The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-03-16
Jane Ibbotson's Warning.
ny MARY HOwITT.

DOnt you ike ltJ ucdIi aShCu tho
aunt, troubled at the silence. Mother
thought you would be 30 pleased, and
father gave the money so willingly"
at was very kind" said Jane, and
that was all. .-y
The aunt, not liking to tell them
down stairs that Jane did not show any
pleasure, kept, out of everybodyS way
for an hour or two, and Jane in the
mean time cried in her bedroom to
think that now for years she should
have to endure that ugly room. Poor
girl! this ill-considered Kindness of her
family was, in its way, as great morti-
ficatiOn to her as the shop. Nothing,
however, is 90 bad but that it may be
'mended, and Jane was not without re-
sources. In the end therefore, she con-
triyed so far to tone down and even to
harmonic the ill-assorted colors as to
leave the room, if not elegant, at least
bearable. Here, too, she could do just
as she liked; consequently, she sur
rounded herself by books, for she was
an immense novel-reader; and in their
pages she lived in the most elegant
houses, and associated with earls and
countesses, county squires and their Ia
dies. In vain would she have sought
in those pages for an honest lover who
was a shopkeeper. There was not such
a thing! In life, however,-at least in
her life,-it was different, and that was
her misfortune.
She had not, therefore, been long at
home before she found herself the object
of David Ronald's regard. He was now
the faithful assistant and bOok-keeper
in the business, and the son-in-law elect
of. the house, according to the wishes of
the parents, though they had sense
enoug to leave him free to make his
own choice.
But David Ronald, though shop
keepers assistant, was no common man.
He was intellectually far superior to his
calling; he was real gentleman, we'll
bred, of cultivated mind, kind-hearted,
and agreeable in person and manners.
But all this with Jane went for moth:
ing; he was only the book-keeper in
her fathers shop: she had never read
of any hero of romance who stood be-
hind q counter. Farmers sons might
be countrified; professors in universi-
ties might have small incomes, but still
these might be interesting; not so
shOpkeeper. She saw plainly before
her a very painful time when Davids
love would no longer keep silence; she
therefore avoided him, and was . very
Barbara Allen to him in her disdainfM
Scorn. Just at this time, however, a
very agreeable and fattering event Oc-
Cured, and, according to her feelings,
the most opportune also. She received
the promised invitation to visit the
heiress at Saxon6eld.
Miss st. just had been now several
months in possession, and had already
become the talk of the whole country,
NOT alone for her attractive personal
qualities; but also for her original but
Characteristic mode Of procedure. Re-
jecting all ideas of a woman's incapacity
for managing her affairs, she establish.
cd herself in the lone-neglected house,
on the ill-conditioned land, resolute to
show that she understood both her du-
ties and her responsibilities. Her
wealthy landed neighbors crowded
round her, volunteering service
and advice, and each one anxious
to recommend to her some steward or
bailiff of the most unquestiOhed ability.
There was hardly a gentleman in the
county who was not desirous, either for
himself or somebody else, to assume the
management of her property. But she
had formed her own plane, aHu woniu
have nothing to do with any of them.
She had not, in fact, been many days
at Saxonfeld, where she brought down
q small establishment of well-selected
servants and an elderly lady, her first
governess and lifelong friend, as her
companion,-when, having accidental
ly fallen in with the steward of Latten-
cover, she was so we'll pleased with his
good sense and evident practical knowl-
edge, that she determined to make him
her guide and counsellor for the time
being. Besides which, he having no
body to recommend to her service, his
advice was disinterested; and all being
in such perfect order on the Latten-
cover estate, she conceived confidence
in him, and he became virtually the
handspring Of all her immediate action.
She enjoyed beyond everything an act
\ i've, executive life. She was not q deli
cate lady to recline in her carriage, and
view her property only from the drives
through il. She might daily be seen on
horseback, overlooking her draining
and road-making and mending, whilst
every other kind of improvement was
actively going forward everywhere.
The house in itself was very handsome,
and repairs and undermining internally
and refurnishing, supplied still further
\ sources of interest. In the mean time
she was living in a grand, hospitable
way, surrounded by willing friends, old
and young, giving dinner-parties for
the elder, and pic-nics and Out-of-door
entertainments, through the summer,
in her as yet wilderness park and
grounds, to the infinite delight of the
young. -I
1t was just at this time also, when
all the country was ringing with her
fame, that the shy and retiring young
squire of Latten-cover, having estab-
lished his poor emigrants satisfactorily
in the Western States, returned home.
Scarcely could any two characters ap-
pear outwardly more different than
those of the two neighbor proprietors.
Fortunately, Saxonfield adjoined Lat
ten-cover; therefore, a. soon as the ice
of first acquaintance was broken,-
which was always difficult to the young
man,-he found, in the plan of his stew
ard, . constant source Of occupation on
/ her estate.
In this way . great intimacy grew
up between them; yet Mather was never
seen at the grand Saxen6eld dinner
parties; no kept himself apart from hin
wealthy neighbors, as far at least a.
visiting went, though he was hospita-
bic and generous; but everything con-
ventional was opposed to his NATURE,
and il mattered little to him whether he
were thought eccentric or not, % long
a his own conscience left him FREQ OF
reproach. He lived, therefore, IN his
own peculiar fashion; spending little
on himself; careless in his dress; ready
i to help everybody; ready to do mans