Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-05-13

! tives put q. sufficiently small pecuniary
acknowledgment into Edna's purse.
The girl herself, 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 preud1ces Of her rich aunt, the
affections of her helpless, fne-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 1ong-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 al. 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 a 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. I earn all she gives
me, that's one comfort. Any dressmaker
would charge twice as much as she will
pay me to make that black velvet"
Yet when she came day after day,
working busily at the fall sewing of her
rich aunt, she missed the courteous at
tentions of her cousin. Truly Aunt
Lucille had spoken when she said Wal
ter Temp1eton was perfect gentleman
! His manner was the perfection of good
breeding, with deferential court esy for
! all womankind, and most fascinating
| Difference for one woman he loved.
| Stung by the bitter emphasis of Edna's
refusal, the contemptuous sarcasm of her
reasons, he withdrew from her presence,
seldom coming to the room, where he
| had read to his aunt while she sewed
Truly Edna had defined his position
in that mental retrospect she had taken.
He had been his aunt's plaything in his
| boyhood, a handsome lad full of talent
and promise. When he attained ripper
years he was sent to school, to college,
and, graduating there, was put into the
position of a dutiful nephew to an aunt
who openly proclaimed him her heir.
| Courted in society, his aunt's favorite,
with ample means at his ready command,
| his own idea Of his course OF life was
that it was far superior to that of COM
mon men. Thoroughly imbued with his
aunt's pride, he rather scorned the idea
of labor of any kind until he loved
Edna.
BY the light of that love he felt I'M
easily that she scorned the money he
took freely, unless she earned it first.
| More than once he had known of her
proud refusal of any gift for which her
nimble fingers had not given full equiv
alent. He loved her first for her beauty,
then for the nobler attributes of mind
and heart she certainly possessed,
though she screened them well with her
sarcastic pride.
Gradually, indeed unconsciously, she
had sheathed the weapons she kept at
command, her pungent wit, her keen
satire, when her Cousin Walter was by
She let herself be interested when he
read, and spoke freely when they dis
Cussed literature or art.
Mrs. Montgomery looked well pleased
| We of fn
her wealth divided between Walter and
Edna as man and wife, and she encour-
aged intimacy with all her heart, hiding
her satisfaction under her usual curt
manner.
Partly from her hints, partly, it must
be confessed, from his own sense of SUI
periority, Walter had settled convic-
tIon that he was comforting an honor
when he offered his hand to Edna, a hand
that would lift her to his side in the aff1u-
| ence Of his aunt's favor.
So the first spur that drove him from
her presence was certainly mortified
vanity. More reasonable motives came
later.
The fall sewing was completed, when,
with that unreasonable. perversity that
falls often to the lot Of the most favored
mortals, Mrs Montgomery was obliged
to have it all renewed in mourning for
her only sister, Edna's mother.
1t was dreadfully provoking" of
course, the more so as Edna, really low
ing the peevish invalid who had been her
care for years, could not attend to the
sewing. She sorrowed sincerely for
many weeks, and then, to Mrs. Mont
gomery's infinite disgust, accepted po-
sition as companion to an invalid lady
and went abroad.
q suppose" her aunt said, when it
was too late, if had offered you a sal
airy with home you would have come
when I asked you"
And Edna frankly admitted that she
would.
So over the ocean she carried her sor-
rows and her pride, the one fairly stifed