Weekly Trinity journal., 1873-09-20


so have to make up the difference by
| sewing"
" But you'll get SICK" persisted Dan,
"and then you will have to go home and
lose time"
" L have no home" said she, quietly,
land that is one reason why l work over
hours, so as TO have something laid by
in case l do get sick"
"No home !" exclaimed Dan "well
that's hard neither have 1 |; but it seems
harder for woman than man. He
can rough it anywhere, but q woman
can't. thought all the girls had homes"
Most of them do" she replied, SIM
ply but haven't"
Dan felt queer as he walked along with
that slender woman clinging to his arm.
She had manifested no shyness, but had
now felt it t"-as Dan thought to HIM
self-that he wanted to assist her, and,
feeling the need of protection on that
stormy night, had taken his offered as
sistance frankly and freely. MET me
half way" thought Dan ;"I like to see
a girl fair and honest with man."
And they plodded on through the
storm until the house was reached where
the work was to be delivered, and then
Dan accompanied Mary to the door of
her lodgings, and received back his scarf
with a grateful tender of thanks that
went direct to his heart.
| Dan held out his hand at parting, and
said, laughingl, but kindly: ~ think
we can be friends, Miss Mary; we are a
couple of homeless people, and that will
help the matter along"
Again the girl looked straight into his
face with her deep brown eyes, and kept
her gaze there steadtast a moment, and
then put out her hand. 1t was very
pretty one, and Dams great fist swallow
ed it up, as she answered:
~ shall be glad of friend, Mr..
Holmes; l have none here, nor any
where, that l know of. Good night ~
and she was gone.
Dan went straight to his boarding
place, and sat down before the fire to
smoke pipe, and think over the evening.
He had started out to go to the " Loom
and Spindle" a great resort for the mill
hands, but instead Of that he had been
escorting Miss Mary" as he called her.
He couldn't call her simply Mary" as
he would any of the other girls. "She
seems different" he thought; "more Of
a lady like, and all alone in the world,
too.
Time passed on, and before the winter
was over Dan and Mary Wiliers had be-
come fast friends. More than that, Dan
loved her with all the love that his great,
tender heart and kindly nature was capa-
BILE of; and SO it happened one spring
evening, when they were out walking to-
gether on the outskirts of l., that
Dan asked her in n husky voice, Mary,
will you be my wife? have loved you
a good while. Neither of us have a
home let us make one. Will you help
me?"
She was leaning on his arm when he
spoke, but she glanced up into his face
with frightened look, and taking away
her hand, covered her face, and burst
inc tears.
"Mary. Mary, what is the matter?
Forgive me, didn't mean to make you
feel SO. Don't, don't cry; what is the
matter?" And he drew away her hands
from her face, and, looking into her
brown eyes, swimming with tears, asked,
while a great sob cholSed his voice:
"Don't you love me, Mary?"
Don't ask me, Mr.. Holmes" She
called him Dan moment before. "I-
/ do love you. Dan, but you don't
know"
"Don't know what, Mary?" said Dan,
and his face grew white as he spoke.
For moment neither of them spoke,
and then Mary looked up into Dams face
and said, slowly and sadly:
/" / have been married once, DAN"
"And your husband, where is hep"
gaspcd Dan, his face growing whittier.
"Dead," she murmure9. " IT. a sad
story, Dan. Sit down here and I'll tell
you about it. You have been such a
good friend to me, l ought to have told
you before but l could not. l wanted
to forget it. 1t seemed SO terrible"
So they sat down on rock by the
roadside, and Mary told Dan the sad
chapter of her life. When only girl Of
eighteen she married man who, in her
eyes, was all perfection. But he soon
grew tired of her, and a year after, dur
ing which he treated her very cruelty, he
left her and went to sea. Meanwhile,
her mother, who was widow, died, and
she was left alone. For q while she sup
ported herself. and at last the nows came
that her worthless husband had been
drowned at sea. Then she left the place
where she lived in a distant State, and
came to L..
So terrible had been her experience
during her married life, and so deeply
did she loathe the wretch that had mis-
used her so cruelty, that she could not
bear his name, and so she dropped it and
took the one she bore before her mar
riage. Once, she said, the wretch, who
called himself her husband, wanted to
sell her to another man, and again he
tried to force her to live life of shame.
She was on the point of fleeing from him,
when he went away.
Sand, Dan," said she, "he beat me
| aLat ..;nht knfnrn Ln mnnt until my shoul-