Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-02-10

HIe1 dnSihy, en0n WIN ouuu0n 4Ui'
ering of the lip, and said:
"Aunt Louise storms and you scold,
and there is no comfort anywhere. |
shall not speak to you again for month.
Whatever has come over you?''
There was dash of red in his dark
cheeks; he made no reply, but began
letting down the bars for her.
"What has happened to make you
look so cross % she asked, looking at
him curiously, when the last bar was
laid on the grass and they stood con-
fronting each other.
81 thought you were not going to
speak to me for month" he said in a
mocking tone, and evading her question.
"Very we'll, then, 1 won't" she re-
torted, and abruptly passed him, never
once turning to look back. He watched
her until she was lost to sight in the
short turn of the narrow footpath that
wound through the corn field forming
quick cut to the farmhouse, then he
strobe over the bars, never thinking to
replace them, and crossed the meadow
to its hither side, where an irregular
line of trees and bushes marked the
course Of the river. Having reached its
bank, his long strides became subdued
to stroll, which held for mile; then he
came to an abrupt stop, baited his hook
and threw his line into the bright wa
| ters.
But word of this man.
He was Mr.. Lawrence's son by his
first marriage. The present Mrs. Law
renee, at the mature maidenly age of
thirty, had accepted the offer Of the
wealthy banker, and for the past twenty
years had been most loving wife, rem
dering to him all the deferential respect
that position and wealth always elected
from her.
I Neil, his fathers sole heir, since their
marriage had not been blessed with any
children, was her pride and admiration,
rendered so by the aforementioned fact,
and this feeling was. perhaps, intensified
by the distant though respectful manner
in which he had always treated her, for
Mrs. Lawrence was one of those women
who admire people with whom they can
not succeed in becoming intimate. Her
nieces, left with few thousand apiece,
had shared her elegant home since their
childhood, and scarcely had the little
girls been under her care week ere she
had planned matrimonial alliance be-
tween her stepson and the eldest-and
prettiest-blue. eyed Carol.
Years passed by, until he was twenty
and she eighteen. Then he imagined
himself desperately in love, and asked
his pretty half cousin to be his wife.
Of course she accepted him and they
were betrothed. The engagement lasted
until Miss Carols come-out party where
a newer face caught her tickle fancy !;
then, for all the private and terrible
lectures administered by Mrs. Lawrence
to her niece, and the enticing and de-
lusions she endeavored to practice upon
her stepson, the engagement was broken.
That had happened seven years ago,
and he had long since learned to sneer
at his folly, for, though Carol was a
beauty, his maturer judgment found her
both vain and tiresome. Since that
boyish episode he had been absolutely
impervious to the charms of the many
fair ones who had used their utmost
powers to ensnare him, had forsworn
society, and had devoted himself to his
profession. His friends predicted for
him bachelors life, and he had accept
ed their fiat with his usual nonchalance,
had almost learned to believe that such
was his destiny, when, few weeks
previous to the opening of our story, he
suddenly awoke to the fact that he had
met his fate.
He had seen her grow up almost from
her babyhood, this bright, frank, dark
eyed Cora; had played with her, petted
her, and quarrelled with her, and when
he found that he loved her earnestly,
deeply, desperately, and that his love
would not be driven out from its strong.
hold, nor yet quelled, he was angry
He grew more cynical than ever, and
more reticent.
1t happened just as the family were
separating for the summer.
He remained in the city with his
father, hoping to bury his love in added
business cares, but scarcely had they
been gone month when, with strange
caprice, he followed Carol and Amy tt
Saratoga, where they were dissipatins
being chaperoned, by friend of thei
aunt's.
But what would the needle gain shoult
it resist the magnet? One day he foun(
, himself at the farmhouse where, every
, summer, Mrs. Lawrence brought he
) cut. The polite lady had kept back
: hoping to see her sisters well settlet
first.
Izaak Walton said to the scholar
S "God never did more calm, quiet, in