The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1872-08-22

r, ~>:: NO. 6.
adulation but beyond this, mystery
re'gned, "a mystery his friend Jones's
clumsy, though contentious efforts to
clear up had only increased. Jones had
first chaffed him about "the native"
and his jokes not being taken as he,
Jones, conceived man 10 love should
take them, he demonstrated, and made
Fitzpatrick very angry; his anger with
bis friend being, perhaps, due partly to
anger with himself. But unluekily,
neither had any effect on his conduct to.
wards jimmy.
And Jimmy? Three words tell her
silly story plainly enough,-she loved
him. She had not paused to weigh
his love for her; nor think whether he
treated her with proper difference, nor
whether their position coincided, mol
anything. Her heart had gone from
her before she knew she had heart,
almost; and, whatever happened, she
could never, never take it back. This
awkward girl, with her halt-grown
ways !; with the cooling, tender voice
that said SO many foolish, frank words !;
with silly, soft eyes, like those Of some
gentle, halftame snimal; With her
piteous utter ignorance Of how to win
a lover, and retain him; this country
simpletsn, who had not even begun to
care about dressing becomingly, yet
loved with the woful strength, the rash
self-abnegation, the dreadful faith that
has made ct women noblest martyrs
and basest criminals in all ages which
bade fair to make of her, with her CON-
monplace surroundings, only one more,
it might be, hard old maid, it might be,
happy wife and mother-happy despite
her unlikeness to her husbands people.
For alas when jimmy tried to put
her love into words, none seemed 50 fit
to express it as the answer to that ques-
ton in the Catechism which she had
learned before she wus confirmed {:
"What is thy duty towards God? To
believe in Him, to fear and love Him !;
with all my heart, with all my mind,
with all my soul, with all my strength ;
to worship Him, to give Him thanks,
to put my whole trust in Him all the
days of my life."
An unutterably piteous profanity, al.
most to be pardoned when you think of
certain promise of failure and despair
in the application of such awful words
to mere human being, especially a
human being like Captain Francis
Fitzpatrick.
But jimmy, rejoicing in the sunshine,
recked no more Of better Light than
she did Of the coming darkness, and
considered him missionary rather than
tempter. Did he not tell her what was
proper, and did he not say propriety was
goodness polished, and in. q, society
| setting? She never told herself he
could not change, because that would
have been, to her single mind, to &C.
knowledge a possibility of his not
loving her, and his looks and tones de.
clared-O great deal more surely than
words-that he did! And to care for
a stupid, ugly thing like her must be
great love indeed, all his virtue and
uone Of hers. 49,
So jimmy reasoned, and grew more
familiar with her gay captain, and now
came and sat near him, and stared
devotedly in his face, or took his hand
in her long, thin fingers, admiring its
delicaoy or the perfection of his dress,
from the brown velvet morning coat to
the Indian gold coins that fastened his
wristbands and the marvel o. a boot
that defined that high-bred, slender foot.
And Jinny's open and lavish tribute
began to shock him a little that other,
had she loved him ever so, would never
have let him see it so slavish Jinny's
fond batteries began to pail ; there
had been stinging sweets of old, fal
far racier in favor. Besides the
wound Jimmy had soothed was healing
and invalid diet became proportionate.
ly nawkish. "But it would bs SO aw.
fully awkward to~cut the thing sud-
denly, and really she was dear little
child, and too good for a needless
fellow like him,-in some ways,-not
good enough in others not fair, nor
stately nor clever enough to present to
the regiment and society Is Mrs. Fitz.
patrick. No doubt the affair would in
some way die natural death, aud If
motif not-why, hang it all! the
girl should Mt have made love to him
in that way" to which girl, next
moment, he would make such aspeech
as: mo, you may Mt be pretty, ex-
actly, but I'd rather sit here with you