my dear love-" and he
Gcld me closer.
~ cannot 80 to India"
''Why not ?" and he looked half.
amazed, half:amused.
L could not bear the glance of his
kind, dark oy"s, l shrank away from
his arm, and said:
~ cannot leave Milly."
To our own thinking, I had pronounce
CO our doom now but Mark Suther-
land could laugh, and said:
"Wcll, then you shall not; Miss
>Ii'ly shall 80 too
"Ah! if that could only be, but
Milly would die il India. We caue
home because the climate was killing
her,"
S'And you will not leave her p
I'll promised mamma before she died
that l never would that if 1 married
it should not separate us; that my
home should be MilIy's till she did not
need ii" 1 answered, faltering under
something in the look of his face that
was new to me. Up to this time l had
been thinking of myself, now was re.
minded that I was giving pain to him
He was silent two or three minutes,
looking aw y into the distance. He
had taken his hand away from my
shoulder. -.: -:
''Well, Hester,' said he presently,
sraveIy not uukinl'y-but, ah! -as it
seemed to me, very coldly-"you have
simply to choose between your sister
aud myself: You are best able to judge
Of your sisters claims upon you; of my
own, I will only say that love you.
never thought or cared much about
women tin saw you, so I am not like.
ly to change my liking or to forget it
and if you had married me-but 1 will
not try to plead my cause against your
sisters. 1t is tor you to decide, and for
me to abide by your dicision"
| looked desperately up to the smiling
blue heavens, at the calm stream flow
ing on its path to the sea, at the SUM-
basking peace around me and prayed
with prayer so passionate that it SEEM
ed like loud demand, that I might not
be forced into Staying with my own
hands the young happiness of my life
II cannot and will not do it," 1 said
in my heart ; yet knowing at the same
time that I must. and could -
Then Mark spoke again:
"Would ytu like little time to con.
slider the matter? I need not leave the
HolIies till tomorrow evening, or, per-
haps the next day."
"No," I answsred-with or withou,
my own will, I never knew. II know
" ,at I must do. cannot leave Milly."
"And Milly cannot go. That decides
it then. Well, I have nothing to say.
[ am the last man in the world to per.
*uade any one against their Judgment
He rose r. liberately, but did not 20,
f I sat still.
care you going home?" he asked
after minute. chester, don't lovk
so sad ; you are feeling Tor me-don't
do that. I should like to think of you
over the sea as happy as would have
tried to have made you; think Of me
sometimes as friend. l don't expect
to forget you, Hester, Good bye"
His hand, as he held it out, shook
ever so slightly, but it held mine In
a firm pressure tor an instant. Then
he let it drop, stopped and picked uE
his gun, ,vhistled~h's togs around him
and strobe away again along the Sc:
wall. without one look back.
AiilIy and l were both orphans.
Our. father and mother had both dice
in India, and we were sent home t.
the care Of our sole relative, my father''
only sister. al elderly maiden lady
living in a kind Of lady.like povert,
at dull little village o, Kent. Aun
Dolly died when ] was seventeen ant
| Milly twelve, leaving to us the little cot
taye that had been her home aud ours
with everything it contained; no. vcr,
valuable beouest, but all the poor sou
had to leave: and Milly aud mo
heiresscs, but not destitute neither -
continued to live with the dear old serv
ant who had been our aunt's faithful
companion, ind our kind, affecticnat
nurse ever since, fatherl.ss and mothe,
less, we had been sent to England.
There were not many people to visi
at Hillstead-thc rector, the doctor an
the family at the Hollies comprise
them. l think VIC we're the most int
mate ut the Hollies; for the childre
there were Milly's cotemporaries, an
her sworn admirers and friends. | fir
saw Mark Sutherland at the Hollie!
he was Mr.. Sutherland's cousin, and
hid heaad of him often bef,re I sa
him. He had led wild, advcnturor
kind of lie, wandering all over Ii
world for his simple pleasure, I suppo.
since never heard that he had .au
object in doing SO. had formed n
idea Of him ; to be sure the reality W
not i" tie least like it. No, quite othe