The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-01-28
FOREVER!
A Story Of the Heart.
BY 81. Fl. LEECH.

BY q. II. LEIGH.
"Pronnisel"
y do solemnly." .......
"Forever?" continued the solemn,
broken voice.
"Forever," echoed the weeping maiden
by the bedside. .....
The wasted hands were raised over
the heads of the kneeling figures: the
pale lips of the dying woman parted
the tongue tried to utter a blessing;
but all brightness faded from the eyes.
Ihe woman was dead.
Two young girls knelt at tho bed
side. Constance Owen was the name
of one, with sallow skin and large
brown eyes, and Edith Ormond, she
was called, with ringlets of gold hoat-
ing around her fair neck, and whose
head was leaning upon the shoulders OF
Constance, who had promised the dy-
ing woman to be sister, protector
mother even-to the fair maiden at her
side.
The strong, faithful, homely girl
called Constance was an adopted daugh-
ter of the dead lady-one OF those
waits of the street, whose only hope of
Life is in the charity of some tender
hearted stranger. She, however, re-
paid her protector by love and regard
as filial as that of her own daughter,
and when upon her deathbed Mrs. Or
mond babe Constance Owen make her
the solemn promise recorded, the brave
girl not only did not falter, but whis-
pered once more to the stricken girl at
her side:
eyes, Edith, for the sake OF the love
your dear mother gave to the orphan
will love you better than myseH-for-
ever"
And darkness was in that chamber,
desolation in the hearts of the mourn
ers.
Two years passed-two years since
Edith the beautiful and Constance the
brave had lost their best earthly friend.
The former had grown more lovely even
than the promise of the dawn of her
radiant maidenhood; the latter more
homely, large-featured, in face, but with
the two years an added dignity of mein,
more intelligent light in the quiet,
tender brown eyes, and force of eharac-
ter better defined in every movement.
There came many suitors to Bonny.
brook-so the little country seat belong
ing to Edith was called--but, SO far, the
little coquette did not pay much heed
to any of them. She was chasing the
butterflies of fancy around the Garden
OF Eden-frsJ youth. But at length
her beauty, grace, and perhaps high So
eial position, brought one day to the
gates of Benny brook one DR.. Paulding,
superior and rising young physician,
who lived in the city close by, and when
he had found his way to the pleasant
country nook, somehow he discovered
patients in that vicinity very frequently,
Was it Edith's fair face that made him
take that blooming highway SO often?
he was, indeed, fascinated by her
bright, girlish beauty, and one evening
after he had been wandering in the gar
dens, under the moon, soft, pleasant
words must have been spoken, for after
he had gone, Edith, with flushed face.
dashed into the room where Constance
was awaiting her, and throwing her arms
around her said in happy, trembling
voice:
"Ohl darling, I am so happy. He
has told me he loved me-"
a. Constance spoke not q word; Edith
was held moment to q beating heart,
soft kiss touched her forehead, and
the next moment she was alone.
"He loves me! He loves mel' And
Edith looked out over the gardens
from which the dews of night we're dis
tllling all their odors; she gazed at the
round, beautiful moon, and peopled the
shadows with the figure of the man who
had first stirred her young life with the
divine music of love.
A month after the pleasant confession
had been made Edith was called to the
mountains of Vermont to attend
dying aunt, the only sister of her dear
mother, and she had to proceed alone,
rs Bonnybrook would have lacked
guardian If Constance had accompa-
MED her-Dr. Paulding's duties utterly
denying him that pleasure.
- Constance was engrossed in her home
duties, and saw but little society, save
q few rustic neigbbo1s, who only rec
commended themselves by their good
ness OF heart, and certainly not by the
AASy Va SAcAX VIII OE uuu0sSG6uO-
ing. Once and while DR.. Paulding
would ride out to Bonnybrook, as Con
stance told him, "from the force of old
habit" but soon it seemed that the
man OF medicine and science did not
carry on the conversation with the old
ease, grace and spirit. What had
come between Constance Owen and
himself? Something inexplicable. The
noble woman found q strange, rare
pleasure in the society of the gifted
man; the scholarly man q sympathy
with the large. hearted, intellectual
woman which he had never known or
experienced in any of her sex. "True."
he said to himself, she is not beauti-
full; indeed, measured by the rules Of
beauty, she is positively ugly. But
who can gauge the charms OF a
melodious voice, or define the tender
ness of an honest, kindly eyer"
And she, too, mused in this wise