Litchfield enquirer., 1874-05-28

| things might have lasted te the present tday-I should have never dreamed of put ting an end to it-but one morning was alarmed by. visit from Mrs. Dalton I say alarmed, not only because her coun- tenance betokened trouble, but because knew that 1t was barely possible for her to leave her family My first thought was of some pecuniary difficulty; not that she or Dalton had ever asked for even small loan-yet how could they make both ends meet? Her first words were: ''I want to speak to you alone"
 ''So you shall" I replied. 'Now, my dear good friend, what's the matter? Nothing serious, I hope?"
 s'No,' she said faintly, and with quiv- ering lip. not looking up at me; s'but want Dorothy to come home with me to- day"
 "Why?'' I asked. ''Is Dalton i'll, or is it."
 She broke into tears, and knowing the woman's endurance, her strength as we'll as tenderness of character, 1 was very much affected.
 ''Come, come, said soothingly; ''re- member what an old friend am. Try and fancy that I am Mary" whispered, and I took and kissed her roughened hand, spoiled for society, but in my eyes made venerable by holy household toil. | She wiped away her tears and said:
 'We have all forgotten that Dorothy was now a woman. We ought not to have al- lowed her to stay with you after Anna went away. People are making ill., natured remarks 1 Then I felt exceedingly angry, and said: I think that my age and social po- sition entitle me to have young lady staying Ill my house as long as she and her parents choose, even if she has not, as Dorothy has, grown up as one of my own family. How did you hear this gossipg 1 Tn the most innocent, unexpected manner, from my dear little Mattie. She went to Miss Kings to buy me some cot ton. The Browns, who were in the shop, did not see her, and made observations, which she repeated, and asked me to ex- plain"
 I should have liked to know what the observations were, but checked myself, and inquired: Do yon believe that this sort of thing is worth noticing? To me it's seems utterly contemptible. l ''No, 1t Is not" she answered firmly; ''society has made rules, and they are useful, and we must abide by them. I will take Dorothy back, if you please;and 1 am sure you understand voice faltered-''how much like, and have al- was liked, her to be here You are second father to her. l "You won't tell herr" | 70 no; there will be no occasion. It is simply true that I am in very much want of her help at home."
 Then I reproached myself for having been selfish in keeping her so long; and she came in, radiant and affectionate, and I felt that a sort of void was made in my life, which I knew not how to fill. I drove slowly back, after leaving them at Furzeham, and stopped to give an order at'the saddler's. While was there, these words caught my ear: will she take the could not see the speaker; did .4ot hzro-w tirc vofce, but, at that moment, the words seemed to have an unpleasant sig nifcance, though probably, they had no reference to me.
 | ''Things do occur very oddly" interpo- lated Jack. ''They might have alluded to something quite different. Circum- l stances seem sometimes to be tinged by what is uppermost in the mind. The man might have been talking of horses OF COWS that he had to sell. Had you any notion thot your son admired Miss Dalton?" l ''NOne whatever. He was at that time | very backward socially-devoted to hard reading, and if he spoke of women at all, | it was to depreciate them intellectually. l I should have been hard on him for it, ! but that he could not remember his moth CT; and Anna, dear creature, is not clev- | er-
 ''She is none the worse for that, in my opinion," interrupted Jack. GAS a rule, Io1a J< oH k-~ ness, which is the chief end for which they are sent into this world"
 It was useless to answer this, though it irritated me; he had always taken low tone, or he could not have married the insipid little woman whose twaddle was | quite up to his mark.
 l s'But go on James," he continued; I want to get at the postage stamps. I think, by the way, that Mrs. Dalton was right to take her daughter home. Unless people hereabouts are simpler or more good-natured than they are elsewhere, they would infallibly say that her parents were trying to catch your son for her" | I winced again, and said: "You may be right; but as Twas never troubled about gossip-possibly because l had never been affected by it-I thought it very hard at the time. There was, de- prived of the harmless, pleasant fittingof a girl about my quiet house; and she was removed from surroundings that suited | her to very meagre home .z
 "Where she must have been very much wanted by her mother," interrupted Jack ''The fact is, James, that suspect you were, quite unconsciously, in love with the young lady"
 "No!" replied I, stoutly; ''of that am 1 ko r olr q, oek L thought over the matter some weeks, I if her parents would give her to me will ingly, and if she thought she could be happy with me. That, in & way, she loved me, was as sure as that loved her-not with lovers love-that was as impossible for me as second sight, but with affectionate approbation, cordial ad- miration, genuine pleasure in her society. l could take her from poverty to aff1uence, and, when l died, leave her independent.
 "What prospect has a poor prrson's daughter. He can leave her nothing. If, by some painful process, he contrives to educate her-as 1t is called-to make a governess of her, what a life is before herI I declare I think girl had better marry any kind, good man who loves her, than teach, teach, teach; conflict with the old Adam ln children day after day, year after year; having no freedom of action, no home the while, till ske is too old for it; and, after helping her family, has perhaps saved what gives her twenty or thirty pounds per annum, on which to languish and die. Dorothy, moreover, could only be fit for avery inferior situation; she had bright parts, but 10 systematic train ing. What was to become of her, her mother, and sisters, when Dalton died? She might-with her attractions, she probably would, come across more than one man who would be fond of her, but could not marry without money. Of what use would that be? After discussing the matter with myself month, wrote her a letter, of which remember every word lay, even the position of the sentences. I told her that, though not with young mans love, not with the sacred love I had l given my wife, I loved her; that would