Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-03-10
BARTON VERMONT MONDAY, MARCH 10. 1879.

and lavish in all expenditure in her
pursuit of any alleviation of her suffer-
ings. Her nurse was an elderly lady
named Hester, who cared for her
in every attack of positive illness, and
slept in her room at night.
But my task was simply to share in
all her pleasant hours, when she was
we'll enough to ride out, to hear the
piano, to listen to reading.
She would let me sit beside her some-
times when she was forced to lie in bed,
but usually Hester drove me away
jealousy anxious to usurp every nursing
duty.
We were an attached trio within
week, both the nurse myself giving a
true affection to our gentle employer,
who gave US every advantage in her
power to bestow, and was touchingly
grateful for the attentions it was our
positive duty to show her.
We crossed the ocean we journeyed
slowly from city to city seeking health,
giving change of climate, and finding
pleasure in every new scene.
For in the intervals when pain loos-
ened its hold, Mrs. Hoffman was like a
girl in her eager delight in every pleas
ure travel affords.
Leaning upon my arm, she would ex-
plore all the points of interest in every
large city where we sojourned, would
seek information and pleasure in all the
sight seeing open to tourists, ever shar-
ing with me the pursuits and enjoyments
she found.
Nearly two years had passed, and we
were in Germany, where Mrs. Hoffman
was deriving great benefits from mineral
baths.
| had become accustomed to the
changes in my life, accustomed to the
forlorn sense of having been forgotten
by my uncle and lover, and did not look
forward beyond the present.
While Mrs. Hoffman lived I felt sure
of friend and home, and the physi-
clans had given us hope of her slow but
certain relief, though she would never
entirely recover health.
Still we hoped she would live for
years, and l rested in the certainty of
her affection for me and my usefulness
to her.
One day in early summer, when the
baths had greatly strengthen my en-
ployer, she proposed to drive to cele-
brated cemetery in the outskirts of the
little town where we were staying.
We mentioned to the chambermaid,
who cared for our rooms, where we were
going, and she gave us a touching ac-
count of a grave we wound find in a
spot she designated.
"The young lady," she told us, "died
at the Golden Fleece, the rival hotel Of
the town; not this one. She was very
beautiful, but cannot speak her hard
name. Her poor father was like an in
sane man when she died, and the most
beautiful stone in the cemetery is over
her grave. For weeks the poor old man
spent the entire day at the cemetery
until the doctors almost forced him
away. | have heard he went to Ameri-
ca. but l do not know. The death was
published in the papers, and after the
father went away young MILFORD, En-.
glish or American, came to seek the
grave.
"Oh, how pale he was, and how he
grieved ! He has come again and again
to the Golden Fleece, and he has left an
order at the florists that fresh flowers
are to be put upon the grave every day,
winter and summer. He is a true love. u
After which romantic story the girl
gave us most minute directions for find.
ing the grave, and we drove away.
The cemetery was very lovely in the
fresh verdure of the young summer, and
we strolled about the shady walks, care
fully following the directions given by
the chamber-maid, and looking for the
shaft of marble she had described.
We turned at last into a shady walk
seeing in front the pure white monumen
with the angel, whose faded wings ant
bent head had been described so fully
The light iron fence was covered will
climbing roses, and growing plants sur
rounded the base of the pure stone. Blu
| saw none of this at first.
My eyes were fixed with an awe
stricken fascination upon the raised let
tering against the tablet of the shaft
| 1t read:
ROsAMoND ETHERINGToN,
AGED 20,
And the date was less than yea
| old.
My own name, my own age. 1t wa
a moment or two before I recovered from
the shock it gave me, and l knew tn
| truth.
Mrs. Hoffman's cry of surprise ant