The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-08-13

butterflies for the rest OF the day, and take
no thought for the morrow. There is wood
a half mile away, and propose that we go
and investigate it. Ask Margredelto put us
up luncheon, and we will camp out, as in
years gone by, when Ricardo was IN short
dresses"
The daughter fastened to execute her
fathers wish, and then sped to her room to
array herself for the expedition. At the end
of a quarter of an hour she reappeared in the
garden in a short walking-dress, wide
brimmed straw hat, thick boots, and gloves.
"Here's the short dress still" she exclaim-
ed. "Let us play that all these years have
been an illusory bugbear, that l am little
Sister Ricardo, that Uncle Dick is teaching
me botany, and papa stuffing my brains with
chalk formations and the chemistry of ma
ture. But who's to be the Atlas of the lunch
basket?'
As Margredel approached with the
luncheon, Dick speedily appropriated it, and
the trio sailed forth, Ricardo and her father
walking hand in hand, small school-boy and
schoolgirl fashion
The day in the woods was but one out of
many passed in like Notwithstanding,
riding, sitting in the garden, and on rainy
ones the father and Lame making business
visits to the city, while Ricardo busted her
self with reading. correspondence, and house.
hold affairs
Upon returning from one of these rainy
day excursions, and the three friends being
convened about the dinner-table, Lane an
nounced with unusual vivacity that he had
an idea,
..And what is it," asked Ricardo. can
idea in the heat of August is an anomaly
you remember, Ricardo, he went on,
hurriedly, asking me, the morning we
were discussing your future, if young men
did SO and so after leaving college? Well,
I was in Wall street to-day, when a quartet
of young fellows Just out of college came to
the bank for letters of credit. They were
going abroad for a years travel before be-
ginning the study of a profession. That's
Just the thing for Ricardo to do l thought,
and I've come home powerful committee
of ways and means, whereby you shall both
return with me, the last of next.m to
England,
.sAnd you would have Ricardo do as
young men do, after all?" smiled her father,
.'Yes, in this respect. 1t is the only thing
with all my thinking that see clearly she
should do. feel as decided about 1t as i
did that she should go to college. And
| feel equally sure that at the end of a year
| she will see her path of duty and work mark
ed out as clearly as we see the milky way on a
clear night. And Dick went rapturously
on enumerating the various reasons why a
| trip of that kind would be the very best thing
| for both father and daughter. Ricardo lis
tened silently until well on toward the close
| of the dinner when Lane asked her what
she thought of the idea.
/ 81 like it." she replied, emphatically
but papa may not find it practicable
However, after the lapse of some days, i
was found to be a feasible plan
IL
were shaped in reference to il
During these weeks of reunion, the feeling
that had been born in the mind of Lane upol
his first meeting with Ricardo had grown an,
| strengthened with each succeeding day, unit
he now felt himself wound up in them as il
web No other woman had ever atfecte,
him as did she, and when he endeavored t
analyze his feelings. and in turn tried to coz
vince himself that the reason why she wa
such source of exquisite and tender deligh
| to him was because she had been like hi
child, his little sister, from her babyhood-
like a plant that one has lovingly cared fol
watching with interest its every buddin
shoot. enjoying the rain and the sun doubl
for its sake, feeling with pleasure all the sol
and balmy influences that conduce to il
growth, and then, at the last, enjoying all tn
past again a hundred-fold over in the beaut
of its blossoming. Was it not in like wa
he enjoyed Ricardo? Was she not simply tn
completed picture that had been but an out
lined sketch when he went away?-the flu
splendor of the aurora, whose radiance ha
but Just begun to simmer about her head i
those seasons agone, when he had bid ne
goodbye? Was it not for such reasons
these, he argued, that he had come to as
himself score of times day, What W,
life. his future, to be to him henceforth will
1 L d. L
as thoroughly as he did in others. he had tt
courage to say no. His feelings were not IL
outgrowth of such conditions. Had he M
this girl for the first time in his life, he fe
: sure that she would have enthralled and d
lighted him in the same way. And if he on
had met her for the first time! Ali then hs
, he been free to translate his thoughts into the
: true language, and to go to her in all reve
ence and noble faith, saying, 81 love the
t and have need of thee;" for, with Plato,
: believed that 1--WE love by necessary law" tn
which has a natural infinity to us; so that Il
l real genuine lover may be certain of a retul
of affection from the beloved? But now, Wi
4 the history and associations of the past befo
f him, blocking his way like sacred shiel
D what could he do but keep silence, and let &
4 the violence of the situation turn back like
: food upon his own heart? Then, too, like
3 array of merry, hooking imps, arose one
, one his thousand and one talks with james, al
a could he in the face of these ask his friend
t give him his child, the only help, joy, consol
e ton, love, that life held for him; to be hii
t self, after all, the man in ambush toapprop
: ate this perfect woman, if such appropriate
y were possible? While he could not bril-
himself to say yes to these questions, he W
a equally powerless to say no. He wou
e wait, and meantime, above all other hop
g the one to have his friend and Ricar
e return with him to England dominated
e else. He felt that his salvation lay in it.
One day, as he was thinking of what W
|, now at all moments uppermost, the thong
d arose in his mind defining itself with STATUE
e que clearness: sWould what you can gi
# Ricardo compensate her for what you wou
demand of her? Would not the answer
y your wishes on her part involve self-sacrif
It on hers?" Even with his keen sense of justi
5 this phase of the matter had not before p