The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1883-05-12

evening, in the winter, there was fire
in the parlor. the parlor lamp
was lit at dusk all the year round and
Maria's mother retired early that the
young people might ''sit mp" The '.sit-
ting up was no very formidable affair
now, whateverit might have been in the
first stages of the courtship. The need
of sleep over balanced sentiment in
those old lovers, and by ten o'clock at
the latest Maria's lamp was out and
David had wendell his solitary way to
his own home.
Leyden people had great curiosity
to know if David had ever actually
popped the question to Maria, or If his
natural slowness was at fault in this as
in other things. Their curiosity had
been long exercised in vain. but Widow
Brewster, IS she waxed older, grew To-
quacious and one day told neighbor,
who had dropped in in her daughters
absence. that sDavid had never RELY
come to the pint. She supposed he
would some time; for her part, she
thought he had better; but then, after all,
knowed Maria didn't care, and maybe
twas Jest as well as twas, only some
times She was afeard she should never
live to see the weddin' If they wasn't
spry.n Then there had been hints con-
corning certain pearl-colored silk which
Maria, having good chance to get at
bargain, had purchased some twenty
wears ago, when she thought, from sum
dry remarks, that David was coming to
the point, and it was further intimated
that the silk had been privately made up
ten years since, when Maria had again
surmised that the point was about being
reached. The neighbor went home in
state Of great delight, having by skillful
maneuvring actually obtained aglimpse
of the pearl-colored silk.
It was perfectly true that Maria did
not lay David's Hardness in putting the
important question very much to heart
She was too cheerful. too busy and too
much interested in her daily duties to
fret much about anything. There was
never at any time much of the senti-
mental element in her composition. and
her feeling for David was eminently
practical ia its nature. She, although
the woman. had the stronger character
of the two, and there was something
rather mother-like than lover-like in her
affection for him. 1t was through the
protecting care which chiefly character
lied her love that the only pain to her
came from their long courtship and post
ponement of marriage. 1t was true that,
wears ago, when David had led her to
think, from certain hesitating words
spoken at parting one Sunday night.
that he would certainly ask the mo-
mentous question soon, her heart had
gone into happy flutter. She had
bought the pearl-colored silk then.
Years after, her heart had fiuttered
again, but . little less wildly this tire.
David almost asked her another Sunday
night Then she had made up the pearl
colored silk. She used to go and look
at it fondly and admiringly from time
to time; once in a while she would try
it on and survey herself in the glass,
and imagine herself David's bride-a
faded bride, but a happy and beloved
one.
She looked at the dress occasionally
now, but little sadly, as the conviction
was forcing itself upon her more and
more that she should never wear it. But
the sadness was always more for David s
sake than her own. She saw him grow
ing an old man, and the lonely uncered-
for life that he led filed her heart with
tender pity and sorrow for him. She
did not confine her kind Offices to the
Saturday baking. Every week his little
house was tidied and set to rights, and
his mending looked after.
Once, on Sunday night, when she
spied rip in his coat that had grown
long from the want of womanly fingers
constantly at hand, she had good cry
after he had left and she had gone into
her room. There was something more
pitiful to her, something that touched
her heart more deeply. in that rip in hcr
lovers Sunday coat than in all her long
years of waiting.
As the years went on It was some.
times with sad heart that Maria stood
and watched the poor lonely old figure
moving slower than ever down the street
to his lonely home; but the heart was
sad for him always and never for her.
self. She used to wonder at him little
sometimes. though always with the mosl
loyal tenderness, that he should choose
| to lead the solitary. cherries life that he
did, to 90 back to his dark. voiceless
home, when he might be so sheltered
and cared for in his old age. She firmly
believed that it was only owing to hel
| in lover incorrigible slowness, in this a
everything else. She never doubted fol
an instant that he loved her. Some
women might have tried fastening mat
tiers little themselves. but Maria, with
the delicacy which is sometimes more
inherent in steady, practical nature
| like hers than in more ardent one
would have lost her self-respect forever
! if she had done such thing.
So she lived cheerfully along, corded
her boots, though her fingers were get
ting stiff, hirmored her mother. who wa
getting feebler and more childish every
year, and did the best she could for hel
poor foolish old lover.
When David was seventy, and she