The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1877-04-26

uuseiUSn WOmaQs"
And Ella was like her mother, and
was soon taken into Aunt Jane:
closest intimacy.
Still smartiDg under the past pain,
Gilbert was insttentive to his aunt'i
young friend, and not yet realizing
I that reality hiling his old Idea was
bear him.
And while these old residents oI
Fern Nook were quietly gathering up
broken threads OF life, to weave 8
, more perfect web OF content, Myra
Gorham was eating out her heart In
bitterness. Instead Of an old, indul-
. gent husband, ready to humor every
} whin1, to give her idolAtrous devotion,
she found herself tied to q querulous
invalid, who had been accustomed to
unquestiOning obedience and devo-
tion Of his daughter and grandson,
and who enacted q similar care from
: his reluctant wife. In place Of balls,
concerts and operas, the gay life OF
, the metropolis, Mrs. Gorham found
herself shut up Ia q country house, GER
tainly handsome and well appointed
to meet the most fastidiOus taste, but
lonely beyond endurance 70 8 woman
miles away from her own friends, and
coldly ignored by the friends Of the
Germans, fully sWare of Rer meFeen-
ary treaeheTy.
Yet she endured il as patiently as
possible, till the old man, pinned for
Jane anc Gilbert, sickened and failed
visibly.
It was when all hope was gone,
that the young wife cautiously b1t
very plainly urged the necessity OF
making q will. It seemed to her as
IL al the misery Of life concentrated
in the Prevish reply:
81 have nothing to will. ALI the
property belongs 10 Jane! / only
hold q life lease on my wife's es-
tates.n
"Jane 90 gasped Mary, remember
ing the insulting terms in which she
had intimated to that spinster that
she preferred to reign alone at Fern
Nook.
"CertainlyI Ii Gilbert's father had
lived he would have shared in the
property, but Ii all reverts to Gilbert
\ IL Jane dies unmarried
All Gilbert'sand might have been
all hers
Myra felt too stunned and miserable
even 10 cry To think that all her
base seheming, her feigned devOting
had led her only 10 this, the beggared
widow OF an old man.
But after the funeral was over Mrs.
Gorham made q few discoveries.
First, all the deep black Of her dress,
with the fine white linen Of her Wild
owls cap, the sOmbre Grape and soft
snowy tarletan were most becoming
to her brilliant blonde beauty. She
studied her dress in its minutess de-
tail, and when Ii was perfect, formed
her new plans. In her late husbands
desk she found five thousand dollars
which she appropriated, leaving Miss
Jane and Gilbert, who came to the
funeral to defray all the expenses.
She accepted Miss Gorham's offer of
the use OF the house for q year, and
when she was left in possession un-
scrupulOusly 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 CONSERVATION one day when o
wagon heavily laden with baggage,
drove up to her door, from which
alighted her fathers widow, who
threw herself into her arms, Sob
bing =:
"Do not send me away. 1 am dy-
ing in the gloomy seclusion OF my
husbands home. Let me stay with
you !"
She stayed, OF course. Miss Jane's
old-fashioned notions OF hospitality
were too strong to turn q guest away,
even il uninvited and unwelcome.
But she smiled grlmly to see how Gill
bert's face fell at the announcement
Of the visitor.
"She Is my fathers widow" the
spinster said gravely, $50 we must
endure her for 8 time"
She was q most fascinating widow
when she appeared at the late dinner,
in q thin, black dress, all jets and
trimmings, with some knots OF black
ribbon in the profusion Of her golden
curls. Her color was softly tinted as
ever, her blue eyes as babyish and
winsome /; yet, when the first even
ing was over she had gained nothing |
in her effort to recsptnre 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
dresses with lacss, ribbons and jewell |
~, till its pretense Of mourning was
mere mockery. She put herself in
Gllbert's way with every dainty de-
vice of feminine needle work. She |
entreated permission to prepare his |
favOrite dishes with her own white |
hands. And, as If to try his coEsCan-
cy, Miss JAMS aided and sbstted this |
schemer for her nephewis fortune, |
and spoke but little Of Ella, never in |
viting her to her house, so that Gil |
bert was forced to seek her more and |
more at her own home, and found her |
ever more lovely and winsome from |
the contrast with the idol he had /
proved to be clay. It was six months |
after the arrival Of Mrs. -GOrham in |
her stepdaughter's house, when Gil
bert, returning from drive with Ella |
met his aunt in the hall, and clasping |
her in q close embrace, whispered |
very softly:
ELLA is mine Wish me joy 90
"From my heart" she whispered |
Radiant with Joy and hope Gilbert
after changing his driving dress, hur.
ried to the sitting room, to tell Aunt
Jane all about it, He had absolute
Iy forgotten about their guest, and it |
gave him an unpleasant shock when
he found her, seated In q low stool,
busted about some wool work, that
showed to great advantage her tiny
white hands, Rlittering with jewelled
rings.
She rose to greet him, ard then, to
his embarrassed surprise, she clasped
her jewelled hands, and bursting into
tears, sobbed "a
"Oh, Gilbert, do not look at me so
coldly. I cannot bear it. 1 know 1
deserve nothing from you but con-
tempt, but II you knew how sOrely
my mother urged me, how impOrtu-
nate your grandfather was, you would
forgive me. was insane with their
and I thought in my
misery that could still see you, and
perhaps-sOme day-when was free
And here even her affrontery gave
Out, and she only sobbed convuIsively.
Taken by surprise, every gentleman
IL Instinct urged Gilbert to comfort
this woman who was so recklessly Of
fering him what it was his fondest
hope once to possess. But his whole
soul shrank from her his manly,
true heart was only outraged by her
advances.
Gravely be stood looking down
upon her ss she shrank in the chair,
,Obbing and covering her face, and
get 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 convey his meaning kindly, and
they would not come. Blushing like
3 boy in his confusion and pain, he
said, gently:
al am very sorry, Mrs. Cor
at used to be MyTa," she sobbed,
reproschiully.
'FTrue, but those were days that can {
never be recailed.n
"You are cruel"
"I do not wish to be so, but must |
be frank with you. The past is dead |