The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-11-25

Then she opened the drawer of her
bureau in which she kept valuables OF
money, and thrust the letter in and locked
it up.
She had time to think the matter over
before Jim came in, for he was late, and
THAT girl grew more distasteful to her
every moment.
''Going to the picnic, Jim?' she asked,
as they sat over their tea.
And Jim answered that he hadn't thought
of it.
cd go, if l was you, and take your
cousin Miranda" said the old lady. "She
expects it, think"
jim, only moved 10y the remembrance of
Nellie Barlow, and a wish to make her ieal-
GUS, agreed to the proposition.
He took Miranda to the picnic next day,
and Nellie was there, and saw them to-
gether; and remembering her note, written
in moment of softness, when the wish to
recall certain angry words she had said to
Jim, was strong upon her, she grew sick
with shame.
She had held ont her hand in reconcila-
ton, and he had not taken it.
Could any thing make woman more
indignant
After that she had never even looked at
him
Old Mrs. Wadsworth, having kept jim S
letter few days, felt that too much expla-
nation would be necessary were she to give
it to him after so long delay.
Besides, it would be well for her son that
he should not see it.
/ He would, of course, marry his cousin
Mranda-only a good cousin-a girl she
liked, and who would never set herself up
above her mother-in-l law, girl who did not,
/ like poor Nellie, look aggravatingly stylish.
But Jim did not marry Miranda.
| No one will ever know now whether
Miranda would have accepted him or not.
After while she married Mr.. Wise
man, who was better off than Jim. and old
enough to be his father.
And Nellie, too, married.
While her heart burnt with resentment
against her old lover, she chose a new one,
a dark, moody, silent sort of man, who car
red her away to the city, whence there
came rumors now and then that she was
not happy-that her husband led wild
/ life
| Once some one declared that he was
/ her in her room at times.
| But no one knew whether it was true or
/ not.
| Her parents would never say any thing
about her.
/ As for James Wadsworth, he had gone
! to church to see her married, and had gone
home with headache.
/ The next day he was delirious.
! \ brain fever had set in, and the doctors
shook their heads over him.
What he said in his delirium only his
mother understood, but if she could have
undone the deed that she had done, she
would have thanked Heaven.
For weeks he lay at deaths door, and
then pale shadow crept about the house,
the wreck of bright, handsome James
WadSworth.
His beauty was gone, and no one felt
quite sure about his mind.
He answered sensiby enough when he
was spoken to- but voluntarily he never
spoke.
After while he felt strong enough to
do farm work. and did what his mother
suggested, and she grew used to his altered
, ways.
And so matters rested when, ten years
from her wedding day, Nellie came back to
her fathers home in Il widows cap.
And the people of kornhill learnt that
her husband was dead and began to won
der whether he had left her money.
Jim, blowing in the adjoining field, saw
her as she sat upon the old homestead
porch, and stood for a moment staring at
her.
Then he left his pillow in the furrow, his
horses standing where they were, and went
home.
His mother saw him coming.
He tramped over the beds of vegetables
'hht tloi to"i VIC youhS WI
He sought no path.
AS the bee flies, lie sought the doorway
at which his mother stood staring at him,
and walked into the kitchen past her with
out look.
''Jim, my boy, said the old woman,
'what is it"
lie made no answer, but went to his room
and straight to bed.
For hours he never spoke to her.
Then he began to balbhc.
| He uttered Nellie's name.
| He reproached her with Inconsistency.
| He called her tender names in one breath,
and cursed her in the next.
Then he gave one wild cry and sprang up
in his bed and dropped back again, with
his eyes staring towards heaven.
| He was dead.
The mother knew that before they told
| her so.
The next day coffin stood in the low
ceied parlor, and in it lay a pale statue
with closed eyes, all that was left of James
| Wadsworth.
One by one the friends and neighbors
came softly in to look at him, and went
away more softly, often in tears.
At last came one woman-a fair woman,
in a widows cap and veil,-who stood
| longer than the rest looking at the still,
white face, and at her own request, was
left alone with it, while curious people in
the other room wondered whether it was
true that Nellie and Jim were once en-
gagged and had quarreled-for this was
Nellie, i'll her widows weeds, who had
| come to loci. at Jim for the last time.
And as she stood there. with thoughts
for which there are no words trooping
through her mind, an inner door opened
and an old woman crept in.
1t was Mrs. Wadsworth, broken down
at last, and with the strange, restless light
of an unsettled intellect in her ljoht blue