Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-09-14
"And are thew not 2"

|
GRANDPA Their holds life lease only OF TIT
house and half the income. The propert.
was his wife's and left to me, with thu
lease, as I said, to my father during life
While we were all one family and you tn
heir, it was quite unnecessary to make an!
talk or any fuss about the matter; bu
now it is well to understand my rights and
yours
':How?"
s'Your grandfather, my dear, being,
charitably believe, in his dotage, has mar
ried--Myra Wilburr'
1t was crushing blow. Gilbert swayet
to and fro in his chair, and then fell insen
sible.
His ideal poetic life was more real to him
than the actual world about him, and he
suffered acutely. But his aunt was the
best of comforters, for, while she was full
Of tender sympathy, she was eminently
practical, and with clear, forcible words
she made him realize fully how unworthy
was the idol he had worshipped.
With her own personal property she had
also brought Gilbert's from their old home.
and she took house in New York, where
both soon felt at home, returning no more
to Fern Nook. Then, with true practical
kindness, she persuaded Gilbert to allow
her to buy him a partnership in a light
business, and rouse 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 disappoint-
ment.
When Myra's name ceased to be tor
ture, Aunt Jane made herself known to
old friends of her girlhood, and gathered
| about her favorite. There was no hint
of the spinster's hope when she said quiet
ly, ''Any attention you can pay to Ella
Rayburn will be very pleasing to me, Gil
| bert. Her mother has been my warmest
friend in past years, and we have renewed
| the old times most pleasantly. 1t Ella is
like her mother, she is pure, sweet, unset
! fish woman"
And Ella was like her mother, and was
soon taken into Aunt James close intimacy.
Still smarting under the past pain, Gil
best 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 more perfect
web of content, Myra Gorham was eating
out her heart in bitterness. Instead of an
old, indulgent husband, ready to humor
every whim, to give her idolatrous devo-
ton, she found herself tied to a querulous
invalid, who had been accustomed to the
unquestioning obedience and devotion of
his daughter and grandson, 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
Gorhams, fully aware Of her mercenary
treachery.
Yet she endured as patiently as possible,
till the old man, pining for Jane and Gil
bert, sick ened and failed vis'bly.
It 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
concen trated in the peevish reply: a
Il have nothing to will. All the proper
ty belongs to Jane! 1 only hold life
lease in my late wife's estate"
''Jane!" gasped Myra, remembering the
insulting terms in which she had jntima-
ted to that sp1nster that she preferred to
reign alone at Fern Nook.
I ''Certainly! II Gilbert's father had
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 schem-
ing, her feigned devotion had led her only
| to this-the beggared widow OF an old
man. ID.
! But after the funeral was over Mrs.
Gorham made few discoveries. First of all
the deep black of her dress, with the fine
white line other widows cap, the sombre
Grape and 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 $4,000 which she appropriated,
| leaving Miss Jane and Gilbert, who came
to the funeral, to defray all expenses. She
accepted Miss Gorham S offer of the use of
the house for a year, and when she was
left in possession unscrupulously sold many
small but valuable articles there.
When the year was over, and Miss Jane
Gorham once more opened her house to
| her friends, she was mute with consterna
tion when one day carriage, heavily
laden with baggage, drove up to her door,
from which alighted her fathers widow,
who threw herself into her arms, sobbing:
| ''Do-not send me away. I am dying in
the gloomy seclusion of my dear husbands
| home! Let me stay!"
She stayed, Of course. Miss James old
fashioned notions of hospitality were too
strong to permit her to turn guest away,
even if unlimited and unwelcome. But
4 she smiled grimly to see how Gilbert's face
fell at the announcement of the visitor.
''She is my fathers widow" the spinster
said gravely. $50 we must endure her for
time"
She was most fascinating widow when
she appeared at the late dinner, in thin.
black dress, all jet and trimming, with