The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-02-15

power to grasp any intellectual pursuit. |
She knew him patient, kind OF heart,
strong of purpose when once aroused,
ami it fretted all the grander attributes
of her nature To think of the waste OF
such a manhood.
For what was he2 A walking tailor's
advertisement, a charming partner In
dance, courteous gentleman, a willing
servant 10 his aunt. No more
Yet when Edna wandered with her new
mistress over the Old World, enjoying
with keen zest the intellectual, artistic
and musical treats spread before her, she
turned mentally to Walter for congenial
pleasure. When the vapid praise or
weak criticism of the fashionable invalid
was poured into her ears, she wondered
how Walters clear brain would have
viewed the same object. Her home
memories were not very pleasant ones to
her soul, full of sordid cares, OF mean
shifts, of shallow pretense, and she
rested upon those of her Cousin Walter,
floating upon them to rosy dreamlands,
till stung to life again by the rejection
| of his hand and her reasons for that
step.
Viewed through the medium of this
rose-haze of memory she softened to
her discarded lover, thinking of the
chivalry of his wooing, the unselfshness
of his love- She well knew that Mrs.
Ambrose Montgomery's heir might have
chosen bride among the wealthiest (;
that Walters handsome face, undoubted
talents and courtly manners would have
won him true love among the most fas-
tidious. And yet he HAD turned from all
these to choose her, penniless girl,
whose education was, for the most part,
self-imparted, who was quick tempered
and unpopular. In spite of her beauty.
she knew well that she often owed it to
Walter and his efforts that she was not a
wall-fower in social gatherings.
He loved her, and she had shut her
heart to his love. She did not regret
that home of luxury he could have COM
manded for her-the probable fortune
she would have shared with him-but III
her bitter loneliness she hungered fol
the sound of his tender voice, the love
of his pleading eyes.
For four years she wandered hithel
and thither across the Old World at the
caprice of her employer. Then a law
|, yer's letter informed her of her Aun
Lucille's death, and her own inheritance
of $50, 900, and n superbly-bound copy
: of the "Lives of the Pilgrim Fathers,
Mrs. Montgomery's one literary effort
being collection of all her own cutting
: upon the subject.
! She was glad to go home again, glaC
to end her uncongenial bondage. At thu
: steamers arrival her Cousin Walter me
!, her. There was new beauty upon hi
handsome face-the beauty of purpose
J of noble content. He had q hack il
waiting, and drove first to hotel TO
breakfast. In the private parlor wher
it was served he told her:
edna want to thank you -
"Thank me ?" she said, wondering.
"For awakening me from a slothfu
, dream to an object in life. Do yo,
know how / have spent the last fou
years ?"
"With Aunt Montgomery, have 20,
not? ?"
Certainly. L would not desert he
in old age, when was certainly a com
fort to her. But / studied medicine
won a diploma, and have now prac
2 blCc. ~ 10 ldlSc, lL'tuu, puV ioo VOL
|, lucrative, being among the very poo
! for the most part. But 1 have foun'
what you told me L lacked, cousin
purpose in life, field for labor where
hope am not altogether useless"
az congratulate you with all m
heart" she said, impulsively, holding
out both hands.
/" L want more than that, Edna. You
: words opened my eyes to my own vast
of life; but, though 1 find my tim
: busily filled, my heart wants something
more. Edna, all the old love there erie
, out for you. Can You love me httl
now ?"
"Not little" she said in a low voice
her cheeks flushing rosily, "but wit
all my heart, Walter"
, "Then you will grant me my hope
; and be married here and now, comm
to my old home as my wife, to help m
in the hfe-work to which your word
guided me?"
,, And Edna, loving him, granted hi
i wish, and in his old home proves, as h
hoped, true wife and helpmate in hi
, noble works of charity and usefulness