The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-01-31

|
mo, you may never marry, Liddy," sigh
ed her sister "but II love Arson, and
oh love little Tom too-my little moth
erless Tom can not rob him of his pa
trimony, and can not live without Arson
How can l wrong Tom to pleasure MYSELF
What will he have to 60 out into this hard
world with, Tiff"
Hush, you silly girl he will have his
head and hands, like other men; and then
You may never have any children to stand
in his way"
"But how unhappy it would make me to
see them enriched at his expense; to see
him earning his bread by the sweat of his
field; to have Tom envy and perhaps hate
them, and feel bitter that life had been rem
dered so much easier for them by inius-
tice ~
" Perhaps they would share with Tom"
"Ah, it wouldn't be quite safe to trust to
that pleasant 'perhaps.'"
"YOu ought not to suspect your children
of being less generous than yourself"
"But their mother must have been I'M
generous first you see."
"You have Arson to think of, Kitty, in
this affair, as well as Tom. If you don't
| lDNC loIl DcltcT-
| 81 don't I don't; but the will has made
it impossible for me to marry Arson with a
clear conscience-to marry him and be hap
py. If he were sure of earning n fortune,
with which we could make amends to little
Tom, it would be different But can not
count upon such an improbable contingent
cy. AS you say, Tom will have his head
and hands to push his way, but the best
head and the busiest hands do not always
compel fortune; and, if any harm should
come to him from want of capital, if he
should be tempted to sin from lack of
money, II should have to answer for it /;
it would be my guilt"
'Nonsense, Kitty; your conscience is too
tender Marry Arson and trust to Fate,
that's my advice. Suppose you refuse, and
he marries somebody else, and--little Tom
doesn't live to grow upr"
81 shall not have wronged him."
"But you will have wronged Anson."
| "Not if he--if he marries--another
| Many would, perhaps, approve Hitty
Thorne's conduct at this crisis, more would
condemn but she walked according to her
light in those cruel days. 1t was no easy
task she had set herself. She was to receive
no need for her sacrifices, except selfap-
proval-nothing but reproaches. Could
she have seen all that would happen, she
might have spared herself this cruelty
And how much can happen in this time
how much to make our wisest forethoughts
assume the aspect of appropriateness Prop
erty changed hands, values shrink, children
grow up with wills of their own, people
die and make room for remote heirs, or
they outlive the sharp edge of sorrow and
anger, and learn to bear the burden of their
mistakes. Miss Hitty had faded in the
mean time, while Arson Searle wore his
years like garlands. The fortune (which
her mot impossible" children might have
robbed little Tom had dwindlcd to the
nearest pittance through the knavery of the
man to whose wisdom it had been intrusted,
while Arson Searle had unexpectedly step
ped into the possession of the Searle estate
with its old stone mansion, its orchards and
outlying meadow-lands, and the income
that had been rolling up since the Searles
first set their foot upon Plymouth Rock
Twenty years before there had been no
shadow of such possibility, no dream of
it in Anson's mind or another's. Two
healthy lives had barred the way against
him, but death had effected breach.
"What mistake Kitty Thorne made p
people had commented these half dozen
years. "She might have been mistress at
Searle Hill if she'd had a mind to risk
marrying poor man. Folks get their
come-up once in this world sometimes"
with the usual charity commentators be-
stow upon the motives of Others. Nobody
had known the true cause of Hitty's refus-
al to marry Searle. 1t had been the town
talk, to be sure-a riddle which no one
had solved. She had not even confided
her reasons to her lover. He would over
rule them, she feared, would call them alb
surd, and only make her task moro diff
cult, and perhaps grow to hate little Tom
and some time Tom might need his
goodwill who could tell Arson Searlc
had not borne his dismissal with the for
titude of an early martyr, but he had sworn
he would never ask her twice to marry
him, and he had kept his word. But per-
haps after his anger cooled, and he watch
ed her saddening year by year, some sur
mise that her behavior had not been die
tated by caprice or any petty motive grew
upon him, and obliged him to render her
the tardy justice Of appreciation. And a
pretty return Tom had made hcr-specu-
lating with his employers money, and
threatening the family pride with dis
grace. Unless five thousand dollars were
forthcoming, there was only a fortnight
between him and ruin. And Tom was
only twenty-five. They mast save him.
Miss Kitty was one to stand by her guns
where there was will there was way,
and she followed the only way she knew.
If Mr.. Searlc, fumbling about for the rea-
sons of Hittys conduct toward himself
had at length stumbled upon the clcw-
having an intimate knowledge of her
fathers will already-and if he had not
been quite: heroic enough to forgive her for
preferring TOMS welfare to his own, he
must have found grim satisfaction, in
the turn that Fate had ordered, in seeing
the Thorne property shrinking day by day,
till there was hardly enough to butter their
bread-tiil it was plain that Hitty's sac.
riice had been for naught. But when did
ever sacrifice prove futile? Though it fail
of its direct purpose, does it not enrich the
soul not only of the one who sacrifices, but
all beholders
1t was near twilight of an autumn day
that Miss Hitty put on her worn bonnet
and went slowly, with certain reluctance,
up the hill toward the Seare mansion = she
pulled the brazen knocker timidly, and
stepped into the house that might have
been her own like any beggar. The dead
Searles looked down from the walls of the
oaken hall with cold questionings in their
pursuing eyes; in the great drawing room
the wood fire snapped with good will,
and glinted gayly upon bronze and ormolu,
upon the quaint mirrors set in garncts,
upon the yellow ivory keys Of the old
piano. Arson Searle rose to receive his
guest with flush of surprise.
us y0u-Hitty 2" he cried. "YOu ?"
"Yes. You did not expect me9"
expect you! No. Have had reason
to eXpect You ~