The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-03-12

teristic symptoms were sitting over The flro
for hours. and drinking much whisky.
Mcgs lislessness and moodiness were un.
perceived by him. II she had muddied
the coffee or made the bread sour, he
would have said at once, "What ails the
girl?' but as Meg did her work as usual,
he saw nothing. So on this evening lie ate
his supper leisurely, and as usual in si-
ltnce, and then islled deliberately into his
grcaicoat pocket and produced the letter
"Herc. Meg l got this out of the post.
Office for you; and Bill Fosters back, and
will be here tomorrow"
1t was not difficult for Meg Anderson TO
take the letter from her father without q
sign of emotion. Indeed, the effort would
have been rather TO evince feeling than 10
reprcss IT, Such things are so much mat.
ters OF habit, and the habit of her life had
been silence She put II in her pocket and
went about her work. Her father sat by
the fire and smoked, and once said, "Why
don't you read your letter."
you know I'm slow at reading hand.
writing and it's best for me TO wait til I've
time" she answered.
He said no more, but after knocking the
ashes out Of his pipe, yawned once or twice
porentously, and then babe her grult
goodnight. Then. when he had gone and
she was alone. she waited no lo' ser, but
sat down by the dim lamp and X al Arthur
Middlcton's letter. 1t began:
You must have wondered my dear Meg. over my
| abrupt disappearance and my enigInat ga note,
| could not speak mon PLAINLY then. Nov may ard
/ assure yOn have chosen You among the FIST TO
rear thai thr desire Of my hear is fnflled; haye
| won the love Of my cousin, MISS Helen Feather
| stone. Then followed superficial ssetcl of his
| pl us ard great many kindy phrases and assur;
! some day n.eJ her again, ending with his best
wishes Tor TIE future an9l shall never forget how
| pleasant vow matte my summer OF waiting, and l
-A' ARTHUR MIDDLETON.
That was all; although the letter was not
short, still virtually there was nothing in II
but great deal of kind feeling and gra-
| ciousness Arthur had meant indeed when
| he wrote this letter to communicate some
definite plan for Meg's future, but he had
counted upon his cousin To construct such
a plan; and when he had once met her.
somehow the quiet little creature who had
been the only human interest in his Sum-
mer was so dwarted by her juxtapostion
to this giant feeling Of his lite, that no
time seemed appropriate, no impulse moved
him TO introduce her name, Her individu
atty faded almost at once into a dim,
pleasant memory, and Arthur WAS too
happy to be anything but absorbed aud
egolisical.
Meg sat long over the fire after she had
read Arthurs letter through twice She
did not cry over it, it gave her no violent
emotion or shock; only somehow as she
folded ii up aler the second reading, she
felt a strange, dead feeling come "er her
something like being extinguished She
would have said had she been used to illus.
lrate her feelings by comparison; and in
truth life seemed 10 taste and look like
ashes 10 her. Perhaps the hardest thing
about the grief OF a young pcrsOn-or an
Ignorant untaught creature, is its one idea
ness, one-sdedness, its narrowness of vi.
sion, and consequent intensity. The youth
the futures sole inferior, feels as ii life
was over, while in truth he has but STUN.
bled on its threshold and every door is yet
to open. He sees nothing beyond his i'm.
mediate grief. The untutored nature sees
only the side Of sorrow which it feels, and
has none of the noble consolation that
comes from conviction born of breadth and
depth of thought, that from pain Of cae
creature springs the joy OF another, sad
that Birth is Deaths child. Poor Meg sag
nothing Of how it was, how it could not
but be so; she only felt it. She had strayed
along, not even knowing of the existence
OF those iron laws that now were grinding
her soul to powder.
1t was all bitterly hard to her. She had
never thought of loving. She had loved,
and the knowledge that she possessed a
capacity to love and suffer came with the
vital agony of feeling her love eradicaicd
rs if by a sharp, keen knife. and there was
no way Of escape for her. The narrowness
OF her life shut her in she was thrown
buck upon herself utterly and entirely She
was like a Gagged bird once set free, soaring
once abroad in heavens light and air, anu
then cruel hand breaks its wings aud II u
again and forever bound to earth. She ha'
not known in what mere dream she had
been living till it was shattered. This let
ter seemed to turn the palace of her imagi.
nation into hut. All her old bitterness
came back like food; the doors Arthur
had opened to her seemed TO shut with
dull, memorable sound, and II sulen dark.
ness settled down on her soul. She was
too unframed and untaught to rise above
her pain, else the memory of the Summer
might have remained embalmed and pre-
cionS. No; she turned upon her hearts
garden and trampled down its tender Spring
shoots She might have known, she said
to herself, that she was not meant to be like
him, and she was nothing, had never been
aught TO him but an amusement. lie had
crossed the gulf between them, and she had
forgotten that when he once repassed il, 1t
could never be bridged over She would
never think Of him again. She was most
miserable. Before she closed her eyes that
hght she had swept away all vestiges of
the past from her mind, and set her face
like a flint toward her old life come back.
bill Foster would come tomorrow, and
better So" she thought lie came and
found Meg, when he proposed an early day,
ready to be married when he pleased.
In a few weeks it was all settled, and
( Foster and his wife lived on with her father
in the cottage on the hill. She resumed
her old life, and it Jared with her according
to the common lot. Children we norm to
her; two died, and the Others foul al mum.
Der, lived and grew up about her. Her
days were busy and monotonous, filed with
work, and not exempt from anxiety and
care but still free from great suffering and
not devoid Of some simple pleasures. Her
children loved her with love uncommon
in its tenderness and intensity, aud she re.
turned il teniold. Her husband found her
II