Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-06-29

| light OF happiness is irradiating her brow
and laughing back from the oft sweet eyes.
The words that a man writes to his prom
ised wife could he answered in no more fit
ting way:
MY DEAREST CHILD: l have got all the
way to Wales safely, and the whole family
Is collected here under the palernal roof.
| l needn't say that one thing Is wanting TO
me, and that, hope will soon be supplied,
for, of course you will come down and
spend Christmas with us. My father aud
mother both want words TO express their
anxiety to see you and receive you as a
daughter. Write and say how soon you
| can come.
We are very quiet here but there are one
or two new people in the village. A Mrs.
| Fourier has taken the White House aud
her daughter is a regular acquisition. The
old lady is not much, but Leah Fourier
plays and sings divlnely, and is unusually y
good-looking into the bargain. The girls
are mad about her.
You can see how hard up am for any
thing to tell you when am forced to write
about strangers. suppose you would get
| tired OF 1t if were 10 keep on telling you
that love you, but have very few other
ideas In my head just now at any one time.
Besides, isn't 1t much pleasanter to tell II
with your dear hand in mine?
Your own ARTHUR ASHTON.
Leah Fourierl repeated Margaret 10
herself dreamily, "I hope she won't re-
member me. Iwonder whether mad pao-
pie recollect anything that has passed when
they are wellP That would be the most
wretched part Of it all y
|
Leah Fourier is singing "Si tu savais," !"
and Arthus Ashton is leaning over the
piano, looking into her magical eyes with
an expression-well, which would mean a
good deal with some men, but which is
merely graceful courtesy, Margaret tries
to believe, with Arthur Ashton. She has
been at Llwyn-y- mawr a fortnightnow, and
has found Leah Fourier almost as constant
an inmate of the house as herself. But
then, as Arthur said, the girls are mad
about her, and there certainly is an en-
chantment somewhere in her glowing face
before which few are able to stand. "Bien
sur, tn m'aimeras r. she sings, aud Mar
| garet knows that the words would sound
cold and passionless from her own lips in
comparison. Is 1t wonderful that there
should be a response in Arthur Ashton's
eyes2
The song is ended, and Margaret Fem
wick's dtnee strolls after the singer into the
conservatory.
"Ir were you, Margaret, I should go af
ter them really" says Arthur's eldest sis
ter, half laughing. Leah would fiirt with
the footman, believe, If there was nobody
else in the way. 1t was just the same
when poor brother Charlie was at home"
| Margaret tries TO smile and 10 keep her
wistful eyes turned away from the conser-
vatory door, but she cannot help speculat-
| ing a little as TO the difference between
"poor Charlie and his brother. As TO Leah
herself, she can hardly form a calm ration
al opinion, so different is this Leah from
the girl with the wild eyes, whose poor un-
certain fingers she had helped to find their
old familiar places on the piano at Hore-
wood five years ago. She feels rather than
knows that the past is not all blank in
Miss Fourior's brain, but no word of rec
ognition has passed between the girls, and
it is plain at any rate that nothing of that
dreadful episode in Leah's life is suspect
ed by the Asbtons. To Margaret herself
as she looks on the others proud imperi-
| Gus beauty, ii seems as If her remember
| auce could be nothing but a dream; and
yet il is almost pain TO think that so much
OF her pity in those bygone days was vast
| ed.
Ten minntes-a quarter of an hour goes
slowly by, and Leah saunters back into the
drawing-room, with spray of maidenhair
| in her hands, and the passion of her song
still haf-slumbering in those deep mys-
| ierious eyes. "Mr. Ashton Is going TO be
kind enough TO see me home," she remarks
| generally for everybody's information, and
Margaret feels the same sudden chill that
had come TO her the night before for the
first time, when her lover had undertaken
the same surely unnecessary duty. 1t is
almost relief TO her to remember that this
is her last evening with the Ashtons and
that the next day Arthur is to take her
back to London. Leah Fourier may take
all the footmen in Wales into the conserva-
tory with her then, If she chooses.
Nevertheless, the chill comes back to her
heart more unmistakably than ever next
night, for Leah Fourier, and the conserva-
tory, and Arthur Ashton are all LEFT be-
hind. lie found that he could take anoth-
er weeks holiday, he told her, and she
NOuiu hOh DO otlhSb " PIOPOeC
he should spend two days in travelling
merely for the sake of taking her home.
So their goodbye was said at the little
Welsh railway station, but something fell
out of his pocket as he was taking her tick
ct, and she could not help seeing that it
was bit of maidenhair fern. 1t was pity
that il should be crushed under a stranger 5
foot before he could recover it-but then
there was more in the conservatory!
Four, five days without letter, during
which time the chill never leaves her heart,
and then there comes what she has been
looking for. He asks her if she is good
enough, unselfsh enough, TO forgive him,
aud adds, of course, that he can never for
give himself Margaret knows now what
answer he made to Leah's song, and Won
ders If there is anything left for her in the
world, or If 1t Is all made up of such ques-
tions and such replies. Then she remem-
bers that her father had said that there were
thirty thousand reasons why no one should
envy Leah Fourier.
Well, Leah is his, body and soul, reasons
and all, ifhe chooses TO take her; and Mar
garet wonders whether the first will make
up to him for all the others. Would he
choose if he knew of the corridor at Hore-
wood, and had seen the lips he loved cloy-
ing themselves with sweetmeats that soft
compassionate hands thrust by stealth
within their reachH She puts away the
thought from her with a shudder, calling
upon God not TO tempt her to come between
him and his happiness. If it can all be
hidden from him 1t would be a sin in her,
of all women in the world, to say a word
which might dash the cup from his lips.