The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-06-08


to hope that you will listen to me.
Tell me, Edith, can you or do you care
a little about me?"
For a minute or two Edith was
silent, then she told him all the truth,
how they were situated, how she had
liked Jack Clifford, but for six years
had not heard anything of him, and
how, if she consented to be his wife,
he must be content with mere esteem
and affection, for she had no love to
bestow.
"You are honest, Edith, and truth
full" he said in a very low voice, land
l thank you for the confidence you
have reposed in me, but l must think
this matter over. L love you far too
well tor'sk your happiness in any way.
Six years is a long time to be faithful
to a silent lover, Edith
I'VE were scarcely lovers. DOCTOR"
she replied, with a sad little smile.
Jack just said, I'll come back Edith;
will you wait? and L said 1 wodld-
that was all. But poor papa was alive
then, and we were rich now every
thing is so different. For myself, L am
content as 1 an, but the children !"
"Ah, yes, the Notwithstanding
must be done for them. They are far
too much for you. Did you say Jack
Clifford went to the Cape, Edith, and
that you never heard from him"
"Yes, he said he was going to make
his fortune in the diamond fields, but
he never wrote, so 1 dare say he was
not successful, poor fellow Indeed, L
think he must be dead
al think not" DR.. AshbyIreplied,
thoughtfully. "Once more, Edith, l
thank you heartily for your candor and
confidence, and I will come to you for
your final answer at the end of a
month. Till then, goodbye" and the
doctor lifted his cap, and turned down
a by-path that led to the Dingle, and
poor Edith went home more perplexed
than ever.
seen DR.. Ashby-whatever did you say
to him, Edith?" Mrs. Bertram said
one evening ; "the house has seemed
w~retchedly dull without him. You
did not surely refuse him point
blank z"
"No, I did not refuse him." Edith
replied, YEARLY; she had answered
nearly the same question every day for
four weeks, and was tired of it. She
vas looking pale and worn, but Mrs.
Bertram never had eyes for any ones
illness but her own.
Mamma" Eva cried, bursting into
the room, there's the doctor and an
other gentleman !"
And Mrs. Bertram smoothed her
fluffy hair and put on her amiable
smile, while Edith's heart began to
beat fercely. She had thought the
matter over from every point of view,
add at length came to the conclusion
that it would be positively wicked to
marry the doctor while Jack Clifford
was so much in her thoughts, and,
come what might, she would not do it.
Presently he came in alone, and,
after a few moments conversation, he
asked her to walk with him for a few
minutes in the garden. She went at
once, longing to have the interview
over, and burst into the subject di-
rectly. 81 cannot be your wife, DIR.
Ashby; / think it would be wrong of
me to accept your proposal, feeling as
l do. Please try and forgive me and
let me CO.
"First, let me introduce my friend"
he said. laying his hand on her arIl,
land my new assistant-the work of
Ashmead is rather too much for me
Miss Bertram--Mr. Clifford"
"Jack!" In a moment she was in
bis arms, her face hidden on his
shoulder. all the long years of absence
and silence forgotten. She only felt
that he had returned. and she was
still free. Later she learned how it
had all come about-how DR.. Ashby
saw an advertisement in the paper,
and guessed that "Jno. C."must mean
Jack Clifford, lately returned from the
Cape, and several old Letters he dis
covered in a drawer in one of the
rooms of the Dingle convinced him
that there was treachery at work
somewhere. 50 he just engaged Jack,
and then tod him all about the Ber-
trans, and how Edith was still faith
full to him, though she never received
one of his letters.
The result was a very quiet wedding
in Ashmead church, and on that day
DIR. Ashby handed over the Dingle and
the practice to his partner, and went
to travel in South America, promising
to return about the time Blanche was
seventeen. Both the children he placed
at school. and Mrs. Bertram, feeling very
much ashamed of the part she had
played in intercepting Jacks letters,
left Ashmead, and in a few year
married a retired merchant at
Brighton, and so never troubled her
stepdaughter further.
Jack Clifford is fast becoming the
most popular doctor for miles around,
and when Seymour Ashby returns. If
he ever does. he will find the practice
greatly extended. Edith is perfectly
happy in her old home, the Dingle
and never for a moment has regretted
her perfect faith in Jack.