The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-04-15

ASseNtA6 oAA oAS 'oPAsooO oe~A AAAAAJ Sou"
templating the landscape, and waiting
for, a gossip with any neighbor who
might happen to pass that way. He
had not long to wait. One Of his old
cronies came down the: lane presently,
and stopped, at the gate nearly half
an hour talking. Mary watched the
two men from her chair by the fire,
wondering what they were talking
about SO earnestly-wondering at
their cheerfulness too. It seemed
to her that every one did not
feel. the dullness of the place now,
en;its very life and brightness had
departed with James Herriston.
John: Baxter came back to the par
loE Ib8siand, by, rubbing his hands.
Here's d strange ;.snews for you,
gizls" he said. Z; "Esther; Greenock
hss - 4 zsnt pa ewaytr7dis peared this morn
ing before breakfast, steaying?a, letter,
for her father, telling him she was 60
ing to be married to the: man she low
ed, and that it was not q bit of use
going after her, As. she'd made up her
mind, and nothing in the world could
turn her."
Esther gone to be married, faith
err cried Mary. "Why, I never
knew there was any one she cared
for!'
.'"'Nor any one else either, it seems"
answered the miller. "The man must
be some one she got acquainted with
while she was. away at her. aunt's.
Old Greenock was in an awful rage,
Sam Wills told me just now !; but in
stead of going after his daughter, as
every one thought he would, be said
she had made her bed, and might lie
upon it. He wasn't going. to waste
time and trouble looking. after her,
And now it comes out that he's going
to marry Jee'Asbton's :daughter-you
know Ashton; tha- thas got a small
farm at Overipgham ?-and ain par
ticularl sorry to get rid Of Miss Es-
ther,. who always rode the high horse
with him."
The miller; went out after tea. It
was a. clubsnight at a little tavern in
Lowmfnster-a night when the trades
men Of the place met for a weekly
gossip over their clay pipes. John
Baxter was one of the steadiest and
most sober of men, and it was only a
little after nine when he came home
from this simple gathering.
"Well, girls" he said, as he seated
himself in his armchair by the fire,
"they've found out all about Miss
Esther's beau. They went off togeth-
er at seven o'clock this morning in a
postchaise from the Black Lion.
You'll never guess who it is"
Mary rose suddenly from her chair,
white to the very lips.
captain Herriston," she said.
"Why, you must have known some
thing about it, surely, lass p cried the
miller. "That's the man."
II thought so," she said, family,
and sat down again without another
word :; and went to bed by-and-by
without having betrayed her secret by
the smallest sign.
So she bore her trial silently and
submissively to the very end. Three
days after the elopement a letter came
for John Baxter, inclosing a check
for the amoantFof Captain Herriston's
debt, and requesting that his port
manteau might be sent to- certain
hotel at the West End. This was. all.
There months after this, Mr.. Greenock
married Sophy Ashton, very pretty
girl Of: about twenty: The Baxters
heard about the same time that he
had settledthree hundred a year up
on his -daaighter-avery small amount
compared with that young lady's ex-
pectations and that Mr.. and Mrs.
Herriston were living at some small
town in France.
No one ever guessed Mary's trouble.
She was very long time recovering
from that attack Of cold and low fever
which the doctor had prognosticated
would be an affair Of a week or two
but she did recover, and went about
the house with her old light step once
more; never again with the old gay
ETY. of spirit--that was gone forever
There was a ger;;i. I.'a>:i'li'y in he1
manner which wa: worry beautiful
but she was never agai:. to be the
bright happy creature she had been
| before the advent Of James Herriston
No one suspected the cause or the ma
ture 'oof this change. Her friends on.
y thought that she had grown stead
ier.
10 Years'weht' by, and Mary Baxter
had more than one eligible Offer
Of marriage from prosperous young
tradesmen in Lowminster; but ad
vancing years found both the sister:
confirmed old maids. The mile,
died, and they we're obliged to leave
| the comfortable old house in which
their quiet, uneventful lives had beer
4 spent. They were not we'll off by an,
1 means after their fathers death; s,
fthey took a small house on the out