Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-10-19

out, but break it to she bit by bit like. %
The conversation was earnest and pro-
longed. but it travelled, as is the won't of
familiar talk, very much in q circle. and
did not go beyond what has been indi-
Gated, though father and son varied the
form of expression from time to time
Meanwhile Mrs. Penny had been en-
gagged i'll a most interesting tete-a-tete
Az old sehoolfellow of hers-now a
widow in comfortable circumstances with
q married son and two unmarried daugh-
ters-had made O call at Elmholt farm
and Mrs. Penny, who bad lately medi-
tated much on her sons settlement in
life, with characteristic frankness and
directness had proposed:.a match between
him and Mrs. Burrows daughter. The
proposal met with gracious reception,
for Gus was decidedly eligible young
man. The living of Elmholt was more
than comfortable, and Mrs. Penny,
though not stingy, was frugal, and had
always lived below her income, SO that
she would inherit from her no inconsid-
cradle property. He was healthy,
good-looking, almost handsome young
fellow, frank and modest, high spirited,
and without a particle of vice. Any
mother might be well pleased to find such
a son-in-,aw, and Mrs. Burrows, who
could almost answer for her daughter.
saw no obstacle In the way of the match,
unless it lay in the young mans inclina-
| tons.
Gas to that said Mrs. Penny, we
are quite safe, Augustus (she never
condescended to the abbreyiation) "has
really seen no one, and he has no foolish
romantic notions. A more charming girl
than Marion [ know he could not find,
and [ know we have only to bring the
young folks together, as you and l will
manage it, to have everything settled
happily-and soon."
Mrs. Penny and Mrs. Burrows went
to work with gustO, and when Farmer
! Penny and his son returned from their
walk they were still at it.
But there was an obstacle to the full
| tilment of the scheme even more serious
| than the anti-clerical determination of
the young man; and of this even Farmer
| Penny knew nothing.
There had lately came to the farmer,
as sort of upper servant, niece of the
good farmer, bright eyed, neat handed,
and really betwitching young woman.
| IL IuLOs l. Chilly IDdlt II IONc-UdJCl1
with her steward, she might have sus-
| pected mischief here. But hers had
been merely a matter of convenience of
the most prosaic kind; the possibility of
Gus falling in love with his fathers
niece Alice had never flashed upon her,
even as remote contingency. Nor, in
truth, had it upon the honest old farmer,
though, living much in the kitchen
regions, he had seen them together far
more often than the autocrat had done,
and had listened to, and laughed at,
their bright wit-combats which she had
never heard.
And the denOuement was destined to
come upon them all very suddenly, for
Gus, rightly arguing that his mother
would never give her consent to such a
match, and that his father, from whom
certainly he anticipated neither opposi-
ton nor disapproval, would unquestion-
ably be severely handled, if be. were
made privy to the scheme, kept his own
counsel till he should be able to say,
eve are one till death do us part; what
use are reproaches?"
So just before Alice took her holiday
to visit her friends at Thornbury, Gus
elected to spend a week or two with an
| old college friend at Bristol, and one
morning a quiet little wedding party
stepped into the quiet little old fashioned
church of St John the Baptist, and Au-
gustus Penny, of Elmholt, and Alice
Covlngton, of Thornbury, glowing with
radiant happiness, stepped ont of it,
man and wife
On his way to the church, Gus had
posted long letter to his mother, ex-
| planning his invincible repugnance to
the career she had destined for him: his
determination to be farmer, the rare
qualities of the wife he had chosen, and
her eminent fitness to adorn that sphere
of life; his warm affection for his mother
and father: and the hope which he and
Alice indulged that it would be their
| happiness to minister to the comfort of
both in their declining years. 1t was a
good, honest, sensible letter, but it made
Mrs. Penny furious.
She tore her hair, stamped, screamed,
flung herself on the floor, went into vio-
lent Mysteries, and then lay for half the
day on the sofa, sobbing and moaning.
Utterly unreasonable it was, as everyone
must see; but not unnatural. The cher
ished purpose of fve-and-twe years
had been, just as it seemed on the eve
Of accomplishment, irrevocab!y dashed
into ruins, and the poor lady's desolation
OF soul WAS complete. Her boy, her
hope, her one love, passionately loved
under that queer, eccentric, autocratic,
half-comic exterior, was dead to her, and
the cloud which had taken BIN away
blotted cut all the brightness of life.
Presently, like David of old, she arose
from the earth, and washed and anointed
herself, and changed her apparel, and
caused bread to be set before her, and
she did eat. There was nothing now to
weep for, to toll for to JOY for any
longer.
When her husband approached her,
somewhat awe-struck. with homely words
of comfort, she repealed him with fierce
scorn, and imperat1vely forbade all refer
ence to the subject in the household. No
stranger had intermeddled with her Joy;
her bitterness was all her own. She