The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-20

asked permission to bring a friend, and who do
you suppose it is2'
81 cannot guess, " said Meta, languidly, ''some
musical man, L suppose, as Mr.. Jarvis is SO de-
voted to Euterpe."
mo; it is Morris Tucker! Oh, Meta, I am so
glad you have not positively accepted young
Cooke!"
Il thought you were very anxious to be
mother-in-law to his two hundred thousand dol
larsl"
But not since I have heard Mr.. Jarvis's news.
Ny love, John Tucker has some land claims in
California that Morris hunted up and sold for
more than double young Cookies fortune. He
has come home now, and is settling his uncle's
estate, being his heir for everything"
Uncle John dead!' cried Clarice.
yes, more than a year ago, though Morris
has just returned. The bell! Some one is
coming"
In the crowded drawing-room, an hour later,
Morris Tucker bent gracefully over Metals hand,
and responded politely to her cordial greeting,
lie met all her advances with such evident pleas
ure in his welcome, that her heart beat high
with hope. Life had been q struggle for a rich
husband ever since she made her debut in so
clety. and now there was one paying her defer
entail attention upon whose heart she had once
made a deep impression. Would he forget that
cruel parting interview, and lay his fortune once
more at her feetl
Mr.. Cooke. a young man, about half witted,
p%osSessor of two hundred thousand dollars,
watched the brilliant beauty who had smiled so
sweetly upon him all winter with Jealous eyes,
after Morris had entered the room, but Meta
forgot him in her newborn hope, All the
evening Morris lowered about Meta, wondering
where Clarice had hidden herself; but when the
supper call thinned the room Meta missed her
cavalier. In the conservatory Morris had seena
vision of a golden head and white, flowing dress;
and Clarice, half hidden by a flowing screen,
saw him desert Meta to come beside her.
Longing to see him, in an agony of maidenly
shame at the secret she had revealed when they
parted, she had hidden there to watch him uu-
seen. But he came swiftly across the flower
bordered path to her side, and taking her hand
in his, said:
"Clarice, I have come all the way from Cali
fornia to try to win your love. Little one, with
all my heart l love you. My sole hope of happi-
ness is the hope that you will be my wife. Must
L go back again, d~esolate, or will you bid me
stay"
She looked into the earnest face, the pleading
eyes, and her heart grew faint with its owl hap
piness as she whispered:
Stay, for l love you, Morris"
Meta saw the sister she had always despised
for her timidity and the lover she had thrown
aside in his poverty enter the drawing-room
together, and her heart was full of anger as she
read their secret in their happy faces.
She has been Mrs. Cooke for three years-the
miserable wife of a jealous miser, whose sole
aims in life are to save money and to keep his
wife out of society. In their unhappy home
there is constant quarreliug, while Morris blesses
every hour the temporary poverty that led him
to appropriate the heart of his little wife, and
won for him a knowledge of the treasure of her
love. There is a toddling boy named John, who
calls Morris papa" and in the peaceful happi-
ness of her home life and mother love Clarice is
rapidly conquering her old timidity and letting
the world Of society see, sometimes, what an
accomplished, graceful lady Morris has won Tor
his wife.
And Morris, holding her to his heart, will
often say, tenderly:
The happiness of my life commenced, Clarice,
when your tender sympathy greeted me at the
time l was under a Cloud