The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-07-06

a partnership in light business, and
rouse him from his dreamy, sensitive
moods, TO active, natural life.
He might have become soured and
hard but for the love of this old maid,
who had never before let him read the
tenderness of her heart. But while he
suffered keenly his manhood developed,
and he was a stronger, better man for
his disappointment.
When Myra name ceased to be a tor
ture, Aunt Jane made herself known to
old friends of her girlhood, and gath
cred about her pleasant social circle,
where Gilbert was soon favorite There
was no hint of the spinster's hope when
she said quietly, "Any attention you
can pay to Ella Rayburn will be very
pleasing to me, Gilbert. Her mother
has been my warmest friend in past
years, and we have renewed the old times
most pleasantly. If Ella is like her
mother she is pure, sweet, unselfish
woman"
And Ella was like her mother, and was
soon taken into Aunt James close init
macy
Still smarting under the past pain,
Gilbert was merely attentive to his aunt's
young friend, and not yet realizing that
a reality filling his old ideal was near
him.
And while these old residents of Fern
Nook were quietly gathering up broken
threads of life, to weave a more perfect
web of content, Myra Gorham was eat
ing out her heart in bitterness Instead
of an old, indulgent husband, ready to
humor every within, to give her idola-
trous devotion, she found herself tied to
querulous invalid, who had been ac-
customed to the unquestioning obedience
and devotion of his daughter and grand
son, and who eXacted similar care from
his reluctant wife. In place of balls,
concerts, and opera, the gay life of the
metropolis, Mrs. Gorham found herself
shut up in country house, certainly
sufficiently handsome and well appointed
to meet the most fastidious taste, but
lonely beyond endurance to the woman
miles away from her own friends, and
coldly ignored by the friends of the Cor
hams, fully aware of her mercenary
treachery.
Yet she endured as patiently as posi-
bic, till the old man, pining for Jane
and Gilbert, sickened and failed visibly.
1t was when all hope was gone that
the young wife cautiously, but very
plainly, urged the necessity of making
will. 1t seemed to her as if all the
misery of life concentrated in the peev-
ish reply
81 have nothing to will. All he
property belongs to Jane / only hold
a life lease in my late wife's estate.
"Jane " gasped Myra, remembering
the insulting terms in which she had
intimated to that spinster that she pre-
! ferred to reign alone at Fern Nook.
Certainly If Gilberts father had
lived he would have shared in the prop
erty, but it all reverts to Gilbert if Jane
dies unmarried"
All Gilbert's? And might have been
all hers.
Myra felt too stunned and miserable
even to cry! To think that all her base
scheming, her feigned devotion had led
her only to this, the beggared widow OF
an old man.
But after the funeral was over Mrs.
Gorham made few discoveries. First,
all the deep black of her dress, with the
fine white line of her widows cap, the
somber Grape aud soft snowy tarletan
were most becoming to her brilliant
blonde beauty. She studied her dress
to its minute detail, and when it was
perfect formed her new plans. In her
late husbands desk she found So, 900
which she appropriated, leaving Miss
Jane and Gilbert, who came to the
funeral, to defray all expenses. She ac-
cepted Miss Gorham's offer of the use
of the house for year, and when she
was left i'll possession unscrupulously
sold many small but valuable articles
there.
When the year was over, and Miss
Jane Gorham once more opened her hosnse
to her friends, she was mute with con-
sternation when one day carriage,
heavily laden vito baggage, drove up so
her door, from which alighted her fash
er's widow, who threw herself into Der
arms, sobbing.
"Do not send me away. / am dying
IN the gloomy seclusion of my dear hNar
bands home. Let me stay with your
She stayed, of course. Miss James olG+ |
fashioned notions of hospitality were too
strong to permit her to turn guest !
away, even ii unlimited and unwelcome. |
But she smiled grimly to see how Gil
bert's face fell at the announcement OF
the visitor.
"She is my fathers widow" the spin
sser said gravely. So we must endure
her for a time.
She was most fascinating widow
when she appeared at the late dinner. 4,
in thin, black dress, all jet and trim
ming, with some knots of black ribbon
in her profusion of golden curls. Her
color was softly tinted as ever, her blue
eyes as babyish and winsome; yet when
her first evening was over she knew she !
had gained nothing in her effort to re-
capture the heart she had thrown aside. !
But she did not despair. She sang
the old songs that Gilbert had once
heard with rapture. She varied her
dress with laces, ribbons and jewelry,
till it's pretense of mourning was mere
mockery. She put herself in Gilbert's
way with every dainty device OF feminine
needle-work She entreated permission
to prepare his favorite dishes with her
own white hands. And, as if to try his