Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1872-02-09
Thy lot BE- the common i1t Of all.
Into each life some rain must fall
Nou.n Hara rrsrss ha Fo~l -.rH q ro.tsi


cole NaA- must be DARK and 0rclrNt
she quoted a little dreamily.
"Mell, there is no particular comfort in
that, so far as / ever could discover, said
Marion, 4 remember when We were chill
dren We all had the scarlet fever at the same
time, and our old Irish nurse used 10 say 10
me-'Sure ye musn' fret SO dear; amt the
other children all down wild it, too p But
couldn' see that that fact made ny headache
any less. my fever any lighte7, or all the
abominable doses any easier to swallow. 1t
may be poetic consolation, but it isn't prac-
tical just fancy yourself trying to summon
up courage to have tooth extracted BY the
reflection that at that very moment there are
probably ten thousand different persons, sit
ting in ten thousand different dentist-chairs,
with their ten thousand mouths open, wait
ing for cold steel and agOny!'
Mrs. Wilmot laughed. Yet beut quick,
searching glance on tn fair face opposite TO
her. There was a vein of bitterness under
lying all this seeming lightness.
w hat Is 1t Marion? she asked. IL has
taken something more than this rainy day,
know, TO turn all your gold into dross.'
Marion lifted her eyebrows as IT about to
express her inability 10 see what connection
this bore to her last remark but a second I'M
pulse prompted her TO answer soberlv.
Il don't know anything has done il. Helen.
In iact don't know what Is gold and what
is dr0ss'
Which means that you DO not know
whether TO answer yes or no TO a question
that was asked you last nigh, p querled Mrs.
Wilmot, venturing upon a shrewd guess.
Only the sudden flush that swept over
f..iH hot hn I-.
heard the question She gazed steadily into
the fire for moment or two, and then took
up her book again. Her sister watched her
little anxously. She felt sure that Marion
had come to place in her life where two
diyerging uaths awaited her choice, and that
to-day unquIet and unrest sprang from a
heart IL at ease and undecided. The offer
that had been made. the young girl WIS a
brilliant one-wealth, position, p0Wer-and
against the oiierer there was little to be said.
lie Wes neither immoral, ungcndemanly, nor
uisagreeabie. In fac; his virtues were nearly
'Il negative ones, and it vas this very want
OF something positive about him-deep con-
Ncuons honestly carried out, an earnest pur-
pose IN liie that troubled Mrs Wilmot most.
Marion had both heart and soul. and she
wondered II she could be content to look
with hIm merely on the surface Of things
1t she would not starve on the husks that
satisfied him?
Marion was pondering that question, TOO;
trying not to put It quite 50 strongly, how
ever, for the pomp OF the place and the gilt
ter Of gold had blinded her little. This
mans friendship was pleasant enough, but
she did not love him. lie fell far below her
ideal ofa true noble manhood Through all
his conversation there came no ring of deep
thought, Of honest opinions carefully form
ea, Of a brave earnest, unselfsh pur pose in
NE de could not even sympathiSe with, or
comprehend such things. But Marion was
u!ing 70 persuade herself that what she
"O0ia not find in him, was not to be found