The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-09-29

girl had escaped through a window, in
single suit of cheap attire, to be ever
after shielded, protected, loved, cheI-
ished and provided for, as none but
wives and mothers are.
Nobody else could see anything pre-
possessing about John Smith. Solon
Rutherford fancied that the name, of
itself, was sufficient to satisfy any woD-
an with common sense, without accept
ing the man that bore it as an addi-
tional incumbrance, but there is no ac-
counting for taste. The name of Smith
was grand enough, if only the man who
bore it possessed sufficient moral, men
tai, and physical stamina to make it
honored and respected.
Their courtship had been carried on
mostly by letter.
Edna Rutherford was a girl for whom
nature had fully done her share. Pos
sessed of more than ordinary physical
beauty, of neither the brunette type nor
blonde, you would not have thought, to
look at her, that she was in any degree
capable of emotions, much less would
you have supposed that an irresistible,
impetuous will held a fiery temper con-
stantly in obeyance, and dominated
over the will of her associates in all
things. But appearances are often de-
ceiving, and Edna's was no unusual ex-
ception. 1t was against the rules of the
seminary where she was utterly untitled
for the self-abnegation of ordinary wife
hood for the young ladies to associate
in any manner with gentlemen.
They were often deprived for months
together of all associations with the op-
posite sex, except that which was neces-
sarily accorded them by the squeaky-
voiced president and his spindle-shanked
assistant, who parted their hair in the
middle and acted the constant spy over
the "prOprieties;" so the girls hated
them while, they learned and harbOred
extravagant admiration of other men
in an accelerated ratio, which might
have been, and doubtless was, duly rep
rehensible, but it was none the less ar
dent on that account. Contraband love
! letters regularly found their clandestine
way to ledge in the great stone wall be-
side the iron gate, where sundry roman
tic young gentlemen readily exchanged
them for their own ardent fancies; and
Edna Rutherford was through this me-
dunn rendered desperately in love with
John Smith before she was at all ac-
quainted with him in any other way;
and from the vows thus plighted she
was far too conscientious to recede.
She had never met her adored but
once before leaving school, and then but
for a moment, and the interview had
been a stolen one, under the lee of the
great wall, where the dark shadows cast
by the moonlight had heightened his
beauty and magnified his diminutive
proportions.
How their correspondence began, she
never could exactly remember; but the
arrangement had been brought about by
a mischief-loving sprite who was the
pedagogue's favorite, and who, conse
qnently, had her own way in all things
Edna distinctly recollected that Johr
had for an instant pressed her hand il
the shadows; that he had begged per
mission to marry her, and that he
ready assent had been followed by {
hasty and passionate embrace, accom-
panied by few thrilling words of en-
dearment, sealed by kiss, which lie
, all other memories fade, and would eve
be to her the most sacred experience il
: her store-house of retrOspection.
From that day Edna Rutherford hat
considered herself, before God, as en-
gagged. Her red lips became fully rip
under the inspiration of love, her ches
expanded, her eyes grew strangely lu
minous, and her mind passing clear.
John Smiths letters were models o
propriety, intensity, sentiment, elo
= quence and poetry.
2 Well had it been for Edna could sh
2 have known that they were copie
bodily from a model guide to love-lette
: writing, which the pale youth in whom
2 her existence was becoming absorbe
had learned to initiate, even in punctu
! alton and paragraphing. But Edn
3 knew nothing of the world, and coope
e as she was behind the high walls of
: stately edifice devoted to making fash
e ionable fools of women, how was she t
D know anything about men?
Y On commencement day, why S
a named is another human anomaly
= when Edna's school days were ended
S and she stood before the world ready t
s pronounce her valedictory in trent
e ling, fluttering voice, (and why sh
It should be expected to do such a thing
when ever after she was to conside
d public speaking unladylike, was anothe
: fashionable anomaly, and she stood, q
: we have said, before an expectant pull
!. lie, to make the last speech ever ez
d pected by the aforesaid public from
r full-hedged woman, John Smith sent he
If a boquet, and her glad heart was file
d with blissful state of quiet exultatior
|. not unmixed with sincere sympathy fC
= the other graduating girls, not one {