The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-03-24

child and an orphan. Neither she nor
her uncle had any kinsfolk in the neigh
borhood. Cousins, Kate believed she
had somewhere in the North but there
had been an estrangement in the family,
and these she had never seen.
Is it anything dangerous, Mr.. Arm
ton? NV uncle will recover, will he
not?" Kate asked when, after care
ful examination of his patient, Edgar
stood for minute or two in the wide,
old-fashioned hall.
Very charming looked the questioner,
and there was no wonder Arnton was
once more magnetzed.
81 sincerely trust so, Miss Gerrow,"
he replied "of course dare not dis
guise from YOU that there is risk-grave
risk, that is inseparable from such cases;
but do not see the least reason for des-
pair. Pray do not worry yourself un-
necessarily"
"My uncle is the only relative have
living in the whole West of England"
she said. "You will not conceal his
real condition from me mt any time, L
beg, Mr.. Arnton." she subjoined.
"No, Miss Gerrow, 1 will be quite
frank although it is medical privilege
to be discreet. you know. But you will
need trained nurse. The work will be
to delicate for ordinary servants, and too
wearying by far for you. May l send
one from the Holstead Infirmary?"
eff you think that that will be the
best course to take. But shall certain
" wait On uncle principally myself"
And so Kate did And day by day in
his visits Edgar Arnton met her, and felt
more deeply, more individually In love.
Not that he abandoned in any degree
his determination 20 refrain from becom-
ing Hates sutton. That resolve was as
firm as ever. He simply elected to drift
with the tide.
The patient gradually recovered, and
bore grateful testimony to Edgar's pro-
fessional skill.
The mend was not long, though
message in the dead of night some
few weeks after took Edgar hurriedly
away to Brixby Lodge, to find that an
other and severer seizure had proved
Immediately fatal.
Hates grief was intense Edgar must
have seemed strangely cold and distant
in the dark days before the funeral, for
he was compelled to keep down his SYM
pathy with an iron hand, and to breathe
coincidence In the most conventional OF
phrases. But for so doing he felt NOR
ally sure that his VOW of personal silence
would have been irretrievably broken,
and he meant to conquer yet.
But In the course of time an odd ru-
NOR reached him. The old mans will
had been read, and Kate was not an
heiress after all. With chaos of con-
hicting emotions surging within his
breast, Edgar called on Mr.. Trent and
learned the truth.
"The document is dated ten years
back, before Miss Gerrow came to live
with her uncle" said the solicitor.
"There is no doubt as to its genuine
ness. Every one thought he had made
q later one-I did myself, but none can
be found beside this. L suppose he put
the business off, as 80 many people do,
until it was too iaJe. The property all
goes to a wealthy Lancashire manufact-
urer"
"How does Kate-Miss Gerrow take
it?"
AS quietly rs you may guess. Some
girls would have been almost killed by
the disappointment, but not she. You
had better go up and see her. She is
not an heiress now. Indeed, she'll have
barely enough to live upon, unless this
cousin does something for her-which
is doubtful"
Edgar took the advice, and went up to
the desolate great house the same after
noon. Some commonplaces passed, and
then that old, old story burst forth
which somehow always seems to me far
too sacred to be written out in detail on
any authors scribbling paper. Edgar
made q full confession, and not in vain.
"The saddest experiences of my
youth" he said, "came through mar
riage for money, and through misplaced
confidence. Very early / vowed that
that mistake should III no shape ever be
mine that nobody should ever throw
fortune-hunting of that kind in my teeth.
And yet with smile of infinite con-
TENT am not certain, Kate, after
all, whether love would not have beaten
me in the end"
81 hope so" the maiden answered,
shyly.
There was sale at Brixby Lodge,
III uuS SOliSb Ollc VI lLc
manufacturers sons, who had recently
married, came down and was installed
as his fathers representative.
Edgar Arnton had arranged that Kate
Gerrow should reside in London with
his sisters until such an interval had
passed as etiquette prescribed. At the
sale he was large purchaser, and poor,
as, by comparison, he had once styled
himself, the house he furnished was one
of the best in the village.
Wedding and honeymoon were both over
Edgar had just come in from his days
round ofvisits, and was standing with his
wife at the window, gazing out at the
fast-falling snowhakes that foreboded
white Christmastide. Suddenly there
was crash behind that caused both to
look round. A Persian kitten gambol-
ing mischievously on the top of an escri-
toire, had knocked down the plaster fig
ure of an antique cup-bearer. The fra
gile article of vertu was broken into
dozen fragments, amid which tiny
silver key revealed itself.
"That is where the key of uncle's
japanese cabinet went to, them" said
Kate "the hand and arm of the image
must have been hollow, and the key, once
Al Al