The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-05-13
MRS, MONTGOMERY'S HEIR.
BY S. ANNIE FROST.

$50 YOU have refused my nephew"
Mrs. Ambrose Montgomery looked
severely at the young girl who was
calmly tying her bonnet strings before
her mirror She was a severe old lady,
very wealthy, about whom tluttered poor
relations innumerabie. Edna Sergeant
might have counted as one Of these, be-
ing certainly very poor, though people
were apt to say of her, "proud as Luci-
fer himself"
"Yes, Aunt Lucille, refused to marry
Walter Templeton. Since he seems to
have told you, suppose there is no i'm
propriety in my doing the same"
"May ask your reasons?"
"Certainly! Iwant my husband, if l
ever have one, to be man, filling
mans place in the world, doing mans
duties. | will never be the wife of a
lazy dandy who dawdles through life,
waiting for possible fortune"
"Your cousin is very useful to me-"
"Doubtless. But do net need any
one yet to put my footstool for me, fetch
me a shawl, feed my poodle and run my
crrands."
"Ohm
81 want my husband to work for me
at mans work of brain and hands"
Upon my word! You had better
marry a mechanic. But pray take him
away from mere if you do. | want no
low fellow claiming kinship with me. l
should think when these plebeian ideas
come into your mind, Miss Sergeant, it
would be well for you to remember the
fact that you can trace your descent di-
rect from the Pilgrim Fathers!"
AZ am not likely to forget that fact,
Aunt Lucille, hearing it every day. By
the way, auntie, do you suppose if our
noble ancestors, the Pilgrim Fathers l
mean, were TO present themselves in
your drawing-rooms that you would reg
ognize them? l imagine them, in their
common clothes, holding by shabby
wives with babies in their arms, home
less, exiled, coming suddenly upon you.
l can hear you now telling John to put
those 'horrid low people oHt of the
house"
"You are pleased to be sarcastic" was
the cool reply. "I can value my ances-
tors if you are incapable of doing so. l
hope your ideal husband may appear. In
the meantime l think you are but one
remove from an idiot to refuse Walter, a
perfect gentleman and my probable
heirn
"Perhaps l will come tomorrow and
finish your dress"
And SO saying Edna wrapped her
shawl about her and departed. For this
girl, sharing with her mother an exceed
ingly slender income, the legacy of her
long-dead father, utilized a ready needle
and exquisite taste by sewing for her
relatives. Her mother would have faint
ed with horror had anyone suggested to
her that her daughter was dressmaker.
But dear Edna, she admitted, helped her
more prosperous relatives with their
sewing, emitting to add that said rela-
tives put sufficiently small pecuniary
acknowledgment into Edna's purse.
The girl herself, a superbly handsome
brunette, rebelled mentally every hour of
her life against all this pretense. Proud
to her hearts core, she had no mean
shrinking from facing the truth that she
was poor and obliged to work for money !;
but the prejudlces of her rich aunt, the
affections of her helpless, fine-lady
mother must be respected, and SO she
worked for half pay and secrecy when
she might have won an honest living as
an acknowledged dressmaker.
When Walter Templeton asked her to
be his wife some of this long-pent-up
irritation at the false life forced upon
her found vent in her refusal of his suit.
She half-regretted the sarcasms she had
poured out upon his position when she
saw his detected face and the expression
of hurt amazement there.
"After all" she thought, when he left
her, "the poor fellow is not so much to
blame. He has been under Aunt Lu-
Giles thumb ever since he was mere
boy, brought up upon small doses of
common sense and vast ones of Pilgrim
Fathers, blue blood and the degradation
of honest labor. But won't marry him!
! get enough of the family failing with
out going to live with Aunt Lucille, one
more hanger.on. ! earn all she gives
me, that's one comfort. Any dressmaker