Smyrna times., 1883-10-24
The Stepmother.

JOu AOI SSG IHdI you are
my little wife"
The speaker was a young man of
~, and he addressed little girl whose
small and exceedingly slender little
Inquire would have indicated that She
had Seen 10 more than half his own
years had not the tear-stained face
which she raised to his displayed a
maturer expression. She could not
speak, but she flung her arms about
the neck of her departing friend, and
returned his salute with rain of pas
slonate kisses on his cheek, and brow.
ana eyes. Then, with mighty effort,
the small arms were wrenched away
ana the child fled sobbing to the house,
while the young man, mounting his
morse and waving farewell to Bessie's
parents, rode away down the embow-
cred country road.
She is a sweet little creature he
murmured, land how she loves me !
Ii she were a half-dozen years older
now, how ono would prize such kisses
from her rosy lips!" And smiling COM
placently, the youth presently forgot
that little slender figure and fearful
little face, and fell to building a most
ingenious aerial structure Of which
himself, in college cap and gown. was
ever principal iMhabitant.
Six years passed away, and then
these Two met again. The college
youth put on the confident bearing of
the man. He had battled successfully
with the incidents of life. He was
already rising lawyer, and had begun
to win the guerdons of fame.
Six years had changed the child.
Bessie, to woman. Small in person.
quiet. pale and exceedingly fragile,
yet with that rare beauty of expression
which is the indication and silent
language of heart and intellect. she
stood once more in the presence of him
from whom her allegiance had never
Wavered
Her souls lord, she came to him as
one approaches her fate. He did not
recognize her. At his first word it was
evident that his visit had no reference
to her who had shrined his memory so
purely all these years.
She was no longer Bessie" No
longer Hubert Lynn's little wife" but
Miss Cameron, one of the large class of
young ladies to be treated with the
quiet clvllity gentleman always paws
10 the seX-and that was all.
Hubert stayed three DAYS at her
fathers house. He addressed to her
during the time half-dozen common
place remarks; he did not once look at
her, and then he went away and Bessie
knew that the hopes which had inter
twlned with her life were shattered.
She was to strong to pine or die.
silently her heart had born it's rich
burden of hOpe-silently it still bore its
weight OF sorrow and disappointment.
She had not lost her ideal. All un-
known she still might love him at a
distance and silently share the triumphs
ne was certain to achieve and hold I'M
shanken the faith that, all unappreciat-
ed, was still to beautify her life
Henceforth she lived out of and in for
getfulness of self. And strange as it
may seem this new experience but
seemed to deepen and broaden the
sphere of her being. She was no
longer the pale, thoughtless girl, but
the active, energetic woman. Emerg-
ing from the seclusion of her inner lite
she grew beautiful. Her figure round
ed, the flush of health glowed upon
her cheek, and when Hubert LINN
met her two years later he did not pass
her by unnoticed.
He saw that she was beautiful glori-
fed in every feature, by the expression
of her great soul shining through her
face, and he said as much to his Young
bride as, by her side, he drove from
Mr.. Cameron's door.
Now the woman he had made his
wife had neither beauty nor intelli-
gence. She had wealth and belonged
to family of high position and in
huence. She was not wanting, either.
IN a certain shrewdness which had in
formed her this, that Hubert LYNN had
sought her hand, not from love, but as
the stepping stone of his ambition.
she was Jealous, proportionally, of anv
admiration he bestowed upon others :
and when he spoke thus enthusiastic
ally of Bessie Cameron, she answered
with a sneer.
Hubert was q man of the world.
lie looked to the triumphs of ambition
Tor compensation for all that his life
wanted OF home amenities, He piung.
ed into the arena of political life: his
name was on the lips of the people
praise and blame, contumely and iau-
datlon were bestowed upon him; some
doubtful rewards became his: hOnors
that expiated him-the ideals of his
ambitious dreams but false and hollow
realities in experience. So for wears
he moved round in the vortex of rest
less life, and ever with an unsatisfied
longing at his heart that no external
success could destroy.
so more than a score of years passed
away,
A score of years! Bessie Cameron
was q woman of 40, still young in soul,
still beautiful, for time could not rob
her OF that rare loneliness which was
not OF mere form and feature, but was
the exterior expression of the glorious
inner being.
She lived alone in the home of her
childhood. Her parents were dead
and she was left in sole possession OF
of that which, with simple country
| Ways OF living, was really wealth. She
was far too strong and Self-reliant to
give up to utter loneliness. Here
Hubert Lynn, widower, after twenty
years of wedlock, in which he had
known little of the joys of domestic
life, sought and found her. From the
hour that he saw her, when on his
bridal tour he had paid a passing visit
at her home, der memory had never
been quite smOthered in his soul,
After due period given to the exterior
forms of grief, he sought her home and
laid all that he had-fame, fortune,
high position and heart that had not
wasted even its first capacities of love
at her feet. wa ~ "
Then the dream of Ressie Cameron's
youth was realized, To be the wife Of
Hubert Lynn seemed to her the fulflll,
ment of her earthly destiny. She laid
her hand in his, and promised to walk
beside him all the remainder of heI
days.
They were married. A brief but
most delightful bridal tour succeeded
and then Bessie went to the home OF
her husband.
She had heard nom Hubert Lynn oil
his son and his two daughters, and was
prepared to love them for his sake, tc
go to them as friend to fulfill moth
er's love. She busted herself with
plans for increasing the happiness of the
family circle, and in picturing to her
| self how greatly the joys of life thai
had been so isolated and strangely re
pressed would be enhanced by contac,