Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-03-12

WIN my eyes open Will L INK my lie
with that Of man who ever touches
one drop Of liquor. 1t is useless to
repeat the old arguments, Robert
Moderate drinkers, occasionally in
toxicated, may live for years only
moderate drinkers, but will never
be the wife Of any man who has not
bound himself by a pledge never to
touch liquor in any FORM
ga total abstinancc fool" snecred
Robert, now thoroughly angry.
"a total abstinancc man." she said
firmly.
81 hope you will be able to find the
soft fool who will put his manhood
under your thumb. For myself, l
will never bind myself to temper
ancc pledge"
"What!" he argued, 'shall l, the
richest man in Nj, who could
marry almost any girl in my own set,
bind myself to absolute slavery for a
nursery governess, girl who has not
one penny beyond the salary Mrs
Reed pays her, a drunkard's child, by
her own confession? Never"
He was very angry, and like most
angry men, very unreasonable. He
forgot to think of the long courtship
by which Hettie was won, of the gen
tie maidenly rcticence that had been
one of her greatest charms, of her
own modest estimate of the merits
that had won hlm. He forgot the
times without number when he had
compared her in his heart with all
the maidens he knew, finding her
ever pretticr, sweetcr, more winsomc
than any. He forgot how he loved
her in his anger at her resolution.
And Hettie, walking slowly home
ward, realized that with her own hand
she had thrust all the brightness out
of her hard life. She loved Robert.
Not be cause he was rich, could give
her a handsome home, all the luxurics
Of wealth, had she loved him, but for
his tender chivalry for her, his noble
intellect, his loving eyes that had
sought her own with such constant
devotion. She had believed him all
noble, true and manly when she had
put her little hand in his strong one
and promised to be his wife.
Six long months of bctrothal had
passed before the Summer evening
when she had turned from him, as
she thought, forever. And only in
the last weeks had she known of that
fearful, deadly foe to her hope of hap
piness, who has fastened his fatal
hold upon her lover. The first time
she heard of Robert Grey intoxicated,
a deadly despair grasped her heart.
She thought ofa lifelong martyr'lom
from which she had escaped 50 little
time before, and she wrote to her
lover sternly forbidding him to see
her again, and then spent night after
night weeping for her lost love.
But Robert Grey would not accept
his dismissal, and pleaded SO peni-
tently that love conquered fear, and
Hettie believed that never again
would he yield to the temptation
Again the story came to her, and
half-maddencd, unwilling to believe
the solemn pledge broken, she had
begged him to come to her and ex-
plain away the lie. But the third
time she had seen him! Too well
she knew what the red, wild eyes, the
thick utterance, the rceling step be-
tokened. Only in answer to the most
earnest petition had she nerved her.
self to grant one more interview, and
it had ended in Roberts anger and
the failure of her only last hope.
She knew Robert Grey had sense
of honor as keen as her own. That
he had failed in his promise to her
was because he looked upon it as a
pledge merely given to answer a girls
foolish whim. Once bound before
men by written pledge she felt sure
he would keep it at whatever cost to
himself. SO she hoped to win him
to sign such a pledge. There was
strong temperance revival in Nj
at that very time, and on this she
built hope not knowing it was her
weakest hold.
For Robert Grey, young, wealthy
and popular, looked upon all this tenn
perance preaching as directed against
the lower class, the sorts who rolled
in cutters, the trequenters OF village
taverns. That he, gentleman, sholld
place his name on such pledge as
these wretches were persuaded to
sign, seemed to him in measure to
place himself upon their level
Then, as he told lIettie, it was a
confession Of weakness against which
all his manhood revolted.
The summer days wore away, and
these two, loving each other fondIy,
met but seldom, only to exchange
constrained greetings. Hettic sut-
fered most in her quiet, uneventful
life; but she had been educated in a
hard school, and bore her pain pa
tiently. She grew paler, was more
quiet, but there was none to notice
any change. While she was faithful
to her duties in Mrs Reeds nursery,
she was sure of Il home; and if there
was no love there but that of the
children she taught, SO, too, there
was no one to comment upon her
languid step or pale cheeks. If she
spent many nights in weeping, no one
sought an explanation so long as
Mamy's grammar was rccited, and
Alice said her A, B, C's.
But when the winter set in, Hettie
had another wrench at her heart
strings. Without word Of farewell,
Robert Grey lett M to travel
No one knew exactly upon what
errand the young man had gone
He had been in business, and had
left that with an agent, giving no
hint of when he would return, or
whittier he was bound. Orphaned,
wealthy, and free, he had no pernis-
sion to seek, his aunt caring for his
house al she had done since his
mother died, in infancy.
Hottie had not realized how hope |