San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-04-20

dIcu, Suc otiu, hhu oAuoiSN eiAN"A W. -
ry him in and give him comfortable
bed.
When the doctor for whom she had
sent had arrived he said Miss Carroll
was right: The man was not intoxicat-
ed; but in the last stages of starvation,
and had fallen in the road out of pure
inability to take another step. When
Mr.. Carroll came, Agnes told him OF
the occurrence, and made him promise
that the poor man need not leave the
house until fully recovered; and that, IT
he could, he would assist him to some
better way of life than that which had
brought him to their gate.
Having gained her uncle's promise,
which she knew would be kept. Agnes
again dressed, and set out for her long
delay ed walk. Before she had gone far,
she was met by a young gentleman,
who stopped when he saw her, and re-
marked, ~ was on my way to call on
you, Miss Carroll" walking along by
her side. . ....
"How is your mother to-day, Mr..
Bell?" asked Agnes, as they walked
along. 3
"Quite well, thank you. We are ex-
pecting my sister home from school, and
she is all excitement. lu
"Fanny will be quite an addition to
our circle this winter" .-.........
"Yes. By the way, Miss Carroll, will
you lend your assistance in getting up
those tableaux for our fancy fair?''
81 am sorry, Mr.. Bell; but my time
is so fully occupied there, I can not un-
dertake to be any thing more than a
spectator"
Mr.. Bell was disappointed evidently,
and left Agnes at her gate with part
ing request that she would call when
she heard of Fanny Bells arrival.
Agnes, when she entered the house,
inquired after the strange man. He
was still in stupor, she was told, and
they were afraid that he would die.
Agnes stole up to the room where he
lay, above the servants hall; and her
heart gave q great throb of pain and
pity as she gazed on the white face and
shrunken fingers of the poorfellow. His
old garments had been replaced by
clean and comfortable dressing gown,
and the room was warm and sunshiny;
but it mattered little to the unconscious
waif over whom she bent. Agnes had
not always been the rich and petted
heiress time was, when she, too, had
known want, and care, and toll, and
had been friendless and forsaken of all
but God. This was all ended years ago;
but the sight of the stranger carried her
back to her girlhood, and the friends of
whom she had lost sight when her
uncle found her and bore her away to
his stately home.
There was one she remembered most
of all, poor, struggling law-student,
half-starved and half-clothed, who sup
ported an invalid mother from the mis-
cradle pittance earned as copyist; but
not all the penury and want
which was his daily portion
could disguise the fact that he was
true and honorable man, and that he
had talent, and would rise in the world
if the laborious life he was leading did
mot kill him; and in Agnes Carroll's
eyes he was a hero to be worshiped at
distance. They had been friends
nothing more. The blue eyes and pre-
maturely old face of the young girl had
found no entrance to the frozen heart
of Harry Morton. He was kind, as he
was to all created beings, nothing more.
From the misery of hopeless poverty
and hopeless love combined, he, at least,
was spared.
And Agnes Carroll went away to her
good fortune with good wishes and a
warm pressure of the students hand
that was all; she, and all women but his
mother, were mere shadows on the wall.
She went away and forgot him, for
she was young, and life offered her
many delights; but she measured all
men by the idol of her girlhood, and
though she knew that he had never
cared for her, and that at lest his men,
DRY was indifferent to her, yet, strange
V, all men fell short of her standard,
and eight years after she was twenty
five and still Agnes Carroll.
Two days after, when Mr.. Percy Bell
came to tell Agnes that his sister Fanny
had come. she told him the story of the