The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-03-22

dust at your feet, and I should be proud
TO stay there. / am a fool, Eunice, to
let you look into my heart, as through a
door OF glass. know shall suffer for
1t, and you will not like me any the bet
ter. know you can't love me. / have
told myself so a thousand times, and /
won't give you the trouble of refusing.
have spoken because / could not help
but speak. You need not pity me,
Eunice; would rather thousand times
have your hate. There is little grain
OF manliness left in me, and by and by /
shall be able to face life Things won't
look quite so black and worthless as
they do now, when l try to think of il
away from you. There, L have made
you cryi What brute i am ip
All this was said rapidly, excitedly,
amid the dense, gathering shadows.
Then there came a little, warm, soft
fiutter against GIlbert's breast, and
something like a downy, tremulous bird
crept into his hand, and in the darkness
blushing face was hidden away.
''I don't know why you should be so
cross to me,m said a voice that seemed
half stifled between laughing and crying.
81 don't know why you should make
! yourself disagreeable, and try to force
me to marry a man / never thought of
caring about, and then talk as if you
meant to commit suicide. If you hadn't
been such great old stupid, you would
have seen how il was with me all along;
/ but you were obstinate and horribly
jealous, sir, and Milton Spencer made
himself pleasant, and you never did.
l know teased you, for it is natural to
me TO love to tease, but l won't any
more"
The end of the young woman's speech
grew unintelligible from reasons the
reader can imagine. The old barn was
terribly dark and pokerish now, with
the wind every moment growing colder,
but TO those two il seemed filled with
summer warmth and fragrance. The
lovers were utterly Oblivious of the fact
that 4 snow storm was raging outside,
until they opened the door and were
obliged to face the blast. Then the
merry flakes flew i'm their faces, and
pelted them like the pretty hands OF
fairies. Eunice looked up at the dark
old barn, in summer swallow-haunted.
but lonesome now, and kissed her hand
TO it gayly.
"Dear old barnw said she, 'T came to
find hens nests, and found lover. We
will always cherish it, won't we, Gilbert,
for giving us the happiest hour of our
! lives ,"
The wind was driving little drifts be-
fore them along the path leading to the
| farmhouse, where cheerful lights shone
| from the windows.
"How beautiful this is" said Eunice,
nesting, if that could be, closer to Gil
bert's side. sit seems as though the
angels were sending us their conpratu-
lations. We will have a surprise party
at home. / think the news will make
poor father well, and mother has fretted
all the fall about Milton Spencer. /
haven't set her right, because / knew
how she enjoyed a chronic worry. Now
that the dear old matchmaker has OBJ
tained the desire of her heart, what will
she find to fret over? And you, Gilbert,
will you 60 mourning because you have
no folks of your own-On account OF
those dear girls your sisters, who never
were born, and that blessed old lady,
your grandmother ?"
The snow held them like white
charm, in an enchanted world of love
and youth, while Eunice chatted mer-
rily, her cheeks glowing inside the old
hood, all powdered over with the
dancing flakes. Their footsteps made
little wells in the drift, and the great
bare branches of the trees swayed over
head.
81 have found my folks" said Gilbert,
when he could speak. "All my heart
Graves i possess right here. / was
gloomy and misanthropic, because /
feared you would Danish me forever
from your sight. There is no loneliness,
my darling, like hopeless separation
from the one We love for time and for
eternity"