Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-04-11

"1o tell you the TRUTH old fellow, have
been nightly smitten with that lady myself I;
but she has behaved like lay nun the past
year I couldn't understand it. Somehow
or other got it into my head you were sweet
on Nan. | even went so far as to feel sorry
for you when she married Dalrymple-what
a waste of the raw material and all the
time you were cutting me out with Anne.
You had not heard of that marriage till Anne
told you. It was nine days wonder here !;
he is fat, fifty, and rich rs Crwsus that was
his charm. Ducats, my lord, ducats Nan
loves a shining mark she inherts old Mad
am Hart's tastes as well her name only the
madam loved to save, and Anne to spend"
Here it flashed across Philip that his letters
had all been mistakenly addressed Nan was
Anne Hart Boyd and he had thought the in
itial belonged to Anne. From the very first
those letters had gone wrong, and in his own
dislike of nicknames he had never used hers
but called her Annie always-a tender soften
ing Of the monosyllable that seemed to ex-
press more than the cold stiff name. The
day after the wedding was celebrated Very
simply and quietly Philip Norton and Anne
Boyd were made one. He could not help
owning that the soft folds of dark rich silk
illuminated with fresh white roses on her
breast and in her hair, the warm color on lip
and cheek, the soft hazel eyes, dark and clear
as the brown water of forest brook, and
the expression of deep emotion ON her
face, made her very attractive bride !;
but even at the altar a glimpse of blue, be-
wildering eyes, floating, gold-lit hair, inetia-
BILE witchery and sweetness, seemed to dazzle
his eyes and constrict his heart, but he re-
PEELED the dream sternly, and it fed
Had Anne been more selfish and Philip less
strong and sensible, here now was place and
room for real domestic tragedy, of all trag-
edies most vital and least dramatic but each
began the new life in devotion to the other,
one from love, one from duty. But if it was
Anne who kissed and Philip who bent the
cheek, was she less happy? The giver is
more blessed in all things and in time Philip
learned to love Anne as fully as her heart
could ask. He was nightly assisted, no
| doubt, by the career of Mrs Dalrymple, who
soon returned to America, and asserted her
self, in the right of beauty and money both,
as a queen of society. She did not pretend
to care for the stout, stupid, brusque man of
business who supplied her purse, but ran a
wild course of folly and fashion year after
year, as only loveless and chidless woman
can. Ten years after his marriage Philip met
her, faded rOuged, overdressed; her laugh
false and hollow, her smile forced, the child
ish ringlets waving in soft mockery about the
worn face, and even her smile mechanical
His heart reverted with a glad leap to the
wife he had left at home, a calm, sweet-faced,
gracious woman, with lovely children cling
ing about her the color of health and happi-
ness richly glowing on her check, and the
love and admiration Of all who knew her max
ing halo about her noble character. He
owned to that remorseless inquistor, his own
heart. that he had indeed made the best Of it
in fuller sense than the poor allowance of
the proverb, that Anne was as far beyond
Nan as the star beyond the clod, and that the
true failure of his life would have been the
result of the success he had longed for and
missed. Yet all his life he hated the smell of
German cologne -Hdrper's Bdzdr.