The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-10-01

earth now there in no one living being
but myself who remembers the name of
that radiant girl that was once no glori-
ous i'll her young, glad beauty, and is
now 30 utterly forgotten. She was the
niece of the rector, the cousin of Claire;
her mother was his sister. Lily Ray was
the only rival of her cousin, vet no two
persons could he more wholly dissimilan
The one was tall, queenly and grand; the
other was slender and exceedingly timid
The one had black and flashing eyes: the
others were blue and gentle. In NIL re-
spects different, they were nevertheless
bound to each other by love that was
more than the love Of sisters, and TINT
even surpassed the strong love of man
for woman
Philip, l loved Lille Ray. From
boyhood loved her. Not all the mag
nificent beauty Of Clare could win me-
from her cousin. / dreamed of her all
day and all night. l sought opportuni-
ties of meeting her. | gathered for her
fruits and flowers. / carried tn her all
my boy treasures, and with them all the
treasure Of love my heart could bestow.
Who could forget the long rambles in
the forest; the seat by the rushing noun
tain stream; the evenings of summer
beauty on the LIKE? Or, who could
wish to forget the long winter evenings
when We sat by the blazing hearth aud
talked, or dreamed, or heard the rector
tell stories Of his youth, or wove fabrics
of mir and dream stuff for these years
that We now live in 81 coldly, Philip /?
These years how far away they seemed!
Those years how close behind me now
they appear
"Well, left home. This is dull
story, Philip. BE patient: You shall
come to the point Mt length. Ileft home
for school, and in my vacations twice u
year | returned tn my home and met
always the glad welcome of my friends
at the rectory. My father died during
the first year of my college course and
before graduated was twenty one and
heir Ia his large property.
During the four or five years of my
school and college course | had never for
an instant thought of any other future
than that which my boyish fancy lad
pictured when sat by the rectory fire.
side on the winter evenings of younger
days. And yet, strange as il may seem
Ia You, | had never mentioned to Lily
my hopes, nor had | given her any dis
tinct intimation Of my love. You wonder
at this So do |. 1t WAS not till after
wards that | thought of it myself, and
then II was too late-too late They
were more like sisters tn me than friends.
We had studied together many years and
hal lived from childhood in constant i'll
Z l,,t n A L.
she knew my love. 1t seemed so perfect
~ natural, 80 much my own life, that |
thought il always evident above MI
things in my action and ou my lips. Ii
was, therefore, terrible blow to me
when ] returned from my last term in
college. flushed with no few honors, ex
pecting their congratulations, first of all
Ia learn that Lily was absent from the
rectory and might never return. Such a
possibility | had never before thought
of, nor had any of them. Her father had
80 long permitted her Ia remain in her
uncle's family that she had become Il
part Of it rs Glare herself; and it was
like taking away his daughter from the
rector and her sister from Glare when
Mr.. Ray made his appearance and said
that Lily must go with him to he mis-
tress of his house in the city. In vain
she strove, protested, begged. In vain
the rector and Clare implored and de-
manded. He was stern. cold man, aud
he came and went, and with him vanished
one of the lights of the rectory, and
when l came home it was to the saddest
welcome of II strick ! house. For some
days after that Clul and talked and
] talked and planned what We would do.
We would go and storm the city house
of Mr.. Ray. We would steal her back
and keep her concealed. We would do
a hundred things that ut length resolved
themselves into going together, with the
rector, to the city TO visit her, and we all
went.
"Shc was not mt home. So SAID the
servant again and again, M We repeated
our calls. We left our cards and the
name of the hotel, but she did not come.
We called in the evening and received
the same answer. Philip, we were
greedy and simple people, and did not
know that this phrase had other mean
ing than the words expressed.
But the next day | met her in the
street, and she sprnng toward me, and
then she shuddered and looked around
her, as ii she feared that some one saw
her.
"'Oh, Stephen! where, where are
they alp
"At the - hotel.
"'Here in New York;
"Of course. Did you not receive our
cards ?
"'Your cards?'
"'We called four times yesterday.
"' Stephen, j am prisoner-my
father is'-and here she burst into tears
even in the broad street of the city.
1t all came out soon. Her father
was scoundrel who had been glad to
he rid of her for the years Of her child
beautiful woman, had thought it worth
his while to take her to the city to be
the mistress OF his house, and "A greater
attraction to draw those into his society
whom he desired to entmp and fleece.
" But she was too pure for his pur-
poses, and he found that there was no
hope of making her useful unless he
could reduce her moral character nearer
to his own level. / will not believe,
never did believe, that he designed to
wrong her, or that he would have con-
scented TO debase her to the level Of those
women who sometimes formed part of
the evening company in the house. He
had some sense of shame, some reverence
for the holiness of her mother left. His
idea was not TO destroy, only to sully
the purity of her character. Not to
make her bad, but only to make her look
without shudder on sin. But to nc
complish this he must detach her from
her former associates and friendships,
and, above all, from the old rectory. So
he threw every possible obstacle in the
waw of the reunion Of those bonds which
he had 80 rudely sundered.
alt happened somewhat curiously
that the same day that / met Lily in the
street i met IN old servant of my faith
er, man who had lived with us from my
childhood, and who was discharged with
n legacy from my father on his death.
had no knowledge Of his whereabouts,
but now learned that he was in the en-
ploy Of Mr.. Ray. Having been engaged
but few weeks previously, he had Just
began to to find out the character of his
employer, and WIS about to leave his
master, when ] begged him to serve me
by remaining little longer. had a
| plan in my brain for the rescue of the
fair girl, which had not matured in the
half hour since met her in the street,
but which the meeting with David SEEM
ed to make perfectly feasible.
81 need not pause to relate toyou how
the rector sought and obtained nm inter-
view with his unworthy brother-in- law
or how he failed. We were not sad
party, for We were too indignant for that