Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-06-20

you were certain sure going to be married
right away to Mr3. Nan Boyd"
s'Not much p calculated Harry.
sob, Hal, that's slang p
j "Well, what if it is? Slang is the Ian
| guage OF the coming man; slang is uni
versal word-paintlng; sang-but wander
from the subject. Listen, listen, ladies
gay, and I will point moral and adorn a
| tale for your infant minds. fell in love
over head and ears and the top of my tall
est hair with Nan Boyd when was twelve
| years old and she was ten. | spent my
| little all in candy and peanuts for her
sweet sake; I wrote her valentine, and
made her string of birds eggs three feet
Tonga rosary of despair to the gentle
birds robbed; paid for a tin-type of her
sweet face with my last copper and gave
her a jack-knife that I loved like broth
er; but she refused me after all, though I
implored her to elope with me in the milk
only t'other end first, She wouldn't have
he, d'ye see? for why now, he won't have
shelf The moral of all which is, Rachel,
don't snub Tom Green too much now, lest
he should turn and rend you by-and- by"
II hate Tom Green,'' repeated Rachel.
Harry laughed. But Philip Norton
could not speak; he fairly trembled with a
relief Of mind almost painful in it's inten-
sty. Harry did not notice his silence,
and Ruth went on:
"But should think you would want to
marry her, Harry. She is awful pretty
'sOh, loot awful pretty!' and you
talk to me about slang! My dear, your
glass house will become fragmentary in
about five minutes if you go on.''
Don't you like her. Harry2" asked
Rachel, always direct.
"Yes, miss, like her, but I don't want
to marry her."
Don't people ever marry people when
they don't want tor" said Ruth.
"Perhaps they do, ma am, but I don't
consider that Pm people. By Jove! I'd
rather spin ropes out of sea-sand than tie
myself up that way. Ask the minister
Philip reused himself from his dream at
the appeal, but the question had to be
repeated.
"I'd rather do anything else, Miss
Ruth.''
''But what if you'd get married by mis-
take. just as those people did in the news
papers, for fun-but really they were mar
ried what would you dor" asked Rachel,
persistently.
make the best Of it, laconically an
swered Philip.
''Bad, is the best of such mistake,
Phil. Are there no divorce courts, my
friend and pitcher?''
Philips face darkened. "Not for me.
If had married Hecate 'by mistake as
Rachel says, I would try and make the
best of her. Anything rather than di-
vorce that is unchristian and unmanly
both.''
''Good for you, parson! You haven't
forgotten your old trick of accepting the
position. Make the best ofit,'' was the
theme of this distinguished gentleman's
valedictory address, my dears, on that
glorious day when he became the proud
possessor of sheepskin, 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 elo-
quence, and boy with a 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 Mr.. Norton. There was no
delay possible. and in the morning very
early, Philip went. leaving such adieus as
h. could for Harry to deliver, and carry
Their honor or honesty need seal his lips
now; he could tell Nan Boyd the love that
possessed and consumed him, and surely
so stringent passion must compel return.
But he found his friend in the very ago.
MES of death; and in the atmosphere of
grief and pain that surrounded him, after
the solemnity of death, in the care and
help of the forlorn family, and the servi-
ces 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 nor sleep.
and on the fourth day he sat before the
beginning of his sermon totally unable to
get further than the FIRST sentence, wait
ing feverishly for the letter to bring him
life or death. But the message was mer-
ciful; a sweeter letter, to his thought, was
never written; modest. reticent, yet with
a tone of deep feeling, it promised to the
heart far more than it said to the eye, and
put him into state of grateful rapture
that crept into the delayed sermon, and
made sensation in the parish when that |
precarious discourse was at length finished |
and delivered. For few weeks frequent !
letters we're exchanged. but at the lady's |
request, nothing was said of any fixed en-
gagement; she wished, she said, to know |
a little better the man to whom her future |
life must be bound. Philip had heard that |
Will Boyd had not been altogether devo-
ted to his wife, and appreciated at once
the sense and delicacy of her reserved ex-
preston Of feeling in the matter. In |
September he received brief note, follow |
ing long letter, to say that she and her
cousin had both been called to California |
to sister in laws hurried wedding DR.. |
Clarke was to go with them as escort and |
groomsman to his old friend DR.. Eldridge.
and Nan wished MIR. Norton to know that
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 per-