The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-07-17
ROLLIN VESTS WILL.
"Well, I declare !"

"Well, I declare %
Miss Chirrup was always "declaring!"
might be said, indeed, to be in the
indicative mood. Declare, we may add,
in her idom, was a verb intransitive,
ur less the note of admiration with which
she invariably followed it might be taken
to be its object
"Well, 7 declare p said Miss CHR
rup. in shrill whisper.
"Did you eUer ?" replied Miss Chirk,
in another.
1t was Rollin Vests will that the two
were discussing. It was very brief and
explicit. "I bequeath my entire es-
tate, real and personal, to my niece,
RH hattMNsafafon tMaff was III, 1ss ,;,., Sisr;'f,f -; r.,
The Misses Chirrup and Chirk
were too distantlv related to the testator
to have entertained any considerable
hope on their own account. A trifinn
reminder, in Difference to family eti-
quette, was as much rs either had q
right to expect. But that Rollin West
should have left his whole fortune to
one of his nieces, to the exclusion of
the other. whom everybody had sup
posed to be his favorite, took more than
the Misses Chirrup and Chirk by sur
prise.
Mr.. West had been for many years q
widower His children had all died in
infancy, and couple of orphaned nieces,
cousins to each other. and reared under
his roof, constituted his household.
That his large fortune would be left to
them equally, was point people took
for granted; but should any discrimina-
ton be made between them, nobody
would have hesitated to say it would be
in favor of Mile Granger, her uncle's
pet, whose blithesome smiles he had
been wont to call the sunlight of his
life.
Miles loving heart was too full of
sorrow at her uncle's death, and of graft
tude for his kindness in bygone years,
to leave room for any feeling of reproach
at his last unaccountable act, which the
Misses Chirrup and Chirk so earnestly
protested against.
An elderly maiden aunt came to live
with the two young ladies, and the
household remained unbroken. Ex-
cept the changes caused by the vacancy
in their home, the lives of Ruth and
Millie continued as before.
: 1t was not till the cousins had resumed
their places in society that Millie be-
gan to notice the difference made by
her altered prospects. It was Ruth
now, and not herself, that was the CEN
tire of attraction.
To be rid of the common herb of fops,
and to be no longer pestered by their
silly fattery, Millie felt was thing to
he thankful for. But when Orville
Ryors turned his back upon her, and
joined the ranks of her cousins admir-
ers, she must have been other than n
woman not to feel it.
Mr.. Ryors was the pet beau of Bill
lingdale. Handsome in person, accom-
plished in manners, and of fascinating
address, he was not one whose atten-
tions were likely to prove distasteful in
any quarter, and when they were direct
ed toward Mile Granger in a manner
sufficiently marked to excite no small
degree of envy, we need not be surpris-
ed if, instead of repelling, she just a
little encouraged them.
1t would have required closer analy-
sis than Millie had ever made of her
feelings to show her how little she real
Iy cared for Mr.. Ryors, and how much
she cared for Arthur Warren, whom
she had known and liked since they had
PLAYED and, sometimes, quarrelled to-
gether in childhood. But Arthur's self
examination had gone deeper. He de-
votedly loved Millie, and kne,O it. If
he had never said so outright, it was
from motives of delicacy, prompted by
the difference of their positions. he
was a prospective heiress he was with
out fortune, and void of expectations,
save those whose realization depended
on himself.
Having never spoken out, it may be
that Arthur Warren had no right to feel
aggrieved by the attentions paid by MIR.
Ryors to Millie. He should have re-
membered that young gentlemen who
have nothing to say for themselves are
not privileged to stand in the way OF
others who have.
But Arthur was not reasonable. He
was not even candid. He quarrelled
with Millie on the score of Orville
Ryors, without a word Of explanation