Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-09-16
ONE WAY or LOVE.

She was a clerk in the treasury at
Washington on salary of nine
hundred dollars year; he was in
the post-office enjoying the privi-
leges afforded by an income of
Twelve hundred Once in while
there was holiday, when they
would take the. boat down to Mount
Vernon, if it was warm and spread
their lunch in the shadeo OF its his
toric trees and patronize nature as
successfully as if they were nabobs.
Sometimes they. had tickets given
them for a comedy or tragedy, when
they laughed or cried with the dis
cernment of millionaires and the
old families. On Sunday mornings
they sang in a choir, and walked
out to Long Bridge later in the day,
or strolled in the Capitol grounds
and surprised the first violet in It's
hiding place. Helen's landlady
told every new boarder that Mr..
Van Week s'was going with" Miss
Hildreth, but Miss lIildreth al
ways protested that he was only a
friend, that they were neighbors at
home and had goneto school togeth-
7er when they were in pinafore5
and the landlady always sniffied
when she remarked eff he's moth
ing but friend l think there'd be a
cessation of his s1ove-making sooner
or later"
One day when they were ram
bling about Mount Vernon togeth-
er, Helen fell into rOmancing
vein: "Suppose this is my country
seat" said she, "and l have fur
nished it in the Queen Anne style,
and Pm entertaining the creme de
Ia creme, just as they do in novels,
"a sort of Lady Geraldine-and
/ am the poor poet, eh ?'
"All but the poetry" Knocked
Helen.
"Now, suppose this is my manor
house," suggested Theodore, "fur-
nished in the renaissance, let us
say-pm making great demands on
your imagination and Pm enter
tanning all the sWells. I've lured
you here on the preteXt of looking
for a four-leafed clover, but really
to ask if you will share my magnif-
icence with me; what should you
say?"
81 should put my lessons in gym
nastics into use and jump at the
chance"
"But if should ask instead,
"Come share my cottage, gentle maid.
"DOn't !" Grid Helen.
He looked at her a little blankly.
"YOu don't mean that you care 50
little for me%'
81 don't mean anything. Don't
let us talk about marrying and CIV
ing in marriage; we are happy
as we are"
"But if 1 don't marry you some
other fellow will"
"Nonsense; penniless girls are a
drug on the market. Pve seen
misery enough from marrying on
small salary; 1've seen people liv-
ing in two rooms on water and
crust SO to speak, doing their own
work, with no pleasures and no So
ciety, and no hope of amendment
people who thought love would tide
them over all quicksands-and
presently the hallucination wore off
but the quicksands remained; re-
prOaches set in; she grew bitter and
unlovely, and he mOrose and neg
lectful-"
"rhen you think love an halluci-
nation ?'
81 think marriage is mistake
on twelve hundred a year. If l
became dowdy, and hadn't time to
cultivate a taste for aesthetics or
whatever was the fashionable craze
and grew jaded and spiritless with
the uncOngenial task of washing
pots and kettles and stewing over a
range, and if nobody turned to look
after me as 1 passed, one day you
would find yourself disenchanted.
Then supposing the new admins
tration should push you out of Of
flee, even for month; or you
should fall ill? No, we are happy
just rs we are; don't let us
discuss marriage, let us wait, like
Micawber, till something turns up
And 50 Van Week waited. Per
haps he was disappointed in Hell
ems views, hut he refused to confess
it eveh to himself; all women felt
OoH ObpitSPoINf iva
shadow than substance or miStoOk
one for the other; it was their po-
etic temperament which made pow
erty hateful to them and splendor
their natural atmosphere, and he
applied himself more diligently
than ever to his idea working tar
into the night.
"YOu were not at the Presidents
last evening"" one of his fellow
clerks said TO him later.
81? No; L should think not"
"Dut Miss Hildreth was there /;
she and Mr.. Sterling, M. c., were
hand in glove. | heard him ask her
to go and hear LOhengrin tomorrow
night"
"Mr. Sterling is in luck" was all
Van Week ventured to say he did
not choose to carry his heart on his
sleeve for every clerk to peck at.
If Mr.. Sterling was facinated by
Helen, ii was no fault of hers ;
many man had been bewitched
by her before this elderly congress
man, only Theodore forgot that
they had all been needy suitor5-
and as for Helen, he felt as sure of
her as of seed time and harvest.
But on this occasion he left his
work early and hastened TO see her;
a cloud of ugly rumors had assailed
him and interfered with his tasks
she should brush al the cobwebs
out of his heaven. He met her
down the staircase In
white evening dress, with flowers
in her haud-cOStIY eXOtics, such