The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-30
MIS-. HOUNSLOW'S EXPERIMENT.
BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPoFFoRD.

A daughter had been the hope Of Mrs.
Hounslow's life. Thinking, when Law
rcuce WAS small, of the beauty of little
girl, too, with her curls running out in
rings under the lace and ribbons of her
cap, she had been obliged to change the
thought TO that of the maiden who should
become Lawrence's bride, and give her
all the comfort and none of the care of a
daughter
She had always been a lonesome body.
an orphan at first, and then so few years
wife before she was a widow, with her
unruly boy at school and she had
looked at mothers with their little girls,
and envied them the companionship, the
opportunity OF making charming dresses
for the pretty darlings, the power to
live their lives over again in their girls.
When Lawrence came home to stay,
she had, of course, much comfort in him [;
and if the young man "enjoyed his
fling, she knew nothing about it. Yet
Lawrence s fling was not bad one,
as filings co. he drank his wine with
moderation, from epicurism-it WAS so
pleasant he did not wish it to pail he
drove a fast horse and loved game din
ncr. When the exuberance of youth
sassed, he would settle into a respect
.afole citizen with bank account. To
{ber eyes, to-day, he was paragon.
Settle. But not alone. Itfollowed as
8ac night the day that Lawrence would
mairy--a very pretty girl or a very rich
Que. Neither would be to Mrs. Houns-
lows TASTE the pretty girl hardly the
companion she sought for herself, the
fighty head turned by vanity, the appe-
Sise Unsuitable Tor fiattery and the rich
zone mastering Lawrence, and conse-
N1uently herself. She had chosen herself
charming young girl with as sweet a
nature as ever shone out of blue eye !;
she frequently had her there, although
to no effect except in her own dreams.
dn what dreams Mrs. Hounslow INDUCED
by the evening fire apropos of Louise
Mandell Somehow the young orphan
girl always seemed sitting on the other
side of the fire, its light dancing i'll her
eyes, on her dimpling smile and some
times Mrs. Hounslow saw that light
glance on little golden wedding ring,
and sometimes on little golden nesting
head and Lawrence was always stand
ing on the rug between the two looking,
with equal tenderness in his dark eyes,
at one side and mt the other. That was
her evening dream. In the morning
Louise moved about the house with her,
cutting flowers, filling vases, concocting
choice dishes-what mother-in-law she
would make ! How happy she was go
ing to be in this dear daughter She
had even gone so far as to buy an open
phaeton in this dream tor Louise to
drive her out in on sunny evenings, and
WIS Just settling on the color of the
Iringed silken canopy, when she awoke
do see that Louise was "a cipher beside
that great luxurious hazei-eyed and hate
full blonde, Flora Furlong.
Mrs. Hounslow's son and Furlong
There was no worse blood in the land
money enough family enough and yet
nothing too INSCRIPTIONS OF which to
suspect the men; too selfish, silly, SLOW
emily, stupid, spiteful. of which to accuse
the women
Young men do not pause to think OF
such things. What Flora Furlong could
work out as to his salvation did not occa-
sion Lawrence thought but her lu-
minous black-lashed eyes, with their long
white lids and the way she had of lifting
them, her melting mouth and velvet skin,
her hair like ine-spun gold, her luxuri-