Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-29
ONE WAY OF LOVE.

COMEDY or Tragedy, when they laughed and
cried with the discernment of millionsires
familie On Sunday mornings they sang
IN choir and walked 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 AIR. Van Week was 90.
ing with Miss Hildreth, but Miss Helen
always protested that he was merely a
friend, that they were neighbors at home
and had gone TO school together when they
were In their pinafores and the laudlady
always shifted when she remarked, eft
he's nothing but q friend l should think
there'd be a secession of his ove-making
sooner or later. "
One day when they were rambling about
Mount Vernon together Helen fell into a
romancing vein.
Suppose this is my country seat" said
she, land have furnished it in the Queen
Anne style, and I'm entertaining the creme
de la creme, just as they do in novels
ga sort of Lady Geraldine and l am
the poor poet, en-"
"All but the poetry" Knocked Helen.
Now suppose this is my manor house, "
suggested Theodore, GO furnished in the
renaissance, let us say-rm making great
demands on your inagination-and I'm
entertaining all the swells. I've lured you
re on the preteIt of looking for four.
leafed clover, but really to ask if you will
share my magnifcence with me, what
should you say"
L should put my lessons in gymnastics
into use and jump at the chance"
And if l should ask instead
Come share my cottage, gentle maid %
'Don't - cried Helen.
He looked at her little blankly.
l don't mean anything. Don't let US
talk about marrying and giving in mar.
rage; we are happy enough as we are"
But if | don't marry you some other
fellow will" a
Nonsense; penniless girls are drug
in the market. I've seen misery enough
from marrying on small salary I've seen
people living in two rooms, on water
and crust, SO TO speak, doing their own
work, and no society, and no hope of
amendment; people who thought love
would tide them over all the quicksands-
and presently the hallucination wore off,
but the quieksands remained reproaches
set in, she grew bitter and unlovely, and
he morose and regretful"-
''Then you think love an hallucination ~
81 think marriage is s. mistake on twelve
hundred year. If became dowdy and
hadn't time to cultivate taste for esthetic
or whatever was the fashionable craze, and
grew jaded and spiritless with the uncon.
genial task OF washing pots and kettles and
stewing over q range, and IS Is nobody turned
to look after me as passed, one day you
would find yourself disenchanted. Then,
,supposing the new administration should
push you out of Office, even for a month, or
you should fall i'll? No, we are happy
enough just as we are-don't let us discuss
marriage; let US wait like Mr.. Micawber,
till something turns up"
And so Van Week waited. Perhaps he
was disappointed in Helen's views, but he
refused to confess it, even to himself; all
women felt SO, he supposed, cared more for
shadow than substance, or mistook the one
for the other; it was their poetic tempera-
ment which made poverty hateful to them
and splendor their natural hemisphere, and
he applied himself more diligently than
ever to his idea, working far into the night
at times,
You were not at the Presidents last
evening"" one of his fellow clerks said to
him later.
Il? No, should think not.
But Miss Hildreth was there. She
and Mr.. Sterling, NJ. c., were hand in.
glove. l heard him ask her to go and hear
Lohengrin to. morrow 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 pick at. If Mr.. Sterling was fas-
cinated by Helen it surely was no fault of
hers. Many man had been bewitched by
her before this elderly Congressman, only
Theodore forgot that they had all been
needy suitors and as for Helen, he felt az
sure OF her % of seed time and harvest.
Bat ON enc occasion he left his work
early and FASTENED to see her; a cloud of
ugly rumors had assailed him and inter-
fered with his tastes she should brush
all the cobwebs out of his heaven. He met
her coming down the staircase in white
evening dress, with flowers in her hand
costly exotics, such as wealthy lovers send
their sweethearts, such as he mad never
dared to buy.
where did they come from?" he de.
manded.
.'They grew. | spectg-like Topsy,"
answered Helen, laughing uneasily.
w hSlO uld you SCb SLSiiiJ lItttu.
"You are inquisitive, Mr.. Van Week
They were sent me.
by Mr.. Sterling?"
You do credit to your nationality,
you're a capital Yankee. Yes, Mr.. Ster-
ling, of course"
Helen" he cried, beneath his breath
Helen, are you going to marry Mr.. Ster-
bng?"
"I-I believe l am, she said, dropping
her eyes.
Theodore never knew exactly how he
found his way out of the house he was
vaguely aware OF brushing against stout
gentleman in a fur trimmed ulster, as he
shot into the street, of stately carriage
and pair standing at the door, and dark.
browed lady leaning out to look after him
The next day he resigned his position in
the postoffice, drew his saving from the
bank and left Washington. 1t were well
perhaps if he could put deserts and seas
and mountain ranges between Helen and
himself. 1t seemed 60 him as if the earth
had reeled from its orbit, and it required
time for him to readjust himself to the ait
uation. His idea was al that was left to
him I; he put into it all his earnings, he de-
voted heart and soul to its development,
and finally forgot himself and Helen Hill.
dreth in his work and its success.
1t was seven or eight years later that
they met, oddly enough on the Mount
Vernon boat. Her viyacity was no longer
the spontaneous etfervescence of youth and
hope; she was trife passe perhaps.
wealth and splendor have not proved
all her fancy painted them" he thought as
their eyes met, Mr.. Van Week. she
cried, who would thought of meeting you
here?" Was the pleasure which frightened
her eyes and deepeued her somewhat exag.
gerated dimpleH, "reminiscences OF hel
power or was Mrs. Sterling married firt
he wondered. 1--WE have heard OF you
often, to be sure. y. she purred. "The news.
papers have not been silent concerning you
| and your great invention. I've always fell
an ownership in that invention, do you
| know I felt as If / were behind the
scenes, let into the secret before the rest Of
the OUTSIDE world, when it was only Z
dream. I've resented every infringement. >
80 / am hattered that you remember my
small Affairs, said Theodore humbly.
Remember, she repeated with finger,
4 ing accent, !" I have nothing else to do. u
/" Z come down here sometimes, she pur.
sued after brief pause, "when we have 4
holiday, for the sake OF auld lang syne, an,
try to believe am seven years yoInge
and the world before me where torchoose
l like to come when the peach trees are il
bloom, as they were that day when W
built our castles in the ai2 Mine hav
icrumbled into dust"
:" Mrs. Sterling, I am CORY to hear 20,
4 speak 60"
She stared at hin, an instant, blushe,
and dropped her eyes IN the old effectiv
way.
Haven't yeh heard" she said, g
didn't marry W. Sterling"