The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-12-29
A NEW YEAR CHOICE.

One might think, who saw her life,
that few people led lonelier life than
Nina Prentice did. An orphan with
narrow means, keeping up her dead
fathers house, there was little visible
excitement in such an existence. Yet
hers was temperament that did not
require excitement, and that found hap
piness where others would not dream
of looking for it. Her garden and her
flowers were like household to her;
the poor all over the little hill-town af-
.forded Ter occupation; she visited
: somewhat among a few wealthy ac-
quaintances; and, for the rest, if she
had such day dreams as other young
girls are won't to indulge, no one was
any wiser for them.
Nobody knew that her friends father,
the wealthy Mr.. Barnes, had made her
standng offer Cf marriage any time
within the last three years; nobody
knew from her that Bryce Hanscom
went out to a Mexican ranch because
she had no smiles TO give him; nobody
knew whether Harold Hartley's face
ever glanced out of the windows of her
castles in the air; nobody knew whether
one New Years day she looked forward
to the next with any wonder as to what
it might bring her of sorrow or Joy.
She was so sweet, so silent, so gentle,
that people in general knew no more
of her emotions than of those of the
statue of some saint in its churchly
niche.
Yet it was only on the last New Years
evening that, if any one had been able
to look behind her curtains, they would
have seen her on her knees before the
low blaze of her fire., crying as if her
heart would break, burying her face in
her hands and longing for the night
when d" this fever called living" should
be over at last.
"New Years and New ears !" she
sobbed. "Ah! how can 1 bear an
other so alonep
Perhaps Mrs. Hartley, her mothers
old intimate, had some faint idea of the
fire that burned under this crust of
snow. But Mrs. Hartley was not en-
tirely impartial in her judgment of the
girl, and it was her morning and even.
i, & prayer that Nina should at some day
stand III closer relation to her than
she did at present. Eut, as that would
be impossible without her son Harold's
Intervention, she left no stone unturned
to that end. Mrs Hartley thought she
knew a great deal better what was good
had made up her mind tat he had
better marry Nina Prentice, it was be-
cause she consulted his best welfare
possibly without complete regard to
Nina's. She knew that Harold, although
so affectionate, was of high temper;
and that Nina had ine1haustible stores
of still patience, and that that still pa
tience would await the time when he
should come back to her, no longer the
Knight errant, spurred by restless
nature, but quiet and dignified gentle
nan, ready to take his fathers honored
place in the community. Her ap-
proaches in the question were exceed
ingly gentle; yet not so gentle that
they d d not put Harold on his guard,
SO that he was like the hAnted deer,
snuffing the gale afar off.
"Well, mother, thank goodness" !"
ne said, with light laugh, on detect
ing her meaning, "that we do not live
in France, and that you can't go and in
luire Nina's dot and settle tue"
IL . u NCi1 BOON NOu3
snug little income to keep the wolf
from the door and satisfy reasonable
wants; and it would be vastly better for
any husband than launching out on the
Tremendous fortune of Miss Barnes,
with palaces, so to say, and yachts and
racing horses"
"Just give me the chance to see it if
1t is. Go to Miss Barnes, mother"
cried Harold, gayly. "Ask the amount
OF her dot, and if your scapegrace of a
son is worth it. Yachts and racing
horses 1 like the idea"
"Oh, Harold p
"But Miss Barnes is a beauty, too.
mother, and very sweet and gay. The
man that rlarries her needn't marry for
her money at all She would have low
ers if she hadn't a penny in her own
right. Don't ee marry fur money, but
go wheer money be-" quoted Harold.
excellent advice, that old northern
farmers. An I'll go where money be-
tonight" as he drew on his gloves.
Don't talk so, Harold. Don't talk
SO, even in jest. Miss Barnes may be
we'll enough, for all 1 know, but her
money would destroy you, who were
not born to money. You would do
nothing and come to nothing. But as
for Nina Prentice, as l said, she's a
saint"
Wouldn't do at all for a wife then.
Wives mustn't be too good for human
natures daily food Think of reprov-
ing saint because the buckwheats
were fiat, or the buttons of. Adios, you
managing mamma" and he was gone.
1t was a misty summer night, so
thick one could hardly see star. But
those ringing steps needed no guiding
star to direct them; for, to tell the
truth, Harold Hartley suspected himself
of being already more than half in love
with Miss Barnes. Undoubtedly, there
was something in her superb surround
ings that added to her own charms /;
and she seemed, too, as entirely at
home in them as the flower that BIOS
SONS in the rich, moist air of the hot.
house. That velvet lawn, set with its