Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-09-15


She was proud woman. Many West
Indians are endowed with more pride than
is good for them, and she was an instance.
Perhaps 1t was the blacks, or the climate,
or living on an island where there was no
aristocracy, save that which was constitut-
ed by money. She was very rich, there
was no doubt of that and she had very
lovely daughter, there was also no doubt Of
that,-a fair haired girl, with large, dreamy
eyes, and fair skin, and lips that suggest
ed pout, yet broke into the most enchant-
ing of smiles now and then, not very oflen
either; perhaps because the girls life had
been lonely, as an only child's often Is, and
perhaps because she was half afraid of her
mother. Her happiest days had been her
sc hool days. She had been sent TO England
for b er education aud when she returned
to the narrow circle and the stiff, uncom-
promising mother, who, since her hus-
bands death, pad managed the estate her
self, and was absorbed in the produce OF
sugar and the politics Of Government
House, Alice felt lonely and weary enough.
Yet Mrs. Brandleth was very proud of her
beautiful daughter, and waited serenely,
convinced thet the day would come when a
wandering duke, or perhaps stray prince,
sent over TO improve his knowledge of the
tropics, would fall in love with her, and in
sist upon laying his name, rank, and for
tune at her feet. Having this conviction
strong upon her, it Uas provoking when,
one fine day, Alice informed her, trem-
blin ely enough, that she had engaged her.
self 10 Hugh Trevor, young surgeon who
was vainly trying to get practice in the
island, for the population was more incln-
ed TO trust its broken bones and epidemics
into the hands of the older practitioners.
"If you dare TO think of such thing"
she exclaimed, "Pll leave every penny
away from you, and what is more, will
let you starve rather than give you shil-
ling :" alter which comfortable assurance,
having no money and no prospects, the
pair prudently got married on the sly, and
trusted to "luck."
Luck betrayed the trust, and never came
near them, or only luck Of the worst de-
scription did so they realized all they had,
and, amer one unavailing appeal TO Mrs.
Brandletb, determined to leave the West
luultSt duu stCA iOI bShlCI AOituhO III ANb6
land.
"I should so like to see my old friends
again yes, do let us go, Hugh, dear; be-
sides, we can make better fight with pow
erty there than here" Alice said, thinking
wlstfully of her school days, and little Bit
terly of the manner in which her tropical
acquaintance had cut her since her mar
riage. So with two hundred pounds In the
world, they set out for England.
at is no use trying in London" Hugh
said, tive should only be lost in the crowd,
and allowed to starve quietly. Wen go to
some small seaside place, or country viii
lage, and set up, and hope for the best. Un-
| less there is some one there before us, pa
tients must come in time,"-a reasonable
| suppositiOn, when one considers that, in the
long run, disease and death are never in
constant long together anywhere.
LET us go by the sea, them" pleaded
Alice so they went to Sea, a
small, seaside place, where tisher-folk
abounded, and where there were hills
around, with here aud there houses scatter
ed about all inhabited by the probable pa
tients of Hugh Trevor's future.
| There was no surgeon at Drayton-on-Sea
before Hugh Trevor went there; but rail-
way came soon afler they settled there, and
very soon amer that a surgeon-an older
man with long xperience-came and prac-
tised more for love than fees, for he was
well off; and so the bright future the Trev-
ors were seeking was still far away.
"Oh, Hugh what shall we dor" poor