Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-12-25
FOREVER (!
A Story of the Heartily the Late Har.
ry Hardwood leach.

"Promisew
Il do solemnly."
"ForeverY continued the solemn
broken voice.
Forever" echoed the weeping maid
en- by the bedside.
The wasted hands were raised over
the heads of the kneeling figures; the
pale lips of the dying woman parted, the
tongue tried to utter blessing; but all
brightness faded from the eyes. The
woman was dead.
Two young girls knelt at the bedside.
Constance Owen was the name Of one,
with sallow skin and large brown eyes,
and Edith OrmOnd, rs she was called
with ringlets of gold floating around her
fair neck, and whose head was leaning
upon the shoulders of Constance, who
had promised the dying woman to be a
sister, rotector-mother even-to the
fair maiden at her side.
The strong, homely, faithful girl call
ed Constance was an adopted daughter
of the dead lady-one of those waits OF
the street, whose only hope in life is in
the charity of some tender-hearted
stranger. Sic, however, repaid her pro-
tector by love and regard as filial as
that of her own daughter, and when
upon her deathbed Mrs. Ormond babe
Constance Owen make her the solemn
promise recorded, the brave girl not
only did not falter, but whispered once
more to the stricken girl at her side:
eyes, Edith, for the sake of the love
your d ear mother gave to the orphan
r
ever"
Two years passed-two years since
Edith the beautiful and Constance the
brave had lost their best earthly friend.
The former had grown more lovely even
than the promise of the dawn of her ra-
diant maidenhood; the latter more
homely, larger featured, in the face, but
with years an added dignity of mien, a
more intelligent light in the quiet, ten
der brown eyes, and force of character
better defined IN every movement.
There came many q sutton to Bonny-
brook-so the little country-seat belong
ing to Edith was called-but, so far, the
little coquette did not pay much heed
to any of them. She was chasing the
butterflies of fancy around that garden
of Eden-frst youth. But at length her
beauty grace and perhaps high social po-
sition, brought one day to the gates of
BonnybroOk one DR.. Paulding, a super
Tor and rising young physician, who
lived IN the city close by, and when he
had found his way to that pleasant
country nook, somehow he discovered
patients III that vicinity very frequently.
Was it Edith's fair face that made him
take that blooming highway so often?
He was indeed fascinated by her
bright, girlish beauty, and one evening
after he had been wandering in the
gardens, under the moon, soft pleasant
words must have been spoken, for after
he had gone Edith, with a flushed face,
dashed into the room where Constance
was awaiting her and throwing her
arms around her, said in happy,
trembling voice:
ooh darling, l am so happy. He
has told me he loved me-"
Constance spoke not q word. Edith
was held a moment to beating heart,
4 soft kiss touched her forehead, and
the next moment she was alone.
HE loves me, he loves me |" and
Edith looked out over the gardens, from
which the dews of night were distilling
all their odors; she gazed at the beauti-
full moon and peopled the shadows
with images of the man who had first
stirred her young life with divine mu-
sic of love.
A month after the pleasant confess
sion had been made, Edith was called
to the mountains of Vermont to attend
dying aunt, the only sister of her dear
mother, and she had to proceed alone,
as Bonnybrook would Fave lacked a
guardian if Constance had accompani-
edher-Dr. Pauldine's duties utterly
denying him that pleasure.
Constance was engrossed in her home
duties and saw but little society, save a
few rustic neighbors, who only recon-
mended themselves by their goodness
of heart, and certainly not by the bril-
iancy of their wit or understanding.
Once in while DIR. Paulding would
ride out tC Bonnybrook, as Constance
told him, from the force of old habit"
but soon it seemed that the man of
medicine and science did not carry on
the conversation with the usual ease.
grace and spirit. What had come between
Constance Owen and himself? Some
thing inexplicable. The noble woman
found q strange, rare pleasure In the
society OF the gifted man; the schorlarly
man sympathy with the large-hearted,
intellectual woman which he had never
known or experienced in any of her
sex. True" he said to himself, "she
Is not beautifpl. indeed p1oaSr1rad h1,
the rules of beauty, she is positively
ugly. But who can gauge the charms
of melodious voice, or deny the ten
derness of an honest, kindly eyer"
And she, too, unused in this wise:
This DR.. Charles Paulding is marvel
lousy gifted man. What powers of
anlguage, what treasures of imagination
possesses! What noble career he
E before him; and Edith"-here she
? uld pause and think of that clinging
ndril, not as helping the growth of the
8 k, but as drawing from its strength.
Yet from all such thoughts as these her
staunch and loyal heart would resolute-
ly turn awav-yet for all this her speech
would not come as "trippingly on the
tongue" as in the old days, and he
would oftentimes finish sentence in
the middle of it, and then lose himself
IN vague chances at the ceiling or out
into the gardens.
0, it was a dangerous time for both of
these awakening hearts. But they Gid