The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1871-08-18
DID SHE DO RIGHT?
BY MARY REED cRowELL.


! A fearfully cold, clustering day it
was, late in December, just at The seat
son when mirth and pleasantly should
have reigned supreme over their sub
! jeets; but time of unutterable desc
lation TO at least one woman, as she
stood alone at the door OF her late
home, with the sweeping gale, as it
dashed by laden with fine dust, and
singing chill, freezing her in its ruth
less pitilessncss.
She looked up and down the long,
deserted street, that never looked
drearier than then, az she bade it a
mourniul, silent good-by.
Opposite, the doors were all closed,
and IN the rapidly gathering twilight
she saw the warm glow OF the fires,
the rnddy, welcoming lights that had
been seemingly lighted to mock her
own chcerless loncsomeness and it
seemed to her, in her bitterness, that
she could sec mocking. derisive smile
on the face of all Valley Point, that she,
proud Isabel Kent, the daughter, and
once the heiress, Of proud lawyer
Kent, was tonight to leave her home
a poor girl, to battle with the world,
which had once been her slave, and
was now her master.
With a shiver, less Of cold than dis
tress, Isabel Kent turned away from
the darkening streets, and into the
hall of the large, elegant, empty house.
A single gas-burner was lighted,
sending the shadows from one place
into another, aud that was all the light
there was to illume her departing foot
steps.
In the silent parlors, where the rich
gilded paper and heavily carved cen
trcpieces seemed TO mock the empty
desolation, stood lsabeps trunk, packed
and strapped, and marked aud how
the girls lips qniyercd as the light re-
vealed the words to her:
Il. X, Philadelphia"
So it was there she was going. A
hundred miles from home: iriends-if
friends they were who had turned the
cold shoulder when her fathers will
had declared her worse than penniless
had left her fond broken heart the
legacy of dishonor and debt.
It was this knowledge which had
proven almost too much for her :;
otherwise, how finely, if sorrowfuily,
how earnestly, iflonesomely, she would
have borne poverty and faced the
world, who owed her living.
But everything seemed no changed
| 1,.a.s II Il sxAs buI a
from joyous, careless girl, TO q stern.
embittcred woman.
A carriage rolled up to the door,
and when tie driver had attended TO
her luggage, and the old colored SER
want had kissed her glovcd hand, she
was whirIeI away-to what she
wondered, with a m!rthless little laugh,
rs she sat aprigbt in the carriage, and
watched the houses that held people
she feared she fairly hated.
At the depot she had little time to
think-the crowds, the noise, the glare,
the incoming aud departing trains
for Valley Point was an important
terminus
After she had purchased her tickets
and checked her trunks she sat down
on seat Just opposite the door; and
so when Champney Roberts came in,
she saw him before he saw her
He came straight over TO her as
soon as he recognized the black-robed
figure.
'Isabel, / am tempted to take you
away from here by simple force. /
have been to the house, but you were
too quick for me. Isabel, you will
persist in this foolishness :"
He had taken an empty seat next
her, but near as he was he could not
see the paling anguish that lay in her
pure, classic face, or the flush of mo-
mentary wrath that followed his eager,
iinpulsive words.
1T is not foolishness, Champney !
What should / do if did not go to
Mrs. Cravens-"
lie interrupted her in his quick,
hot-headed, earnest way.
"Where should you go to, true
enough, my darling? Isnot my home
lonely for the want of you? Does
not my heart cry out for you, its queen
Isabel, there is ten minutes; won't you
think of it again, and let me take you
from this place to be married to me,
and my home forever. Remember,
my Isabel, how love you."
Under the thick Grape. veil Isabel's
lips grew tightly compressed, and a
slow, red bloom came to her cheeks.
1t was great temptation; she, so
lonely, so fragile, to go out in the
world, nothing but a companion to q
rich, strange woman, whose face she
had never seen; and here was Champ
ney Roberts, with his splendid house,
his matchless carriage and horses, his
handsome face, and irreproachable
character, who sat beside her begging
her to accept of it all.
But Isabel was proud woman, and
she could not brook the idea of mar
rying for home, for gratitude, even
if the offer came from the man whom
she felt worshiped her.
But for all this she did not love
Champney Roberts and there lay the
secret of her refusals-they had been
many-of him. And now again, with
the chilling look out on the world be-
fore her, she decided that she would
work till the death before she would
be the wife of man to whom she
could not give her affections.
Il had made up my mind long ago,
Champney, and indeed it grieves me
to have you cling to me SO. | am
sorry; | wish for your sake | might
view these things in the same light
you do; but / can't, Champney. 1t is
i IL