Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-08-31

tale, peIore redeemed the pledge made
to- my own heart the night before.
She played up to my hand herself.
. You and Jack had a long, talk last
might, Patience
IS Yes. Sit down here in this low
chair by my knee while T tel1you what
1t was all about"
Hetty was between the window and
me. The perfect profile showed like a
Silhouette against the dusky goods out
side.
"We are talking about YOU"
The silhouette was turnedI away from
me. Hetty's, voice was faint and breath
less.
"About me?"
eyes. Jaoa was telling me about you
when you were a little g;rl-how he.
used, to carry you about; how dearly he
loved you"
My task was even hasder than L
thought it would be. [ dare not touch
Hetty's hand-those meek hands-long.
slender, helpful, folded in her lap, for
my own were cold and trembling.
He was very, very good to me, all
ways"
Eyes; ANIL am sure, he always VIII
be. He told me last night that he felt
you had 81 stronger, deerer claim upon a
mans tenderness than any other wo1aan
could have"
Because I am-ddfferent to other
women?'
Yes; set apart, as it were; sacred
doomed to a certain extent to stand
alone in the world, without those nearer
ties"
"He meant that I ought never to
marry ?''
1 could not see Hetty's face. / saw
the folded hands clasping each other
closer and closer. Once [ felt O. shudder
shake the poor nalsshapen frame that
made my dearest girl different to other
women"
Said I not rightly that my task was
hard
eyes; he meant that your life was diff
ferent to others"
eyes; [ had forgotten"
A long, deeply-drawn breath told me
my arrow had gone home.
"And SO, just because be holds you in
such reverence, such tenderness; just
because he IS SO ready to fear you might
fancy he could change to you, it is hard
for him to tell you
She turned her face-white in the
gray CHASTITY ight-fully toward me.
Her eyes, wild, wide, full of fear, met
mine. She threw up her hands as if to
keep off some horrible knowledge that
threatened to crush her to the earth.
All my courage, all my calmness for
sock me.
ooh, Hetty, Hetty !" cried, finging
my arms about her, gathering her up to
my breast, rocking her to and fro as one
would a sick and weary child. "It is
true that you think, what you fear. Oh,
my darling if [ could suffer in your
stead would; but I cannot-I cannot no
one can"
The white face lay back against my
bosom. Hetty's eyes were closed. I
their long lashes even in that faint and
feeble light.
Had the cruel blow killed her? Had
[ lost the one thing loved on earth?
No; for her arms close aboutmy neck;
fast-fast and close she holds me.
Tears rain down her poor pale face;
sObs choke her utterance.
1t is best SO, and let her weep on.
At last she speaks:
cit must have hurt you terribly to
say all this to me. You did it, know,
to save me from myself How good you
are to me, my dear I have been wrong;
I have been selfish, thoughtless, wicked;
but he grew so dear-so dear that I for
got, quite forgot that my life must be
different to that of all other women for
ever. &c.," she went on, drawing
little packet from the bosom of her dress,
"this is the pOsy he wore that happy
Sunday when he and I went to church
together, and the bells rang sweetly, and
all the world about me seemed full of
music"
All this happened many, many years
ago.
Hetty and live together now.
We have done sa long while; ever
since Mrs. Deacon died.
Jacks marriage turned out very
happy one, and the children dote upon
and tyrannize over their Aunt Hetty be-
You'd anything ever saw.
Not only so, but their father has the
same gentle, loving tenderness, the same
reverential love for his old playmate
the woman who is different from
others "-as ever he had,
The withered posy still lies in corner
of Betty's desk. I know, for I have seen
it many times and oft.
It serves, doubt not, to remind her
that she once forgot-once loved but too
well, and then lived her sorrow down
and took up her life as it had been
ordered for her-as brave woman
should.
My tale has no plot in it after ALL It
is not half as full of incident as those I
used to write in Paradise place, while
the hoarse dog put me out by barking
and the lark cheered me up with his
sonf. It is only the stery of one woman's
heart, told by another woman who loved
her dearly and loves her dearly still.
Wonderful Time-Piece.
In the South Kensington Museum,
at London, is a small watch about 100
years old, representing an apple, the