News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-10-23
A Mere Nobody

"You seem quite too interested in
that girl, Carlos; and she is such plain
and common sort of person, too" Mrs.
Filmer said querulously.
"Why, mother, I thought you were
very fond of Ruth" the young man
said. "Her figure and features are
beautiful, and her manners are exquis-
ite; she dresses, too, in the most perfect
taste, and in every way she is entirely
lady"
ST f.ar she has interested you even
more than I imagined" Mrs. Filmer
said, with stare of disapprobation. 'I
have never been fond of Ruth Gaylor. 7
only tolerate her while she must remain
our neighbor, and one does not wish to
be uncivil even to inferior and ill-bred
people. But her dress is quite too os-
tentatious for refined taste, and alto
gether too expensive for girl without
fortune. advise you to be very circum-
spect in your courtesies toward her,
Carlos"
The young man was amused by the
criticism. His lady mother herself had
q decided prediction for the expensive
and ostentatious, and she had neither
fortune nor prosperous connections.
81 am sorry, mother, that you have
so little liking for Ruth, F" he remarked.
"But you will learn to be fond of her
yet, I trust; she is to be my wife,"
Mrs. Filmer started, and her features
Redeemed with angry CONSERVATION.
"You mean to marry her-a girl with
out money and without any social recog-
milton whatever ?" she exclaimed excit-
edly. 81 will not allow you to make so
reckless a marriage, Carlos; you shall
not burden yourself with a penniless
wife. With your income such an alli-
ance would be madness"
ssMy income is sufficient to maintain a
wife in comfort" he said quietly. ST
regret your disappointment and am
grieved by disapproval that certainly
did not apprehend. But, all the same,
mother, I shall marry Ruth. Perhaps
you will have become more reconciled
when I shall return from business
ST shall never become reconciled,"
she avowed harshly, and urgently push
ing away the bearded lips that brushed
her forehead.
He looked perplexed and distressed as
he turned and left her. He felt there
could be small happiness for him with
hostility between his best beloved ones.
"I shall never become reconciled,"
the mother repeated mentally, as she
watched him down the street. "Had
he so preferred he might have welded
with one who would have exalted our
social position, and whose wealth I, too,
might have shared. But he has pre-
ferred mere nobody; and I must be-
come the dependent of the interloper or
be left to loneliness, drudgery and want.
L will never forgive him; my only son
shall become as if dead to me-"
That pitiless resolution she some time
later recalled with pangs of the sharpest
remorse. The son from whom she had
in anger parted that morning came not
home again that night. But instead
came awful tidings of casualty and
death there had been an unaccountable
and great, incomplete build
ing had tumbled into its deep and blaz-
ing foundations. Beneath the falling
walls and burning timbers was buried a
score of dead and dying. and somewhere
them Carlos F1mer was en-
tombed.
"Young Filmer was returning from
his Office, and was near the building
when the explosion occurred" )" an Off
cial message explained. HE plunged
into the deepest of the danger to rescue
a struggling workman, and that instant
the walls fell. His death must have
been instantaneous, for no breathing
creature could have survived thirty Sec
onds in the place where he has per-
ished."
Over that fatal message the unhappy
mother wept her unavailing tears OF
penitence and anguish. The message
dropped from her weak, cold fingers,
and she crouched, sobbing, in corner
of her elegant sofa; and just then a
pale and pretty girl came into the room,
and went timidly to her side.
"Dear Mrs. Filmer," she began, with
divinest sympathy in her sorrowful
young voice, 'I loved him, too and for
the sake of him whom we both loved,
shall we not each comfort the other?
May not be to you Ruth indeed ?"
Mrs. Filmer lifted her heavy head and
gazed coldIy at the pretty pleader.
''The love you profess is but mock
cry to the love of a mother" she said.
srYou lured him from his duty to me.
No, Ruth Gaylor, you can neither un-
derstand nor share an anguish like
mine"
'sBut do understand" the girl per-
sisted, sweetly, sand, like Ruth of old,
too implore: 'Entreat me not to leave
you.' Let me be to you daughter, in
deed. ], too, am alone in the world
since him whom we both loved is gone.
I have never valued my wealth BEFORE"
she continued, coaxingly, quite uncon-
fcious that she was disclosing something
that had never been surmised by her
lover, and certainly not by the ambitious
woman to whom her presumed poverty
bad been SO Objectionable; "but I am
grateful now for riches; lam grateful
because I can give me mother of my