The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-04-30
WHO MELINDA MARRIED.

$50 you're back again with your old en-
ployers, and at frst-class salary. I'm
very glad, l assure you, and SO will nv hus.
band be when / tell him. Sorry you can't
stay to tea with us on account of the chill
dren. How old is your eldest, Tommy P"
Let me see.'' The individual addressed
balanced his hat between his knees on both
little fingers. and carefully studied its in
terror, as though the information he sought
lurked somewhere under the lining. A
great, blonde-bearded m IN, but he always
was and always would be Tommy Never
being able to rid himself of certain awk-
ward bashfulness, nor ever having lost the
big, innocent eyes, honest mouth and ruddy
complexion that made him look like an
overgrown schoolboy. "Amanda's eleven
this June. Lucy was nine in February.
Melinda seven, and Vinnie-thats the baby
my wife left, you know-will be three TO-
morrow"
"An girls ?''
Eyes ma'am, all girls"
"How long since you left the city?"
Let me see," and Tommy again consult
ed his hat. 81 left the spring 1 was twen-
ty-One, didn't L? Well, I've been away
thirteen years. 1 married Amanda White
just six months after left"
"She made good wife, didn't she ?''
"The very best; but, then, it wasn't as
though I'd married Melinda"
"No. suppose not; and yet, Tommy, 1
tell you, as I've always told you, Melinda's
not altogether worthy OF you. Not that she
isn't good-principled, warn-hea-ted, and
al that, but her views of life are false"
"Then you think there's no chance for
NE. Is anybody else in the way? 2"
Nobody, and never has been, excepting
the girl her self. To my certain knowledge,
she's had but one offer beside yours That
was from old Mr.. Hulks, the great shipper
thought Melinda would tear his eyes out.
So, you see, she won't marry merely for
money"
still, you think there's no chance for me
L daren't ask her, you know; she said the
last time-when 1 came on after Amanda
died, you remember-that if ever 1 did it
again, shed never speak to me-
Saying that she meant it, best not to
venture. Let matters take their course.
See her as often as possible, but keep a
certain distance. Maybe things win work
around somehow. She's got in with new
set lately-clever people-but they have
fancy they've discovered a new way to put
the world to rights, and are Just the ones
to do it. It's all well enough, suppose.
Amuses them and don't hurt anybody, but
I'm out of patience, for all. See here,
Tommy, I've an idea. She visits the Park
the day the society meets-that's to-mor-
row-to commune with nature, she says 1
know her favorite spot; she's always alone;
you go there, take the children, and get
somewhere near her.
Take the children! I'd frighten her
miles and miles away
"No, you wouldn't. The more 1 reflect
on this plan, the better 1 like it. Ask
for a half holiday, gather up your girls, and
CO."
The day was all that could be desired.
May-blue sky, with drift of clouds like
departing snow across it /; warm, penetrat-
ing sunbeams; soft airs, alive with chill
dren's voices and bird-warblings. Yet could
not my heroine find herself in harmony
with the scene. She succeeded in securing
her favorite seat in the Park, niche on
the hillside, with an interlacing of boughs,
and glimpses of rock and river. 1t con-
tanned only two settees,
Melinda met Tommy Whittlesy Just as
he was leaving the afternoon previous.
Somehow those big, blue, reproachful eyes
met hers whichever way she looked. More
especially did they haunt the page she
tried in vain to read, and moved in her
pencils wake when she turned to writing
for relief. Not that she cared for their
owner. Oh, never q particle. Any time
since her fifteenth birthday, she had but to
say, "I love you,'' to make Tommy the hap
piest of men. Yet she never did say it
never intended saying it, True, life was
unsatisfactory. One dream after another
faded; still there was a hope of her be-
coming something, being somebody tied
to Tommy, that was gone. As Mrs. Whit
tlesy, her days would be bounded on the
cast by breakfast, south by dinner. north