Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1879-03-04
MABEL'S MATCHMAKING.
WAS IT A SUCCESS?

WAS 1T A SUCCESS?
Mabel Harvey was reading over a letter
which she had just written Let us read
it with her:
MY DEAR FRIEND: | can never write
you word without speaking of my deep
gratitude to you. But for your unceasing
effort and untiring zeal l should now be
hard at work for my own and my sisters
support Now, since my fathers prop
erty is by your means replaced in my
hands, | am above want, and am happy
in my dear old home As the beloved
friend of my dear lost cousin, and the
savior of my fathers property and honor,
you stand first in my friendship and
esteem. l desire to see you in person,
that | may thank you with words instead
of with my pen. We have invited few
choice friends to spend some of these
beautiful autumn days with US, and would
be most happy to welcome you as a guest
in our home--the home that you worked
so hard to regain for us. Though we have
never seen each other, yet think we shall
meet as old acquaintance. My best
wishes and prayers for you always, and
hoping to receive you as a guest,
81 am your very true friend,
MABEL HARVEY
The letter was folded and put in deli
cate envelope, and Mabel Harvey said
softly:
81 hope he will come, and l so hope he
will like Hettie. don't believe in match
making, but it would please me SO much
If he and Hettie should love each other.
Hettie is little wild now, and think she
would settle down after marriage and
make a good wife. | feel almost sure
that she will win his heart; she wins all
heartsl'
And Mabel drew little sigh, and she
thought that her time of winning hearts
was over, for she was 30 years old.
The freshness Of youth had faded from
her face, but the earnest and beautiful
expression of her splendid brown eyes
was even more enchanting than in the
days of her childhood: and though no
roses bloomed in her cheeks, her lips were
full and scarlet, and her teesh like shining
ivory.
With the letter she had Just written in
her fingers, and her eyes half yelled by
white lids and long brown lashes, she
thought upon her past life. 1t had been
varied, mingled with thrilling pleasures.
keenest pain, with luxury and want. She
had been an only daughter, petted and
gratifed in every wish, and star in the
society in which she moved; but her be-
loved father had died in the midst ofpros-
perlty, and her mother had married in a
lew years man who was father to lit
tie fair haired child Of six years, the Het-
tie to whom she had ever been like
tender mother. Then misfortunes came.
The property that had supported them in
luxury and ease was swept away through
dlshonestmanagement, and poverty, stern,
relentless poverty, stared them in the face
Then her mother had died suddenly, and
her stepfather, who had long been vic
tim to consumption, grew more feeble
and poor Mabel whose delicate white
bands were entirely unused to labor
worked early and late with her needle to
keep cruel want from the door,
For year her father had fingered, as it
were, on the brink of the grave, and pa
tient, noble-hearted Mabel supported and
nursed him, wearing ever in his presence
cheerful face, and petting and caring for
little Hettie as though she were her own
child.
After the death of her stepfather she OBJ
tanned situation as teacher in an academy.
and Hettie was well-clothed and sent to
school, and Mabel grew hopeful, and some
of the gaiety Of her brighter DAYS re-
turned. Then happy change had come.
A young lawyer, who was the friend Of a
loved cousin of hers, who had died away
from home in the buoyancy Of youth, took
the care of her fathers lost property in
his hands, and had at last restored it,