The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1880-10-29
WAS 1T BETTER ?
BY s. ANNIE FROST.

Better in every wayw
l think if Amy Randolph had whis
pered these four words to herself once
she mad fifty times, as she paced up anG
down her narrow bedroom, trying tc
solve the hardest problem her life had
offered her.
She was slender, fair girl of nineteen
with large, dreamy brown eyes and nut
brown hair. Her face was one that would
attract little notice from pass er-by; but
when you knew it well, when the large
eyes and sensitive mouth had taken every
varying phase of expression, as you touch
ed the girls poetic mind and tender
| heart, the pure loveliness of the coun-
tendncc grew upon you till it became
most beautiful. -,-,
And to Guy Chester Amy's face had
become so. He knew how the little
mouth could smile or quiyer, how the
large eyes could soften or flash, how win
ming and lovely every change became.
And he loyed her, not as she loved
him, with every thrill of her heart, every
pulse of her being, but in his easy going,
vacilating fashion, as the most perfect
little gem of womanhood he had ever
met.
And he was Guy Chester, heir to Ches-
ter Hill, if-ah that little word that
makes or mars SO many destinies !-q he
pleased his mother. And she was Amy
Randolph, his third cousin, and his
mothers companion. She had been edu-
Gated at boarding school, where she
taught younger children in part payment
for her own tuition, and had been offer
ed her choice, when she graduated, of go
ing to Chester Hill as Mrs. Chester's
companion or returning to her grandpar
ents, who barely supported life upon a
miserable little farm in Pennsylvania.
And Mrs Chester, who was bad
tempered, exacting woman, had so thor
oughly cowed and terrified the timid
girl that she seemed to her pale, unln-
teresting nonentity, useful in writing let
tiers, reading aloud and sewing, but utterly
unattractiye. She never saw the exquis-
ite oval of the young face, the delicacy OF
the features, the dreamy poetry OF the
eyes. :.
"What Guy could find to admire III
that washed-out girl" she could not dis
| cover. She worsbiped her only son, but
she was too innately selfish to give hlm
his way when it interfered with her
own.
And her own way, at that time, requlr-
ed Guy to marry wife whose money
would support his many extravagances,
and leave his mothers purse full for hers
For they were eXtravagant, living IN New
| York all Winter, in fashionable circles
and filling their country-seat with visitors
| all Summer :.
| And the very wife Guy wanted, in ms
mothers opinion, was ready to wed MN
for his asking. True, she was loud-volced
and vulgar, inclined to be fast, with
rather a masculine style of beauty
sunflower of girl, as Am was violet
But her father had left her large fortune
and she had fallen III love with Guy
Chester making no secret of the iact u
his keen-eyed mother
That she had disgusted him at the
very outset of bis acquaintance with hei
tJv her frankly avowed preference for hl'
attentions and society, troubled her bu
little. She lad been brought up in tht
belief that money was the attraction nc
man could resist, and she had money
If she wore diamond earrings to break
fast, and a velvet riding-dress in the coun
try, was not her wealth SO proven? Anc
if her complexion was often as red as th'
roses in her hair, so decided brunette
could bear high color.
Altogether she felt herself a prize il
the matrimonial circle, and Mrs Chesiei
encouraged her in her delusion.
And when she had accepted Mrs. Ches
ter's invitation to spend month a
Chester Hill in the Spring, when thu
house was not full, when Guy had re
mained at home ever since the return
from the city, and everything promised
well for the mothers scheme, she wa
coolly asked to accept Amy Rancolpl
for daughter-in-law.
Had she been a judicious as well az
loving mother, she would have seen tina
| Guy. under Amy's gentle influence, wa
developing nobier traits of charaete
than he had ever shown in his life before
. that he was losing his Taste for lie q
whirl and excitement, was thinking q
higher aims than the possession of IN
I, fastest horses and the finest wines IN hl
J set of friends.
! But she was blind 10 all this, an
equally blind to the prospect that Guy
at home. in quiet domestic happlnes
with a wife so careless of tinery aud gay
civ as Amy. could never make the inroad
upon her income that Gus, As the mos
extravagant bachelor of his set" mad
annually. She had set her heart uP'
, Guys marriage with Laura Marcy an
she was furious at the obstacle resente
to her.
But Guy Chester was not the man
saw please mamma and then s1hin
without protest if mamma did NJ
please
He had never been crussed from u
time he shrieked for tops and c1ndy, an
: it was scarcely probable he would acceI
!. the first oppositiun after twenty-five yea
; Of unchecked pleasure.
"Youca do as YOU like" he said, shru
- srfr,s. L.. h lar.s "a his utnfhpr fhrnl