American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-04-13


spectator"
Mr.. Bell was disappointed evidently,
and left Agnes at her gate with a 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 a 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 a great throb of pain and
pity as she gazed on the white face and
shrunken fingers of the poor fellow. His
old garments had been replaced by II
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 sigh. 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
atrue and honorable man, and that he
had talent, and would rise in the world
if the laborious life he was leading did
not kill him; and in Agnes CAROLS
eyes he was hero to be worshiped ut n
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, cothipg 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 he 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 mem
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
stranger she had found at the gate, and
added that he was now dangerously i'll
of a fever; told him also to beg Fanny
her There was nothing on the stran-
gers person to give the slightest clew to
his identity, and his chances of life were
meager, indeed. Would Percy Bell like
TO see him?
No, Percy did not care to see him.
Very likely he was some wandering
scamp, much beneath the notice of re-
spectacle people. Percy Bell said this
in very nice language and in polite
tone, emphasized by the pleasant smile
in his light gray eyes; and he wondered
very much why Miss Carroll was so very
naughty Immediately after and never
offered him her hand at parting. He
did not know that Agnes Carroll had
been on the watch to measure the soul
of her admirer, and that again her ideal
lifted itself to an unapproachableh height
above him. He did not know, he never
knew, that after that speech his star set
from the heaven of Agnes Carroll's WIS.,
ion. unfortunate Percy! He was
handsome, well connected and well-to-
do in the world; but he had never
known what it was to go supperless to
bed-he had never grown thin and hol-
low-eyed with hard study and unremit-
ting toil-and SO, as Agnes bitterly re-
peated to herself, she could not love
him.
Perhaps it would be well for her to
hunt up some beggar, and bestow her
hand and fortune on him! Any thing
to get rid of her senseless folly about
Harry Morton, who had probably never
thought of her once since their paths
had diverged SO widely; and Agnes
strove to put her troublesome thoughts
to flight by taking her work to the sick
mans room and sitting down by the
window, and sewed and read by turns,
or talked to the nurse who was there,
until the shades of night came on and
the dinner-bell summoned her down
stairs. That night the doctor pro-
nounced his patient out of danger, and
Agnes went no more to the sick-room;
but resumed her old round of duties and
in her busy life nearly forgot him, until
her uncle introduced the subject
"My DEAR he said, "I have been
talking to the stranger invalid, and find
that he is quite gentleman. He has
studied law, and l don't know but that
| shall take him into the office. Be-
sides, he is from Ashville.''
Ashville!" repeated Agnes, with
sudden interest. 'sI should like to
know about some of my friends in Ash
vile. wish you would ask him down
to dinner, uncle, if he has any thing to
wear Such a wretched looking object
as he wasi l am anxious to see how