Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-06-05

for his happiness !; but was not he the
best Judge of that? knew him, if re-
| Fiction should bring him round to her
| opinion, to be perfectly capable of
quietly sacrificing his own wishes for my
sake, who had not the shadow of a claim
upon him !; so it must be my part to pre-
vent his own kindness being turned
against him now. Still, it was not SO
easy to see how I was to provide for
myself, in case it should become advisa-
BILE. What could I do? Draw and
sing and play tolerably, but not in a
manner to compete with the hosts that
would be in the field against me. Litera-
ture? I had read SO many stories
whose heroines, with a turn of the pen,
dashed into wealth and fame. That
would be very nice, only was not the
least bit literary !; 1 had never even kept
a journal, which is saying a great deal
for a girl in her teens. The "fne
arts" then, being out of the question
for me, what remained? There was
some clerkship, or a place in some
family, and-and there was Will Broom
ley
That may seem like going away from
the point, but it wasnot. I was matter
o~f-fact, but I could see well enough
what was going on right under my eyes,
and I had a pretty clear idea of what
was bringing Will to the house 80 often
as he had taken to coming lately. There
was a situation" then, that would
! give me the home-life I liked best, and
felt myself best suited for but-would
it answer in other respects I overcast
| the long seam I was sewing twice over.
Twas SO busy trying to make upmymind
whether I liked Will BROMLEY well
enough to pass my whole life with him ];
and even her I had not come to any de-
cision, when I was called downstairs to
Lefty Walters.
Lefty was the prettiest, I think, of all
my friends, and certainly the liveliest.
Tom called her "the tonic" and used
to laugh heartily at her bright speeches.
I suppose it was this that made mother
fix on Lefty as his choice. When I
came into the sitting-room I found a
kind of cross-examination going on. It
was amusing to anybody in the secret,
as / was, to watch mothers artful way
of continually bringing the conversation
round, as if by chance, to bear on what
she wanted to know. But it all amounted
to nothing, either because Lefty was too
good a %fencer, or because she really had
nothing to betray. But, when Tom
came home, mother took care to men,
ton that Lefty had called.
"What, the tonic ?" said Tom. "Too
bad I missed her."
"But for your choice being already
made" said mother, with a covert scru-
tiny of his face, "1 dare say you might
have as much of the tonic as you liked"
"But I go on the homeopathic prin-
ciple, you know" answered Tom, with a
twinkle in his eye.
After that, mothers belief in Letty's
outlines wavered. Her suspicious
were transferred from one to another of
our acquaintance, but always with the
same unsatisfactory result.
cit passes my comprehension" she
said to me, despairingly, day. "I
am positive [ could tell the right one by
Toms face in a minute, and yet I have
mentioned everybody we know"
perhaps it is somebody we don't
know" 1 suggested "some friend Of
his we have never SEEN"
What a perfect stranger ?" said
mother, sharply. Never talk to me,
child Toms not capable of THAR" ?
1 was silent, for L did not want to
worry her; but that was my opinion all
the same.
That same evening-it was rather
more than a week since Tom had hurled
that thunder-bolt of his at us-mother
began about it openly.
When are you going to introduce
yO1Ir T1fQ Hn n Tom 3 M
have come to an understanding by this
time ?"
"Oh, there's no hurry" said Tom, as
he had said before ; but this time he
did not speak quite 81 cheerfully. "The
fact is" he continued, with a little hest
tation, "there-there's a rival in the
case"
GA rival ?" repeated mother, with I'M
feeling briskness.
eyes, a young fellow-younger by a
good deal than 1 am" and Toms face
assumed an absurdly doleful look. "He
is always there now. I confess I don't
see my way clear; I'm waiting for her
to make up her mind"
"And she's waiting, most likely, for
you to make up yours" said mother,
forgetting, in her propensity to right
matters, that she vas playingt he enemy's
game.
"There's something in that that never
occurred to me-" said Tom, his face
Frightening. Mother saw her mistake,
and made a counter-move at once.
"But the ways of my time are old
fashioned now; young ladies, now-a-
days, take matters into their own hands.
If she cared for you, you may be pretty
sure she wouldn't have waited till this
time to let you know it-that is, I Judge
by the girls / am in the habit of seeing /;
but if this one is a stranger to me-
(here mother riveted her eyes on Toms
face oh, dear, my unfortunate word y
+" if she is an entire stranger, I cannot
pretend to form any opinion of her, of
course"
"Of course" repeated Tom, absently.
"Not that l have any such idea," re-
sumed mother, growing warmer 81
have said, and I say again, that to bring
a perfect stranger under this roof is not
my opinion of you, Tom"
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