River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-11-08

thinking all the time would have added
some nice little trifie TO my wardrobe or
jewel-case-
just to think Of it Pouring out tea
and cutting cake for half a hundred
pauper chirdren-I, who hate poverty
in any form, and only like children in
poetry.
But to go back to the subject. You
can make your appearance as soon as the
house is mine and / will introduce you as
an acquaintance made in town at one Of
Ida CranstOn's receptions And when
you do appear, you must get rid OF, for a
time at least, Il would not have you give
it up altogether, for to me it is intensely
amusing), your habit of making fun of
everything and everybody.
And you must also pretend great in
terest in cocOons, chrysalis and all sorts of
hOrrid insects, and in everything relating
to birds and and animals, and never for
get to pat the dog and stroke the cat when
they come near you.
You can be a very agreeable fellow
when you choose, and | am sure with
little pardonable hypocrisy you can make
Uncle Maurice like you.
Once he likes you, I'll follow suit
which will be compliment 10 his taste
and fall in love with you.
Then We can marry as soon as we
choose. Immediately after our mar
rage business calls you to Europe; the
house is let have an excellent tenant
in view and with many expressions of
regret we bid farewell to our tiresoms un-
Gle.
Now, Charles, send me no more grum.
bling letters. My programme must be
carried out, and carried out with much
discretion, for besides the gift 1 expect
on my twenty first birthday shall receive,
rs you know, large sum of money when
Uncle Maurice dies, being his only legal
heir.
OF course some wretchod institutions
for w-etched people will come in for a
share, but | have every reason to hope
the greater portion of his wealth will be
mine.
You hint that he may marry again.
No fear of it. He adds extreme constancy
to his other humdrum virtues, and has
scarcely looked at another woman, so
friends tell me, since his wife died, fif-
teen years ago.
Indeed, he himself told me one even
ing in an unwonted fit of confidence that
"his heart was buried in his Cecelia's
grave" or words to that effect. And
knowing that said heart is safely slowed
away under a tombstone, it is rare salts
faction to me TO watch the young maids,
old maids and widows setting their caps
at him whenever they can get chance,
which is very seldom, and to see him
walking the while sublimely Indifferent
among them, totally unconscious of their
hopes and fears.
One of the old maids, they say, is real
Iy In love with him, and has been all her
life. since her childhOods days, when he
and she attended the village school to-
gether.
In return for her early affection she
had the honor of being bridesmaid to
her successful rival. and fear her later
devotion will meet with no return at
all.
She is a Quakeress, Ruth Wilson by
name, one of those timid, low-voiced,
dark-haired, self sacrificing women, with
eyes like a COW, that women of the world
cannot tolerate.
Aluol Si-C has hCfNA oAo"h III AttS
slightest way the feeling ascribed to her
in my presence.
True. she came here when Uncle Maui
rice was so sick last summer, and nursed
him through the deliriOus part of his
fever C2nd was very glad to have her do
it, as | was terribly afraid of infection),
but that goes for nothing, as she is fond
of playing the part of a sister of charity
and is oftcner found at the bedside of
some very i'll or dying person than in
her own ridiculously snug little cottage.
However, / was careful to have her go
before uncle became conscious, and have
taken care ever since that he never
should find out she was here. Not that
think there is any more danger in that
quarter than any other, for Uncle Maurice
when they meet, which is only on the
children's tea and cake days, seems
scarcely aware of her presence.
But as | said before, in cases like this
one can hardly be too careful. Uncle be-
lieves firmly that to the unceasing care
and untiring watchfulness of his devoted
niece he owes his life May he continue
in that belief
And now good-by. Destroy this letter
as soon as read, and rely implicitly on
the judgment and constancy of
Your own LUCILLE.