The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1881-01-15

variety of topics than most young
women. To her father she was what
neither man nor woman could be but
herself. She was his friend and yet his
child, which is the tenderest of all con-
nections that bind together human
hearts. She knew all the strength and
weaknesses of his character, which was
by no means perfect. She governed but
she obeyed him, and his unspoken wish
was law to her proud and generous
heart.
He had accustomed her to military
obedience of orders, and she would
march off anywhere and everywhere at
the word of command with amusing
docility; for there was n thing which
the colonel could not bear, and that was
opposition to his will. In the midst of
her most hayward humors, and when
she felt elate with all the royalty OF her
womanhood, she would not have angered
him for the world.
Perhaps part of the honeyed secret of
the sympathy between them was that
she had a true hero-worship for the old
soldier, and fought his campaigns over
and over again with him with as much
pleasure as he did.
Her language glowed with a poetry all
her own when she she spoke of her
fathers worth and couarge.
She treasured up his clasps and medals
as of great price; his sword and sabre
tache were sacred in her eyes. AS they
talked together of sieges and of battles,
of deeds of daring and victory, she
looked indeed the fairest vision that
she could smile on valor when it's task
was done.
Neither father nor mother could make
up their minds to marry her, for they
knew no one worthy of her hand; and
her own heart never spoke. save
in merry jests among the
squires Of the county. Lord NAL
lowield had sided up to her at a won
derful ball she ate nded at Cowes; Mr..
Dewdney, who owned the next parish,
had been seen incoming about the lanes
every time she rode out. But his lord
ship was o robust widower, who could
only talk intelligibly of shorthorns; and
MI. Dewdney had a head of hair which
seemed to be on fire.
So things went on. One was dismissed
| with a smile, another with a sigh; blu .
the girl made no choice till she was
more than tive-and-twenty, when her
mother began to look grave.
pooh, pooh!" grow.ed the colonel,
when his wife preached the subject,
''Queenie' a marry half England
when she pleases."
He would never allow treason to be
| spoken against his darling; and, indeed,
he was constantly lodged about the COW
ert side on hunting-days by Aurora's
admirers, who only waited a word of
encouragement to declare themselves.
Mrs. Morton was silenced but not con-
WINGED, and she next spoke to the young
lady herself; but her daughter only
blushed a little and declared that her
home was too nice to run away from it.
"Humph" said her mother, dryly.
About this time Miss Morton, who
had been reading a great deal concern
ing artistic furniture, imbibed q taste
for house decoration, and nothing would
serve her but that tue ceiling of her
own room should be painted with an
elaborate device Of her own imagining.
Her design was appropriate and well
chosen, but far too complicated for any
of the local workmen, so the colonel
wrote to one OF the great firms in Lon
don to send down a special artist.
A few days afterward there arrived a
young artist with the appearance of an
Italian gentleman and the me of
good society. He spoke with a foreign
accent, but he also spoke perfectly good
English, and be was introduced to the
colonel as the most expert decorator
known in the business.
When the awkwardness Of having so
smart a laborer about the house had a
little warn off, he was supplied with the
necessary materials for his task, and
then. day after day, might be seen lying
on a sort of cradle he had made with
ropes TO a sc~affolding set up in Miss
Morton's private room.
She fully explained her plan to him,
and she saw with delight that he was
working it out with a brilliancy and
elegance such as she had scarcely dared
to expect. Whenever she looked at his
work as it went on she felt a new sur
prise and enchantment.
His name was Carmelo Williams, he
said, for his mother only wa Italian
and he wa not Extensively g~arrulous in
any way. But he had dark. lustrous
eyes, and a soft, cAressing voice, which
gave extraordinary expression and even
pathos to his language. When he was
alone he ~sang-sang with a marvellous
melody which comes only of Unborn
genius.
Aurora listened, at first timidly and
furtively, then e%ntranced; then, heaven
knows, perhaps ~magnetized. 1t was
Lo,-+sE,1 cup,uao ruao4bor TAo ~o,<