The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-08-11
Elsie's Secret.
BY HESTER A. BENEDICT.

!
but it seems to make no difference"
"Does it not please you to have me do
what / think is right, Paul 2"
The face that Elsie Heath lifted to the
! face of her lover, Paul Devereaux, was
little flushed; but it was full of earnest,
honest purpose, and any one Except a
lover looking at it and listening to her
! low, measured, intens tone, would have
! left off coaxing, and reasoning, and
demonstrating, knowing that either and
all would be unavailing.
"You put things so oddly, Elsie," Mr..
! DevereauX answered, impatiently. mo
body ever thought you we've doing a
positive wrong in patrOnizing all the
pOverty-stricken people you could hear
of! 1t may be right suppose it is, or
you wouldn't do it-but it's dreadfully
humiliating to me; and / can't help
feeling that if you loved me-"
! Something in the girls face checked
the words, and the sentence was not fin
ished then.
"Elsie," after long pause, "why do
you go among those people? Why do
you haunt the shops, the sewing-roOms,
the alleys, even for I've followed you
and watched you when you little knew
l was near?n
"Paul you dared to do that ?'
"Why not 'dare?' You are my prom
ised wife. Ought there to be a secret
between us? Is it not my duty to
watch over, guard, and protect you ?"
"And to follow me like a spy, as if
my work or my play, whichever or
whatever my mission was, were un-
worthy Elsie Heath u'
She had risen aud stood looking down
on him, "a saints scOrn" on her young
face, her eyes flashing, her little form
rigid with Indignation. He had gone a
step too far, and he knew it but would
not acknowledge it. He laid down the
book he held, got up and took her
hands in his, patting them with his
white patrician fingers with an air that
said, palmer than any words could, "Be
! quiet, pretty beastie; am your masteru'
"Elsie, little Elsie" he said, ''really l
don't see any reason for your naughty
ways and your angry words. You must
own it's little hard on a fellow to be
EquiZZed, and teaZed, and tOrmented as |
am, on every hand, and by those who
know of our engagement and of your
/ secret ~
He pressed her hand spasmodically, as
! if the little word "secret' hurt him; but
she did not seam to notice.
"I know-Of course / know that the
secret, whatever it may be, is not I'M
worthy you; but why, in the life of a
girl like you, should there be anything
hidden from-from the man whose wife
she is to be? 1t is incomprehensible
and II am not pleased that things
should go on in this way longer"
She Withdrew her hands from his,
leaned little heavily on the piano, as
if for support, and looked away from,
and asked quietly:
"Will you tell me what would please
you, Paul ?p
Eyes; give up your strange habit of
strOlling-forgive me! can't call it by
any other name-let the girl-life end
be my wife! o, Elsie, my darling,
don't look at me so! Don't shake your
head! will care for you so tenderly,
dear. 1 will shield, protect, and love
your'
81 know it, Paul-oh, do know it
and just now"
She broke down there, fortunately,
! perhaps, for both.
"Just now'-what? ?r
"Never mind, Paul." she answered.
''My heart was drowning my judgment.
1t is better so. / cannot please you in
your way yet-indeed | cannot, Paul.
] 1OuJ lONG yOu tAuuI uSdiJ bC pdbl6uG
with me and wait"
She had laid her soft hands upon his
and was looking at him with her great
soul in her eyes. But he did not see the
soul. Maybe it was not his fault. He
! let her hands fall suddenly, turned on
his heel, and walked suddenly across
the sweet mOrning-rOOm and back
again, stopping abruptly beside her, and
! saying, almost contemptuOusly:
ga woman's love must be taken at a
discount, if taken at all, when it will
make no sacrifice for sake of the be-
! loved. l love you. l would do any
thing, be anything for your sake. But
! for me you will not give up even habit
that is repulsive to me and compromis-
ing to yourself. And-you love meT
The quick color flushed the girls face.
For moment bitter words were on her
lips, but she kept them vOiceless till
they died. Then:
'I think you will be sorry for those
words when you are yourself, Paul" she
said, "because they are unworthy of
you, and they are unjust to me. do
love you! That love is my breath,
blood, pulse, existence. But
"'The Lord who fashioned my hands for work
Set me a task, and it is not done'
"You do not know the nature and OBJ
ject of my labor. Just now 1 cannot
! tell you. You must trust me, wait for
me, keep faith with me, or we must
drift apart. That is all, and that is
everything to me-"
''My God, Elsie! Do you know what
you say? ?"
81 know what say-I know what |
say"
How cold and white she was! And
cold and white and crushed her grand
aunt found her, all hour later, leaning
there still on the piano, just where her
lover had left her, her wide eyes fixed
on the finger from which she had taken
the betrothal ring, and the pink leaves
of the roses she had worn lying, forgot
ten, down at her feet.
''I wish you would cry, child" the
old aunt said, that evening, after they
had talked together for an hour. "You
never do anything as other women do.
1 don't object to that in the main; but
in this instance a shower of tears over
your white cheeks would make me hap
pier than l was with my first pocket"
Elsie laughed, and laughter was bet
ter for her than tears, just then.
"Auntie," she said, thridding the old
lady's silver hair tenderly, "you re-
member the divine who, laying his
hands on his dead monarch's head,
bowed his own, and said: God alone is
greatv And have heard you call him