The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-05-06

found that note on her bureau-I am afraid
John bribcd the chambermaid TO put il
there-she was, to begin with, fuTiously
angry. She did not go at once to her father
and inquire the matter out, because she did
not want him to commit himself to her and
make distinct issue between them. She had
enough Of that tact which serves women in
lieu Of strength to know that she had better
| discover the facts from John than from Mr.
Deane; so she in her turn wrote a little note
to Mr.. Hackett and dropped it in the post
oiilce; 1t was brief but satisfactory, running
thus:
DEAR Mr.. HAcKETT-Since am to be disap-
posnted of my drive. shall console myself by
walking up TO the lake. | forgive you, for am
sure you are not to blame.
Yours. very truly, EDNA DEANE."
No sooner was the Hyssop Bank closed that
August afternoon than John Hackett went off
toward the lake at pace that would nave done
credit to professional pedestrian; nor did he
wait very long before. by strange coincidence,
Miss Deane appeared, having chosen the hour
OF her fathers daily nap to take little air.
There were plenty Of boats about, and it cost
! but one or two suggestive remarks from the
lady to induce John to propose a sail. and soon
! they glided into a deeply shaded BAY rested on
| their oars, and might have listened to the high
silver carol of the wOod-thrush if they had not
preferred each others voices; for then and there
John Hackett told Edna Deaue that same old
| story everybody tells somebody sooner or later
stale alone to the old and world-weary sweet
| beyond its intrinsic sweetness when its telling
defes authority and laughs at obstacles.
Yes, while Papa Deane slumbcred on his bed
| that warm afternoon, with silk handkerchief
| decorously spread upon.his face to warn off
| trespassing flies, the youth he had so bullied
| and forbidden was making love TO his daugh-
| ter, out of sight and reach, and his own folly
| had precpitated the crisis, perhaps created it.
But blessed as the two lovers were when they
! glided softly back in the sunset to the tiny
cd yrit hot ho,I
! so dear to people absorbed in each other, their
| troubles had begun.
In a town like HyssOp perpetual little day
OF judgment dawns with every sun; there is
nothing hidden from eyes that make business
of seeing. or ears that have nothing to do but
hear. While John and Edna planned their
meetings, and took drives and walks together
that they fOndly fancied no one discovered,
since each left the street in a different direc-
ton, wherever they met afterward, they never
met or drove or walked that somebody knew it.,
and somebody told everybody else of it; had
they conducted their affair on the house-top it
would have been less patent. Now the young
men who had called John a mil1sOp, stung
with envy to think he had succeeded in mOnop-
Olizing this pretty girl, got hold of Mrs.
Green's scandal, and helped the story to more
legs; it ran all abroad till Edna'S friends in
hartford heard it, and wrote her letters of
warning and remonstrance, which she angrily
burned and more angrily answered; at last her
uncle in hartford heard the story, and wrote a
long and solemn letter to her father, full of
reproach and remOnstrance.
This woke Mr.. Deane to a full sense of the
situation; he bestirred himself TO examine the
facts: charged Edna with being in love with
. that fellow Hackett," and felt his scant hair
rise up on his head as she said, very coolly.
Yes, do love him, and mean to marry him,
father.n
The man was dumb with rage; he recognized
a new light in Edna's eve, and ring in her
voice. 1t seemed she too could dOgmatize.
1t is an unfortunate thing for us sometimes
that our children do resemble their parents in
character, and people hardly make enough &C
count of it. 1t seems prepOsterous TO an OBJ
stinate man that his son or his daughter should
be obstinate; yet what could be more natural?
Indeed, the trait becomes a deeper offense
to the progenitOr from his own possession of
it. MIR. Deane was outraged when he found
Edna had will of her own when he chose to
have her follow his will. As soon as his voice
returned he said, with sort of cold fury:
" Pack up your trunk, miss. We return to
hartford tomorrow morning"
Edna was not daunted.
First, l want to know, sir, what is your
objection to John Racket"
"Ive got plenty of objections. l hear bad
things about him. hear he is avery immoral
young man"
81 don't believe it, said Edna, Indignantly
"Of course you'don't. But intend TO act
on INV own CONVICTIONS, not YOURS. on Will !
get ready to go TO hartford az once"
Edna was furious; every feminine instinct !
told her that John Hackett was not bad man; |
she felt sure of his delicacy and self-respect |
long before she had loved him, and these are |
not the traits of an immoral person. She |
turned as she left the room, and said: Every |
well. | shall go to hartford, of course if you |
say so; but shall not give up John Hackett |
because he is lied about"
No, indeed! If John had asked her to stay |
in HyssOp as his wife, and let her father go to |
hartford alone, it is the present chronicler's |
belief she would have consented, but he was |
not so selfish. He did not want to destroy Mr.. |
Deane's comfort and happiness to build up his |
own in its place, or to separate Edna from her |
father; he preferred to try Cancellation, pa
thence, time; and as he sensibly said, there is |
no real separation now for lovers, since |
even paternal rage can not do away with |
railways, kilograms, and the postal service,
so he and Edna parted sadly enough, and !
the Deanes established themselves in hartford |
till needful business arrangements could be .
made before going to Europe. Daily letters
Ito receive which cost Edna some ingenuity,
to be sure), occasional kilograms, interviews
now and then when John could run in and
spend Sunday at the nearest hOtel-all served |
to keep the lovers tolerably patient. But Edna
had her own troubles. Her friends-that is,
those of her own age-stoOd by her manfully.
But relatives are not necessarily friends: and
epresentatiOns-which,t to do him Justice, he
believed in honestly-used all their efforts to
persuade her from marrying John Hackett,
and there came from Hyssop reports now and
then which served to eXasperate this we'll
meant opposition. A girl who had also boarded
at the Hyssop House, and angled openly but
unsuccessfully for John, visited in hartford,
and having gathered up the centipede that
scuttled about his native village singing John
Hackett's character brought it with her, full
venomed and many-legged, to the city, and set
it at work there.
But all this did not move Edna.
" am going abroad with papa" she said,
" because | want to give him a good chance to
see things in right light out of this chatter
and gossip, but / give you notice l shall marry
Mr. Hackett when l come back"
And such determination rang in her positive
tones that aunts and uncles and cousins quaied
before her, and thanked their stars that there
was Europe to go to.
/ do not present Miss Edna Deane as model
heroine. | am aware many people will disap-
prove of her. There are persons who think the
relation between parents and children involves
implicit obedience on the childs part to the
parental dictum, however unreasonable; there
are Others who think it unwise, and even wrong,
that child should sacrifice lifetime's happi-
ness to the tyrannic demands of an incOnsider-
ate parent Between these two poles Edna
must take her chance | am merely her histo-
rian, and must say that, dauntless as her cour-
age appeared when challenged by interference
Or opposition, there were many sad hours when
her heart, loving, tender, and DESTROYS of right
was torn by inward conflicts.
In the mean time John Hackett, aware for
-he first time in his life that he had enemies, (
and was injured by their tongues, was yet ut :
erly ignorant Of any special charges against
him Had he once known of Mrs. Green's
story, and AlonzO Filley's confirmation of it,
he could and would have set things straight at
)nce; or had Mrs. Parke heard the Islander, she {
too was in a position to explain and justify;
but she had left HyssOp to live with her daugh-
er at the West, and, as we have said, Mrs
Green unluclily broke off her story on Mrs {
Parke's arrival at LUcelia Pratt's room. Had