Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-11-18
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The boys eyes brighten and his cheeks
flush over the old ballad of Chevy Chase"
and he looks up impatiently at his sisters
voice.
what is it. Rhoda ?" he says aud cares
lessly takes the letter which she hands
him.
Take it at once, Fred,n she says. But
the boy reads on, and forgets all abont
the commission before she has left the
room.
Forty years ago And for forty years
she has been cherishing rancor and malice
and hatred in her heart-for forty years
while tie old letter. that never reached her
lover, lay quietly between the leaves of
the old book Ralph had gone to his
grave long ago believing her false and
heartless and cruel. The wrong can
never be set right now; and oh the
wasted years and the wasted love and
youth and hope Not a word says Miss
Rhodanthe, as she muses.; but Bessie,
watching her aunt's face, sees two slow
tears roll down the withered cheeks.
"What is it, Aunt RhodantheP' Bessie
asks, timidly.
But Aunt Rhodanlhe does not answer.
She only goes slowly out OF the room with
the letter still in her hand, and that strange
soft look upon her face which for forty
wears it has not worn before.
So it was only mistake after ala
cruel, fatal mistake; but at last, after all
these years, she knows that Ralph Dor
mer loved her. and that he was not the
villain which she has so often called him.
Her world is upset by the knowledge, you
see. All that she has held most firmly,
ho~ k..r hot IN
slipping from her grasp. Aud if Ralph
Dormer was not a william, what of Ralph
Dormer's sonP Her premises being over
turned, her theory falls to the ground.
The mistake of forty years ago can never
be set right now; but the mistake of to-
day must, at least, be rectified. And so
Aunt Rhodanihe, prompt in all things,
writes her letter. and dispatches it, di-
recting it, as she did the other one, to
DIR. Ralph Dormer." The letter, how
ever, does not fail in reaching its destina.
ton for Just as Aunt Rhodanthe is saying to
Bessie, Il have written to Ralph Dormer,
and think he will be here in the course
of The day. a step is heard in the hall--a
step which sends the bright blood flushing
up 10 Bessie forehead.
Miss Rhodanthe disappears, and b ,ssie
goes shyly forward to meet Ralph, but
finds herself caugh: up unceremoniously
in two strong arms, while voice whis-
pers. "Can you forgive me, Bessie, for all
the hard things have thought of you, and
for all have you made sufferP"
1t is turning the tables with vengeance,
for Bessie has thought she was the one to
ask for forgiveness; but she accepts the
situation with good grace, understand
inQ that Amt Rhoda's explanation has
been ample enough to spare her the pain
of confession.
"As far as understand it, neither OF
you has much cause to pride yourself on
your behavior in the matter" Aunt Rho
danthe says aiterward. "liere have you
both been thinking exactly the same
things Of each other, and making idiots of
yourselves for months, when a dozen
words would have set the whole thing
straight. There are times in life when
silence is anything but golden | sup
pose am hardly the one to reproach you
for it, though, says Aunt Rhodanthe, with
half sigh, as she thinks OF the forty
years which lie behind her.
DIR. White is gathered TO his fathers now,
and his partner, DR.. Dormer, regns in his
stead. Dr. Dormer's wife will never
shrivel and fade into the likeness OF Aunt
Rhodanthe; for the light of happiness
which went out so early for the elder
woman, still shines brightly over Bessie
Dormer's life, and is softly melowing her
to a ripe and fair maturity. When Bessie
is sixty, you will find it even harder than
you do now to believe that Bessie in youth,
as FAR as looks went, was simply Miss Rho
danthe over again