Connecticut western news., 1877-04-20

nepneW'S fortune, ana SpOKe put IlCGle of Ella, never inviting her now to the house, SO that Gilbert was forced to seek her more and more in her own home, and found her ever more lovely and winsome from the contrast with the idol he had proved to be clay. Il was six months after the arrival of Mrs Gorham in her stepdaughter's house when Gilbert, returning from drive with Ella, met his aunt in the hall, and clasping her in close embrace. whispered very softly:
 ''Ella is mine! Wish me joy!'
 s'From my heart," she whispered back.
 Radiant with joy and hope Gilbert, after changing his driving. dress, hur- ried to the sitting room, to tell Aunt Jane Gall about it." He had abso- lutely forgotten about their guest, and it gave him an unpleasant shock when he found her, seated in a low chair, busied about some wool work, that showed to great advantage her tiny white hands, glittering with jeweled rings.
 She rose to greet him, and then, to his embarrassed surprise, she clasped her jewelled hands, and bursting into tears, sobbed:
 ooh, Gilbert, do not look at me so coldly. I cannot bear it. know de- serve nothing from you but contempt, but If you knew how sorely my mother urged me, how importunate your grand father was, you would forgive me. was insane with their prosecutions, and I thought in my misery that I could still see you, and, perhaps-some day when l was free again-I-I''-
 And here evan her effrontery gave out, and she only sobbed convulsively. Taken by surprise, every gentlemanly instinct urged Gilbert to comfort this woman who was so recklessly offering him what it was once his fondest hope to possess. But his whole soul shrank from her; his manly, true heart was only outraged by her unwomanly ad- vances.
 Gravely he stood looking down upon her as she shrank in the chair, sobbing and covering her face, and yet furtively watching him.
 "Gilbert, speak one tender word to me-" she implored; "say you do not utterly despise me-"
 But he did. He sought for words to coAvey his meaning kindly, and they would not come. Flushing like boy n his confusion and pain, he said, gently:
 ''I am very sorry, Mrs. Gorham'--
 cit used to be Myra," she sobbed, re- proachfully.
 "True, but those were days that can never be recalled"
 "You are cruel.'
 "I do not wish to be so, but must be frank with you. The past is dead Never can we revive that love that was once so precious to me, so very trifling to you."
 ''No, no, you wrong me. Alas for me, it is my misfortune that cannot conquer my love.''
 "But mine died when it was insulted and sighted"
 Here Gilbert drew a deep sigh of re- lief at the appearance of Aunt Jane, entering the room behind Myra's chair Mrs Gorham did not hear her light step, and sobbed:
 "Your love cannot be dead, Gilbert It will live again. Pity and forgive me-"
 ''1 both pity and forgive you," said Gilbert, very gently. "But''-
 "But," said Aunt Jcne, in her hard. est tone, and with her face set in rigid lines, ''you forget, Mrs. Gorham, the law does not permit a man to marry his grandmother With cry of rage, Mrs. Gorhan sprang to her feet, but something iI the cold, grave faces, checked the tor rent of wrath upon her lips, and she left the room.
 The next day she terminated her vi sit, and loftily declined an invitation sent three menths later, to be present at the wedding of Gilbert Gorham, anc his gentle bride-Ella. I