Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1880-01-16
TED.

TED.
dts very dusty" and Mrs. Laure
Amberley shook slightly the glossy
folds OF her gray trave,ing dress.
A trivial remark, but her husband
glanced quickly at the half-averted
face.
"You are displeased, Laure."
Young Mrs. Amberley bit her
beautiful lips in a moments silence.
81 think 1 might haYe my choice,
Algernon."
at does seem a little hard, doesn't
it, dear? lifting lightly the little
gloved hand and kissing it.
Certainly Algernon Amberley
wished to indulge his bride of a
month, but he continued
''In taking one of these children
of my dead half-sister, I wish to
make choice which will be OF the
most benefit to the family. The
elder girls can earn their own living.
The younger is very pretty, and will
be adopted by a good and wealthy
family if we do not take her away,
while Ted"
''Ted !" interrupted Laure, impa-
tiently.
''Ted is at an undesirable age, and
not particularly brilliant and inter
esting but, as he is the one who
stands most in need of help, l think
we ought to take him."
"Such a shock of tow hair, and so
horribly basbful :" pouted beauty
loving Laure.
Il know the little girl would please
you best, but perhaps the boy will
develop better than the girl" re-
piled Amberley, in the tone of de-
cislon his wife had already learned to
know.
He was SO certain he was right
that the poor, friendless, Uniformed
boy was most in need of protection
and training-that he could not al
low his wires fancy to decide this
important matter, much as he re-
GREETED her disappointment.
The younger child-the little Mel
he-was as pretty as a picture, and
at the charming age lie could not
but sympatbize with Lsure's wishes,
but his young wife was short-sighted.
He was older than she, and felt
obliged to decide the matter accord
ing to his best judgment.
They were on their wedding trip.
From Niagara it had extended to
Chicago from that city to a
lonely tract of rolling prairie, where
resided this remote connection of the
Amberley family.
The father of these orphan chill
dren was a coarse, hard man, who
was already casting about for a Sec
ond wife F; and the probability was
that the expected stepmother would
be little benefit to the two young
and helpless little ones.
Laure regarded this man with a
feeling little less than horror. The
rude and primitive living was dis
tasteful to her refined sensibilities.
1t was only when she walked alone
across the great blllows of green, ,and,
standing in solitude in the silence,
beheld stretched before her count
less leagues of luminous sunset, that
she said to herself that the West was
grand and beautiful.
They were driving now along the
smooth prairie road. A silvery creek
ran along its edge, bright and bank
full. Here and there a Judas bush
showded its crimson among the bush
greens. To right and left stretched
away the boundless prairie.
Laure had requested the driver to
get away from the uninviting home;
but for the first time there was a
shadow between herself and her hus-
band.
In justice to young Mrs. Amberley,
let me say that she tried to repress
her discomfort, but this only made
her disappointment more apparent
to her husband. More and more it
troubled him, loving his young wife
most tenderly, and at last he said :
''If you really cannot give up the
little girl, Laure you shall have her "
"Algernon," she cried, ''it isn't
that | like the little Nellie so very
much, but 1 don't see anything to
like in Ted"
The subject was then dropped.
They drove back to the house.
The first person they saw on their
return to the house was Ted, who
came bashfully out to take the
horses. He always stared at Laure.
Certainly she was the most beautiful
creature he had ever seen in his life.
Secretly he adored her, as she fingered
a moment now. Having descended
from the carriage, and being loath
to go into the house, he addressed
her:
"Be you going to take me ?"
"No," said Laure, quickly 81
think l shall take Nelly"
She noticed that the boys head
drocped as he turned away, leading
the horses, but she took little notice
of that.
The next morning her husband
was called to Chicago alone on bust
ness. She endured the unoongenial
surroundings as long as she could,