Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1871-08-31
A Woman's Heart.

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this, surely, were sacrilege. And
this was what Solomon Welch was
trying to do. for certainly, gratitude
and flial devotion are among the
best fruits of the soul; and, as: Ger.
tainly, to make, for whatever reason
a mercenary marriage is one of a
woman's deepest crimes against wo,
manhood. ,iS'-,t ~
he knew perfectly we'll that Agnes
Deering did not love him; yet he
coveted the brightness of her beauty,
and meant to bribe her into be-
ing his wife. Not through any fair
profers for herself-even he knew
what she was better than that-but
he tempted her continually with the
vision Of those two old people, whom
she called father and mother, made
comfortable for life. If they had been
of her own blood, she would, perhaps
have. felt that she owed them less /;
but her father had died before she
was born, stricken down, away from
home, by a sudden and swift illness
and her mother had lived long enough
to kiss just once her baby's lips, and
call her" Agnes" and then had gone
home to that baby's father. She died,
the physicians said, of an incurable
disease of the heart, hereditary in
her family, but developed and hurI
ried to it's issue by her great grief.
It was then, when Agnes was but
a few hours old, a wailing, SORROW
stricken baby, that father and mother
Deering took her into their hearts, as
into their home, to be as their own
child, from henceforth. It was not
from any tie of kindred, or even from
any special friendship for the dead !;
but just from the Christ-like sympathy
of those two souls. .5.
And this was why, because they
had cared for her from no obligation
of paternity, or even kindship, Agnes
felt her obligations to them more
keenly than if she had been flesh OF
their flesh and suffered more when
she saw, through one misfortune after
another, their worldly possessions
wasting away. She tried her best
to help them; but she was only a
girl, frail, as beautiful; and her nee
die, her only weapon, was. a lance
too slender to do stout battle in the
tournament of life. So she saw, and
was tortured to see them do without
one accustomed comfort after another,
just at the age when they began to
need comforts as they had never done
before. And then, at this juncture,
came Solomon Welch, and tempted
her.
Very cunning he was, one of "the
children of this world" wise in his
generation. For long time he only
sympathized with her in neighborly
fashion, albeit with little of the
grand seignor air, about the evident
decline in the h 'alth and strength Of
her parents. They needed building
up; might he send few bottles OF
such port as he kn they could get
nowhere else in Bloomfield? They
ought to drive every day: might he
not send his carriage for them, now
and then, when the day was particu-
larly fine?
Then, when he had earned, by be-
ing kind, the right to some of her so:
ciety, and a certain measure of COM
plaisance, he insinuated, rather than
directly told her, what he would do
for them, if she were his. He made
her understand that he dared not
hurt her pride, or theirs, by offering
toe much, as things now stood but
that their old age should be luxuri-
ously ministered to, ifhe had but the
right. He was crafty enough to
hasten slowly" He made the idea
of being his wife familiar to ner mind,
by gentle hints, long before he PUT it
plainly, in so many words, before
her. She had got used to thinking
of it, as a last resort, when ill-for-
tune pressed upon them too heavily.
At last, as if the Prince of the
Powers of the Air had suggested to
him that his time had come at last /;
when the long, cold winter was at its
depth, and want and care pressed the
Deering household more severely than
ever before, Mr.. Welch overlook her
one day, as she plodded home from
the village through a most, comfort
less, steady-falling snow, and making
her get into his elegant sleigh, wrap
ped her in soft robes, put a warm
stone at her stiffened feet, and SO lift
ed her, as it seemed, out ofthe slough
of despond into the charmed air Of
another sphere, sphere, of comfort
and luxury.
Then, sitting beside her, while his
colored servant drove them on through
the storm, he asked her to be his wife.
To her, half stupefed by the sudden
change from cold discomfort to warmth
and shelter, the question seemed to
present itself in but one aspect
would she rather walk, as she had
been walking, through cold and storm.
or sit here by his side? Her mind
seemed in state too dreamy and
confused to answer him; but when he
pressed her, she woke up little to
one other aspect of the case.
"But 1 do not love you" she said,
still dreamily, {" I do not love you at
all"
He smiled, looking with calm as
surance into her great, sad, passion
ate brown eyes.
"I think love comes after marri-
riage, with most women. You a0all
love me when you see how kind and
patient 1 shall be, how happy I shall
make you. I am content to risk it. Fl"
A single CLEAN Of mutinous fire
flashed in the sad, brown eyes, as she
turned them upon him, with curious