Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-04-01

turned Lne1r LnOuSntS 10 business. IL
was hopeless to attempt to follow up
their professions with an invalid mother
and idolized only sister depending on
them for support. John secured sit
uation as clerk in city warehouse.
Roger accepted desk in the office of
Bernard Russell, an old friend of his
fathers. They moved to cheap lodg-
ings, and for several years plodded on
YEARLY, one only CLEAN of sunshine in
their altered home being the occasional
visits of Alice Russell to their sister.
Maude Gourlay and Alice had been
school-fellows and friends; they usually
spent their vacations together, and Alice
felt the misfortune that had fallen on
the family as if it had overtaken her
own. But she could do nothing except
pay them flying visits, send trifling gifts
of fruit and flowers, and write pretty,
sympathizing notes to Maude.
A few years of poverty and hardship
told on Mrs. Gourlay's always feeble
frame; still for her daughters sake she,
chung to life with strange tenacity;
but when Maude's lover, who had gone
to Australia to make his fortune, re-
turned not wealthy, but sufficiently so
to claim his bride in her altered circum-
stances, Mrs. Gourlay seemed to have
no other object to live for. Maude's
marriage was fastened, and the very
day after the ceremony the poor, weary,
broken-hearted mother died. George
Leslie took his wife back with him to
Sidney, and John and Roger Gourlay
we're literally alone in the world.
AS if in bitter mockery of their loss
and loneliness, Immediately aftc1 their
mothers death the brotho4s inherited
small fortune. r.. It was too late for
John to 60 BE- q to his studies, too late
for Roger 60 return to his piano. They
had fallen into the groove of business,
and John at least was seized with a fe-
verish eagerness to turn his small fortune
into large one and become wealthy.
So they went into business as Gourlay
Brothers, with the firm resolution of
retrieving the position their father had
lost, and a very few years saw them es-
tablished in Whittier Street and fairly
on the high road to fortune. Then one
quiet summer evening, as they sat over
their dessert, John opened his heart to
his brother and told him of his hopes,
dreams and ambitions for the future.
You will be surprised, and, trust,
pleased to hear, Roger, that I love Alice
RUSSELL he said, laying his hand on
his brothers. arm; 81 can hardly re-
member the time when she was not
dearer to me than all the world beside.
The bitterest part of our misfortune to
me was that it separated me from her;
the only thing that has sustained me
through our long struggle was the hope
of some day winning her; nothing else
can ever compensate me for the ruin of
all my hopes and glorious ambitions. I
once dreamed of being famous, Roger;
for her sake put that behind me, and
have grubbed for gold like a miser.
We, Gourlay Brothers, are on the high
road to fortune; I may aspire to the
hand of Alice now!'
"Surely, JOHN" and the younger
brothers voice was husky and his hand
shook as he took up his glass, ST drink
to your success
"Thanks, brother. should have
told you all this before-I should have
confded in you; but 1 feared troubling
you on my account. You would have
seen a thousand shadows across my
path-you would have been more I'M
happy than was myself. And now I
want you to promise that it shall make
no difference between US. We shall be
Gourlay Brothers still.''
Roger stretched his hand across the
table, and John grasped it heartily.
"Gourlay Brothers to the end of the
chapter, old fellow, and may you be as
happy as you deserve. God bless you,
John.''
Johns face became shade or two
paler with emotion, and he walked up
and down the room a few times; then
he stood behind his brothers. chair.
"Roger, you will think me very weak,
very nervous, but I dare not speak to
Alice myself. I could not endure re-
fusal from her. l have never even given
her the most distant hint of my feelings.
I have not the slightest reason to sup
pose that she regards me as other than
mere acquaintance, at most as Maude's
brother. Roger, we have always been
friends as well as brothers-stand by
me in this; you are less shy and more
accustomed to women; see Alice for
me, ask her to be my wife,
"John, you're mad! You do not mean
it,"
"I do, it is my only chance. Plead
for my happiness, brother, as l would
plead for yours. am man of few
words, but I feel deeply. A refusal