Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-07-05

had transpired, but it was two days af-
ter that Lena called her TO her, and lay
ing her little thin hand on her arm,
with shy blush, said:
"How do you like it, Mollie?"
Mollie looked down and saw a plain
gold ring, surmounted by delicate
frostwork of leaves encircling minute
cluster of sapphire stars.
sit is beautifult' she exclaimed, en-
Enthusiastically.
sit was his mothers she said, with a
tender smile.
''Mollie put both arms around her
neck and kissed her.
81 am so glad, my darlingn' she said.
81 am very glad too, Mollie,'' she
said, naively. 81 know that l am only
weak, foolish little girl-not half good
enough or wise enough for him, but |
do love him, Mollie, very dearly, and
you have no idea how he rests me. l
am never tired, or nervous, or troubled
about anything when I am with him
he is so strOng.'
Mollie looked long and searchingly in
the soft brown eyes uplifted to her face,
but though they were suffused with
tears, there was no trace of the Olden
shadow in their sunny depths.
Rose Cottage was shut up and Lena
went mp to Mrs. Hargrave's while the
necessary preparations were pending.
Doctor DinsmOre could not consent to
her being left alone again, and Mollie
was pretty well tired out with her dou-
BILE duties at the cottage and the Bluff.
She would gladly have had Lena go
home with her, but Mrs. Hargrave
begged SO hard that Doctor Dinsmore
thought perhaps she had better go there,
besides, she was her uncle's wife, and
had some claim on her for that.
Mrs. Hargrave was changed good
deal of late. She had grown nervous
and timid, and her old air of haughti-
ness had quite forsaken her. She had
grown thin, and there were dark circles
under her eyes, which were preternat-
urally large, with look of regret or
pain in them. People said she was a
great mourner for her husband, and
that her grief was wearing her ont. She
said that it was staying alone SO much
in that great lonely hOuse-so like a
great tombstone, and begged, as an act
of humanity, that Lena would stay with
her until Doctor Dinsmore's house was
duly swept and garnished, and her own
wardrobe made ready. Mrs. Hargrave
also insisted on buying Lena's bridal
outfit, and grew more cheerful than she
had been for a long while i'm its prepara-
tion. And Lena almost forgot there
had ever been GOODNESS or enlargement
between them, only wondering little
sometimes why she never spoke of her
father to her, and grew silent and
strange when she talked of him. An
other name was not often mentioned be-
tween them-Leslie Welcott. 1t seemed
to Lena as if in some incomprehensible
way, he was connected with her illness
"a part of her disease, she thought.
She had a faint, indfstinct consciousness
of the peculiar influence he had won
over her, but attributed it mostly to the
unnatural, morbid state of her mind and
body. The experience of that last four
weeks preceding her illness seemed al
most entirely blotted from her memory.
She tried sometimes to recall it, but it
eluded her like an indistinct dream. But
she was too quietly happy to waste much
time in idle speculations. If he could
only have lived to witness her happi-
ness. She liked to recall every little
word of praise she had ever heard her
father utter concerning him, and wished
he could only know! Wondering if per
chance he did. Long afterwards she
looked back upon these days, and re-
membered their sweetness and their
content. They came back to her like
rare, golden dreams, only that they
were never vague or indistinct, but al
ways bold, and clear, and sweet. And
all the sorrow, and regret, and pain that
came into her after-life, never marred OF
clouded their brightness.
The old feud still existed between Mrs
Hargrave and Hugh Morey. She wa:
we'll aware he knew, or guessed at the
secret chapter in her life which no one
else did, and she never forgave him the
knowledge. 1t was so long ago that sht
might have thought he had forgotten
only from some words he had let sliD a
| the time of her husbands death. No
| that she had ever forgotten-even for !:
single hdAr, through all the long years
or ever, ever would.
And so, though Hugh and Mollie wer
both longing to see their favorite, the,
would motor at least Hugh would no
go to Mrs. Hargrave's for that pur
pose. But one day-a week or two befor
her marriage-Lena had run out int,
| the street to tell Luke that if he woul,
| come after her that night in the boa
that she would go over to the Bluff for
| few days. Luke promised with please
communicate the good tidings. Molli
was half wild with delight, maxim
/ Luke tell her over and over just what sI
said, and how she looked.
| "She looked happy, Luke?" she ques
TONED, ''you are sure my pretty darlin
looked happy?'
/ And then he would tell all over agai
how she came running down the stree
her brown curls blowing over her fac'
and just the sweetest pink coming All
going in her pure cheek, and her eyes
, here Luke would pause, unable to fiji
, any smile half bright or beautifl
enough to describe them.
: And Hugh left the nets he was ment
t ing, and came and stood in the door al
listened each time that he repeated
saying softly to himself, as he wei
back to his nets:
"She hasn't forgotten us-mv Prett,
5 She isn't too proud to come and s.
E old Hugh, if Celia Hargrave has coax'
her up with fine things"
Mollie was so oinpatient to see her pe
that Luke started earlier than he had a
s ranged with Lena. 1t was hardly du
J when he fastened his boat, and beg;
: his waiting for her. A heavy scud BILE
1 up from the south, and it was lonesor
!, waiting ON the shore, and SO he walk
J. slowly down the street. expecting eve
y moment to meet her. There was
II struggling belt of of pines where t,
roads met, and broken, frost-f1ul
wall running almost into the road.
l, could see the HaIgrave mansion frt
N here, and so he sat down on a stone
wait. He had only a moment to w
u ere he saw her coming Gas he though
* down the street. There was a man WI
ef her-DoctOr Dinsmore--he decided
le once, coming down to the shore WI
SO her. He wished he had stopped by
Sc boat, they wouldn't perhaps care for
company, he thought, and was seriou;
G, meditating some sort of a cut across
ed avoid intruding on them, when
l. mans voice struck his cart was
re Doctor Dinsmore's. Whose was it?
e. they came neal er he heard it agail
W they were talking earnestly-it strl
1y him as strangely familiar, and yet
IS. could not quite recall it.
u All this time he had not thought
er the woinan's being other than lie
She was talking in a low, regretful to
III when the man exclaimed in an i'm
Id, tient voice:
zee Remember it was at your biddir
did it."
we ''It is false, Barry Gray!' she
A