Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1870-08-03
JEAN RATHBURNE'S LIFE.

A SPRING long and cold, a short anC
fervid summer, an autumn bearing scan
fruit-that was Jean Rathburne's life
And now she is dead, and the long, wild
/ grasses are tangled above her grave by
vagrant winds which wandered through
them.
It was the will she left behind hel
which was the key note to her life, and
made it significant-a strange will, YET
perfectly legal, and proved in court like
| the rest of them. She beQUeathed, after
few trifling legacies, all her fortune
some three hundred thousand dollars
under the supervision of competent trus-
| tees, to further the happiness of seven
young girls. 1t was, of course, the in
come which was to be used thus, the
money itself was to be permanent fund,
and those whom it enriched, when they
married or otherwise ceased TO need its
aid, were to have their successors named
| by the trustees. She chose the first
board of managers herself, and made
provisions, when any of the number
should die, for the election of others in
their stead.
She explained her intention minute
ly. It was not to make the girls good
merely, or respectable merely, or well
clothed and well fed merely but, if pos
sible, to make them happy, to indulge
their whims, and give their individuali-
ties a chance. For she said, and this
voice from her very grave was the only
complaint she had ever been known to
utter
zone woman. who has found life very
sad, would like 10 make it brighter for
some of those who live after her."
That was all, a quiet, calm statement
of facts-she had found life very sad
but did any wall ever come out of bitter
er depths
Her parents had died before she could
remember them, and left her a fortune
and guardian left her, too, with q ma
ture at once shy and sensitive, with a
tendency to mOrbidness and hypOchrO-
dia, which needed, sOrely, the influence
.Of warm, loving, cheerful home.
Instead of that, Sampson DredIife and
his wife starved and frOZe her. | do not
mean literally; there was fire and food
enough in their great, comfortable house
and Miss Rathburne, as an heiTess
should, was served with the best.
But she was always Miss Rathburne-
never Jeanie, or darling, or mothers
blessing, or hearts delight, or any of
those fond, foolish names familiar to the
lips of happy mothers. She knew well
enough that no one loved her, and that
strengthened her shyness, and deepen
ed her dependency.
So she grew up to twenty-One-a long
slow, cold spring, as I said. Then her
fortune came into her hands, and with
certain Widow Dredlife, q sisteT-in-law
of Sampson, to matrOnize the establish
ment, she went into a house of her own.
The widow carried with her the old
Dredlife influence, and the new home
was at first scarcely other than repeti
ton of the old, except that now Miss
began to go into society, and
was enough of an heiresS to be received
there with favor.
She was not pretty, yet her figure was |
1.-THE and slender, her complexion was
clear, and if she had ever been animat- |
ed it might have been bright. Her eyes /
were large and dark, but the fire in |
them smOuldered rather than sparkIed |
If she had had little self-esteem, ifI
some one had told her now and then |
that she was handsome, she might have |
been so; for many a woman sets up for |
beauty on far less capital. But cOmpli-
ments never flowed in DTedlife soil,
and Jean had grown up feeling herself
plain, till the feeling had al
fected the very hue and liniments of her
She had no taste in dress either-wo-
men seldom have who do not see any
charm in their own faces. She wore
eOlOrs which made her look sallOw or
dark nearly always, and her gowns de-
tracted from the grace of her figure in
stead of being skilfully chosen to en-
lance it.
According to some creeds all this
should have made her good by making
her humble, but it had just the OppO-
3ite effect. 1t nOuTiShed secretly Bit
ter, cynical pride, a grudging sense of
Injustice, a hard selfcOntempt-nOX
weeds which do not grow in that sweet
Valley of Humiliation where Bunyan's
pilgrims walked, and the herb called ;
flOurished.'
This was just the state-sick of her
elf, at odds with the world, yet desper-
ltely bent on wringing happiness out of
which Jack Brevoort
Ound her.
He did not love Jean Rathburn-yOu 5
.Te not to suppose that for a mOment.- |
1t her brightest and best she would ]
lever have been his style; besides, a /
title blue-eyed girl, at home in his
nursery, q poor cousin, held so !
much heart as he had, and was more to {
Tim than any one else ever would be 9
But she lacked money just as entirely as
Ie did, and it is not in such cases that ;
WO negatives make an affirmative. Of '
curse, he would be much more danger q
us to Miss Rathburue's peace than il '
e really loved her, for his GOODNESS d
nable him to take the advantage Of all D
penings. He sOrely needed money,
nd had settled it with himself that he $
must marry it. He thought fate, which {
hould, Of course, heve n special kind v