The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-04-23
Vaccinations Foiled.

Vaccinations Foiled.
! When Lena Rivers was seventeen, her
father died insolvent, and she,
the luxuriously nutured, rich mans
| petted darling, was thrown out of house
and home, with no idea of how she was
| to procure the means of livelihood.
ssShe might go out as governess," said
Mrs. Major Cordleigh, 'sbut it would
never do to have it said that relative of
ours was drudging for living; as she
will have to come her, SUPPOSE
| So Lena went to live at the grand
house on the avenue; but she found it
quite different from her former life of
easy independence. Major Cordleigh
kind to her if she had been allowed to
exercise his inclinations; but, being an
easy-going sort of a man, he had been
overrnled by his wife (who was decidedly
| a different temperament and daughters
SO long, that he dared not show his real
feelings; SO everything rested in their
hands, and be sure they did not
exert themselves to make her life
pleasant.
Lena was beautiful, but her beauty
was not of the kind to attract the atten
ton of beholders at first sight; indeed,
many would have called her plain. She
had a nice complexion, great innocent
looking gray eyes and really beautiful
brown hair. ga very common makeup"
you say. Granted; but when you come to
know her, you found her such gentle,
winning, loveable little creature, that
you couldn't find it in your heart to call
her plain.
Eva Cordleigh had always been jealous
of IL beauty, and of the attention she
received. Not that Eva was unattractive;
indeed, she had often been called
beautiful, but she had such a proud,
naughty way, and was, withal, such an
arrogant, selfish sort of being, that one
could not help disliking her any more
than one could help liking Lena. But
amounts to the same thing-and so she
moved on in the so-called best So
ciety.
She had never dared show her real
feelings toward Lena SO long as the girl
had home of her own, and could hold
her place in society; but now that she
could do SO, she exercised her long
pent-up spite by making her cousins
life as miserable as possible. She de-
termined to keep her out of the way of
callers. Lena was handy with her
needle, SO she kept her busy altering
dresses, or some other article of finery
for her own (Eva's) decoration, as much
as possible. But she could not exclude
had many friends, who always asked for
her at first; but they gradually dropped
off, till at the end of year she seemed
utterly forgotten.
She seldom went out, for she knew her
aunt and cousin did not desire it; and be-
side, der once beautiful wardrobe was
getting old-fashioned and shabby, and it
was not replenished. But she bore her
troubles without murmur, and if she
ever felt pang of regret when she con-
trasted Eva's gay life with her own dull
existence. she alone knew it.
At the end of year, Mrs. Cordleigh
gave a party. She and her daughter
would fain have kept Lena in the back
ground, but a Lady who had but recently
returned to the city after an absence of
two years, and who had known Lena in
better days, expressed q desire to meet
her there, only the day previous. So the
young girl came down in a soft white
muslin dress, with no ornaments save
rosebuds in her hair, and catching the
lace at her throat. looking SO graceful
and sweet that Harry Arlington, the de-
cided catch of the season, whose favor
and fortune-Eva had been angling after
for three months, must needs become
fascinated, and pay her more attention
than he did to any otner lady at the
party.
After that, he always asked for Lena
when he came to the house, which was
pretty often, though Eva managed to be
in the parlor when he came; and to be
sure this did not improve her temper
| toward IN tho nlipoov ho
happened to be out one day when he
called, and Lena saw him alone. Indeed,
it soon became evident that it was Lena
that called him there; and Eva grew
alarmed lest he should slip through her
fingers entirely, and cast about her some
means by which she could create mis-
understanding between them. Let us
see how well she succeeded.
The next time Harry came Eva was in
the parlor, and, when he asked for Lena,
she pretended to go in search of her, but
in reality only went into the next room
for few minutes, and then returned,
saying that elena begged to be ex-
cused." This course she kept up for
two weeks, never telling Lena that Harry
asked for her.
At the end of that time, friend in
vited the girls to party. Lena would
have declined the invitation, but Eva in
sisted on her going, and was SO unusu-
ally kind that she yielded. Now Eva was
playing bold game, but she knew that
if she carried this point-or at least she
thought so-she could win Harry in
spite of everything spite of himself.
She knew Lena's proud nature we'll
enough to feel certain that she would
avoid him, after this seeming indiffer-
ence, and also that Harry felt piqued by
| her seeming avoidance of him, for lately
he had not asked for her. But she did
not know how completely Lena filed his
| thoughts. He was certain that some
thing had occurred to cause this sudden
coolness, though what it was he could
| not imagine
They met at the party, and Eva's plan
worked to charm. Lena firted desper-
ately with a conceited little fop that she
would not have noticed at another time,
and Harry was surprised-yes, shocked
for he had not thought Lena capable
of such folly. But once, as he looked
suddenly at her, he caught her eyes fixed
| on his face with such reproachful, low
| ing look that his heart almost stood still
| with its sudden joy, and he started to
| cross the room to her side but she turned
with light laugh at some remark of her
companion and took his arm for stroll
in the conservatory, thus preventing the