Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-05-06


in the family. In the meantime could
have married any day, if had chosen to
accept the Rev. Abel Amherst, and
transfer my labor to the parsonage. To
be sure, this would not have proved the
brilliant marriage my aunt had expected
of me, nor the romantic one had dream
ed of myself, and it was not until came
into possession of certain family secret
that began to revolve the possibility in
my mind. 1t seems that when my aunt
married her second husband, Mr.. Browne
-Susette and Anne were both Lowells
they had subsisted upon the patrimOny
left to Cedric by his mother, and that
after his fathers death, Cedric had turn
ed into the same yearly income from the
estate for the family use, and that |,
Adrienne Lennox, owed my daily bread
to the man whom had refused, and who
had forgotten me. Earning my own
livelihood was out of the question,
drudgery was my only vocation, and that
was too badly paid to be encouraging.
| looked at the Rev. Abel Amherst often
at this period, with view of installing
him in Cedrics place, if Cedric would
only vacate. Oddly enough, Mr.. Am
herst renewed his suit at this time, and
pressed it with the eagerness of a lover,
and for the first time l began to hesitate.
"The woman who hesitates is lost" said
Susette.
| had been out on the hills one day
trying to make up my mind to forget
Cedric, and marry Mr.. Amherst; but
whenever 1 began to think with some in
terest of going to parish meetings, be-
coming president of Dakota leagues and
sewing circles, visiting the poor, and
drinking tea opposite the Rev. Mr.. Am
herst all the rest of my days, somehow
or other Cedric's face would slip into the
picture unlimited, and blot out his
rivals as strong sunlight fades a negative
photograph.
"There is letter for you, Adrienne,"
said Aunt Browne, when l entered the
house, Sin the music room, on the top of
the dado, under Mozarts picture" |
went into the music room, but there was
no letter to be seen.
"Perhaps one of the girls has removed
it." she suggested. But no one had
meddled with it.
Grandma cooked letter over the
said little Teddy, rehectively.
eyes" said grandma, 81 wrote a let
ter to your pa, child l hadn't any blot
ting paper, but the fire answers the pur
pose quite as well.
At that time / had never heard of
opening letters by steam. Well, we
the house for that truant let
ter, but in VAN.
"Who was it from, aunt?" | asked.
Chow should l know, child?"
''But the handwriting post
mark?"
"The postmark was blurred"
clad it foreign stamp?" l asked,
with sudden eagerness. Cedric had gone
abroad some months before, and | had
not heard of his return.
GA foreign stamp No. Were you
expecting foreign letter?
"N-o; but it is the unexpected that
always happens, You know"
cts awfully provoking" said SUI
settle. perhaps it was only the re-
cipes Mrs. Clark was going to send"
Nothing more likely; but what has
become of it? It's prolonged game of
hunt the thimble."
And supposlng it's letter notifying
you of the existence of a first Mrs. Am
herst," put i'll Anne, 'or of a legacy left
by your forty-fifth cousin in Australia"
And then the door-bell rang.
Well, after that | suppose must have
accepted Mr. Amherst. Everybody be-
haved as if | had. | received congratu-
lations and ring, and the parish begun
repairs upon the parsonage, before /
could muster courage to tell Mr.. Am
herst all about Cedric and my mistake,
and how | wasn't at all sure [ could ever
get over it, and care for anybody else,
but that | would do my best. And he
smiled in a sort of absent way when |
told him, but seemed content to take me
ms | was, for better or worse; only 1T did
strike me sometimes that he was the
most undemonstIative lover i'll Christen-
dom; but | hadn't much experince in
lovers, and perhaps they weren't as
gushing Ill real life as novels pictured.
He used to kiss my hand when we
parted; that was all He was very gem
tie, but httlcsud, | fancied, with look
which might mean that he was afraid of
so much happiness or that to marry the
woman he loved wasn't all fancy had
painted it; and often | thought L
had perhaps done wrong to tell him
everything about Cedric so unreseryed-
ly; yet l had only meant to be honest.
But the day was appointed, and sudden
ly Cedric appeared among us, when |
thought he was at the worlds end. and
he and the girls decorated the little
church with white field daisies and
grasses for the occasion. You may be-
heNe TINT | nyniled the sioht OF Cedric