The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1880-11-20
HETTY HOPES LOVE AFFAIR.

When Harry Hunt and ITctty Hope
had been engaged three months, the time
came for Harry to leave /.
He had been only summer boarder
at Grandfather Hopes farm house, and
he had fallen in love with his niece, and
had won her heart. She wore his ring,
and in year they were to be married.
But, alas that year was to be spent
apart. Harry was going to China, in
the interest OF the firm of which he was
at present only an employee. On his
return he would be made junior part
ner, and would be able to marry conf
fortably.
In her secret heart Hetty wished that,
poor rs he was, Harry would ask her to
marry him then and there, and go on
the voyage with him. But girl must
keep her thoughts to herself. And now
she had driven with him to the depot,
to see him off and the train had come,
and he stood beside the light wagon
holding her hand, and whispering these
words:
alt is so hard that cannot kiss you
at the last. Goodbye, darling good
bye"
Hetty was trying not to cry, there at
the depot, before all those Strangers
She almost wished that she had not driven
down to see Harry off, though il she had
not come she would never have forgiven
herself.
"Good-by," she whispered family.
Then Harry jumped upon the train,
not an instant too soon, and in mo-
ment more Hetty only saw handker-
chief fluttering from the window as the
engine puffed its way out Of the depot,
and few around the curve Of the road.
"Drive home, Peter" she said to the
boy who held the reins; and happily
she had power to keep the tears from
her lashes until the people who had
stared at her at the depot could stare
no more.
On the platform shade hats and sun
bonnets where gathered in 4 group dis
cussing the fact that Hetty Hope had
been down to see her beau off, and that
there was no longer any doubt that they
were engaged but Hetty did not know
or care for that. She was CT, ing softly
in the back Of the little light wagon,
while Peter drove on, whistling the Star
Spanglcd Banner all out Of tune, and
now and then stopping to break off a
branch full Of wild cherries. 1t seemed
so hard that Harry should be going
away for year-a whole, long year
II was almost as dreadful as though he
were dead, for what might not happen
in year? No one could ever tell, and
the tears fell again.
The only comfort Hetty could think
Of was her first letter, and it would be
three days before that could come.
However, it came. Grandpa brought
il in his pocket and gave it to her with
slow nod and slower laugh, and
Aunt Maria inquired with her usual
downrightness whether that "was from
her beaul" And Cousin Tilly, by and
by, in the privacy Of their own room,
asked il she would let her see it, and was
offended that she did not. These rela
tives OF hers were not always delightful
to poor Hetty, but her father was busy
man who travelled the world over, max
ing fortune for the daughter he scarcely
saw twice year, and her mother died
in her babyhood, and Hetty had no
other home than "Grandfather's. -
They were very good to her, that old
man and his widowed daughter, Aunt
Maria. And Cousin Tilly was soft and
pretty, and silly as little white kitten.
1t might have been very much worse,
yet who can blame Hetty for looking
forward to the time when she should
have home Of her own-a home that
suited her Papa sent her plenty Of
money now. She could do wha, she
pleased with it, and she bought smart
caps for Aunt Maria and gay ribbons for
Tillie and slippers for grandpa-but the
home was not under her control. The
prim parlor was not to be touched by
her hand The blue shades, and red
and green carpet, the wax fruit under a
glass, and the portait Of Washington
over the mantle-picce, remained as she
had first seen them, when rs child she
regarded that front parlor as a sort Of
sacred place not to be played in. She
filed her own tiny sleeping room with
what Aunt Maria denominated jim
cracks; but the family disapproved OF
vines about the house, and there was not
a tree within the small, prim garden
palings, and good as they all were, the
people who lived in the house were ex-
actly like it. They had no sense of the
beautiful and no yearning for it.
So Hetty dwelt inwardly alone and
built her air-castles, and lived on one
letter until she had another, and the
time Of her lovers absence wore on
wearily until six months were gone, and
then came letter which made Hetty
hold her breath while she read it, and
burst into tears as soon as she had finish
ed il.
"Dear Hetty," it said, can unfore'
seen thing has happened. My employ
ers desire me to remain in China foi
some years. II I do so they will make