Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-02-27
IL to zero-Agatha had disappeared.

No more talk about gallons of milk,
London market, home consumption etc.
She was tired, she said, and if Hannah
did not mind, they would return to the
house. They reached the bottom of the
garden, which lay in front of the draw
ing room windows, just as Agatha, &C
companied by Arthur, strolled up the
terrace towards the wood.
The sight was past bearing; this then
was to be the end of all her loving care
for Arthur; he was to marry Hannah's
penniless companion. Nor did Han
nah's remark, as she too perceived them,
tend to calm the excited mothers fears.
ooh! they are going to have little
chat. / told AQgy the sooner it was
over the better"
ga chat with my son? Has this
this Miss Burghley met Arthur before?"
Hannah laughed. ''Did you not
know? Oh! then / must not tell the
secrets OF the prison house. But pray
don't look SO rueful, aunty mine. The
secret is not of very dreadful nature. :"
Lady Best was, however, by no means
comforted by this intelligence. ear
thur had been carrying on with this girl
unknown to her and hence the reason of
his detection and Iistlessness. Of course
the neighbors were right; love was the
root of the evil. And to think of the
little mink forcing herself in here under
Hannah's auspices. Oh! it was too bad
very much too bad; she had been
treated shamefully!'
And, her heart too full to speak with
out committing herself, which pride pre-
vented when she remembered that this
niece had been conniving to deceive her,
she went indoors, up into her own room,
of which shelocked the door, and then
INDUCED in the luxury of a tempestuous
| burst of tears.
For more than an hour she remained
there, sobbing and composing herself
under the window. Carefully conceal
ing herself, she peeped from behind the
curtain.
There they we're, all three talking and
laughing, woke-up" look on Arthur
face which she had not seen there for
months.
1t was strange, very strange; and as
she stood and watched them she could
not make up her mind whether she had
or had not made q mistake in asking
these people to come. After all, if his
love for Agatha saved Arthur from de-
spondency and make man of him, she
ought to consider her object gained.
Anyway, she made up her mind to be
silent for the present and take notes;
and so deciding, she washed her face,
smoothed her silvering hair, set her cap
daintily on her head and went down
stairs, where the luncheon was decided
~ far more CHEEKY than the dinner had
been on the previous evening.
And the days passed on-life at the
cottage seemed very bright to all but its
mistress, who could not reconcile her
self to the facts that she had been de-
ceived; not even though it gladdened
her heart to hear Arthur laughing mer-
rily, as he sometimes did at his cousin 5
sallies, or to see him take an interest he
never took before in the farm and it's
working.
Agatha's pale, beautiful face would
come between the mother and the change
her presence seemed to have effected,
and Lady Best felt that she could never
love Agatha, even though Arthur's
whole happiness was centred in her.
But if she had lost son she had gain
ed daughter, for, approaching Han
nah's merits as she did to the fullest,
she self that she was each day learning
to love her more and more. Many
times YVES it on her lips to tell her how
grieved she was at the direction Arthur's
fancy seemed to have taken, but pride
held her back.
At last, almost before they could be-
ieve in its approach, St. Partridge ar
rived, and with it letter from Mr..
Milton, saying he should be back in
less than a week; that he would take
the cottage on his way, see his sister
and escort his daughter home.
What tears and heartburnings did this
letter produce! Hannah was evidently
in despair at leaving the cottage. Arthur
became as respondent as he was two
months ago; only Agatha seemed to
have no regret.
''Of course not, when she expects to
stay here always; not with me though.
She will not live here with me" ragged
Lady Best to herself.
And in this mood Arthur found her
one morning, when he sought her in her
little morning room she called her den.
He broke the ice without any prelina-
mary skating over it.
'Mother, will it not be pleasure to
you if [ bring you daughter to vel.
Gomez"
"Oh, Arthur, if you only knew how I
have dreaded this question:
dreaded it mother? I thought you
would be delighted"
SHOW could you? A penniless, lacka-
daisical, intriguing rest of her
sentence was a sob, interrupted, howev-
er, by an exclamation from Arthur.
Penniless-Hannah? Why, her only
fault in my eyes is that she has money,
and my uncle may think
'tHannah! You don't mean to say it
is Hannah you love? Oh, you dear Ar
thur-my own boy!
''You did not think it was Agatha?
Why, she has been engaged to my old
college chum, Lawrence Wilmot, for the
last year. They had little breeze just
before she came here, which had the
pleasure of making up. I could not tell
you, because the whole thing was q Sc
cret on account of his uncle. The old
gentleman. however. has given in and