The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-04-03

silence, and Ruth went on:
But should think you would want
to marry her, Harry. She is awful
pretty"
|" Oh, loot! awful pretty! and you
talk to me about slang! My dear, your
glass house will become fragmentary in
about five minutes if you 20 on"
..Don't you like her, Harry" asked
Rachel, always direct.
eyes, miss, I like her, but 1 don't
want to marry her,. III :, 7 =
"Don't people ever marry people
when they don't want toP'' said Ruth.
Perhaps they do, ma'am, but j
don't consider that am people. BY
Jove! I'd rather spin ropes out of sea
sand than tie myself up that wav. Ask
the minister here il he dea'tagree with
me-"
Philip reused himself from his dream
at the appeal, but the question had to
be repeated. az ~-@s -
"rd rather do any thing else, Miss
Ruth" -
/" But what if you'd got married by
mistake, just as those people did in the
newspapers, for fun-but really they
were married-what would you do?''
asked Rachel, persistently.
Make the best of it," laconically
answered Philip.
'Bad is the best of such q mistake,
Phil. Are there no divorce courts, my
friend and pitcher?"
Philips face darkened. "Not for
me. If had married Hecate !. by mis-
take as Rachel says, I would try and
make the best of her. Anything rather
than divorce; that is unchristian and
unmanly both" In
"Good for you, parson! You haven't
forgotten your old trick of accepting
the position. Make the best of it,
was the theme of this distinguished
gentleman's valedictory address, my
dears, on that glorious day when he be-
came the proud possessor of sheep
skin, like the immortal Brian O'Lynn,
only the woolly side was out; he pulled
that over the professors eyes, and
thereby got all the honors, while my
modest worth went unrewarded."
Here the gate swung open, just in
time to prevent further burst OF Harry's
eloquence, and a boy with telegram
came up to them. 1t was for Philip.
One of his most valued friends and
supporters in the church was dying,
after brief illness: he must See MI.
Norton. There was no delay possible,
and in the morning train very early
Philip went, leaving such adiecx as he
could for Harry to deliver, and carry
ing with him q triumphant sense that
noyfhoy honor noN. houoc<x ~ odd coo1 h 20
lips now; he could tell Nan Boyd
the love that possessed and con-
sumed him. and surely so stringent a
passion must compel return.
But he found his friend in the very
agories of death; and in the atmos-
phere of grief and pain that surround
ed him, after the sOlemnity of death,
in the care and help of the forlorn fam
lily, and the services of burial, more
than a week passed away before he
could write the important letter, and
when it was once gone his courage
failed, suspense racked and tortured
him, he could not eat or sleep, and on
the fourth day he sat before the begin
ming of his sermon totally unable to get
further than the first sentence, waiting
feverish]y for the letter-carrier to bring
him life or death. But the message
was merciful; sweeter letter, to his
thought, was never written; modest,
reticent, yet with tone of deep feeling,
it promised to the heart far more than
it said to the eye, and put him into a
state of grateful rapture that crept into
the delayed sermon, and made a sensa-
ton in the parish when that precarious
discourse was at length finished and
delivered. For a few weeks frequent
letters were exchanged. but, at the
lady's request. nothing was said of any
fixed engagement; she wished, she
said, to know little better the man to
whom her future life must be bound.
Philip had heard that Will Boyd had
not been altogether devoted to his wife,
and appreciated at once the sense and
delicacy of her reserved expression. of
feeling in the matter. In September
he received brief note, following a
long letter, to say that she and her
cousin had both been called to Cali
fornia to sister-in-law's hurried we'd
ding. DR.. Clarke was to go with them
as escort, and grOomsman to his old
friend Dr. Eldridge, and Nan wished
Mr.. Norton to know they were going
would be gone when the note reached
HMM order to account for his own
letters being unanswered, for their
brief stay in San Francisco would not
permit the mails to be useful to them.
1t seemed as if Fate sported with poor
Philip, for not two days passed before
he too received summons to travel
directly the other way; his only living
relative, an aunt in Europe, was seized
with severe illness, and telegraphed
for him at once. He sailed by the next
steamer, and found Mrs. Warne at the
point of death; but the pleasure of
seeing her nephew seemed to rouse her
and waken her vitality; she grew a lit
tie better week after week, but was
sent southwark as she recovered and
at last to Egypt. 1t was May before
Mr.. Norton brought her back to New
York; but by this time it had been
agreed in the few letters that had been
received by him in his constant transit
from one place to another, that with
out any formal announcement of en-
gagement, Nan should be ready to mar
ny him at once on his return. So hav-
ing previously telegraphed her, he ar
rived in Cedar the last day of May, late
in the afternoon, and instead of going
to Mr.. Clarke's. went to the little ho-
tel, and as soon as might be betook
himself to Mrs. Boyd's house. ~
Hestood moment after being shown
into the parlor, his heart wildly throb-
bling with hope and agitation, when
the door opened and in walked Mrs.
Anne Boyd. She glded up to him
with face so full of blushing emotion,
he thought she came to congratulate
him, and with the Astounding affection
engaged people have for all their rela-
tives in prospect. he stopped and kissed
her fresh sweet lips. r,.rr
"How did you know where to find
me?'' she said. blushing. 81 forgot
to tell you in my letter that had been
living here the past year. When Nan
was married she left me in CHARGE
"Married !-Nan!'' echoed the gen.
tleman, aghast.
"Oh, you must have missed the let