Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-02-25

strange land it was no great venture on |
her part. He told her of the home to |
which she was to go, of the man she
was to wed. It was family affair, you
see, and her father was relative of the
father-in-law that was to be. Now, do
you really mean to say to me that even
though you loved a man with all the
love that such woman as you can give,
you would take him on perfect trust
would give nt., your future on
chance, and, placing your hand in his,
walk fearlessly with him out into the
dark !"
"I would. And why not?"
"It is against nature-against woman
nature"
"But if loved him? If [ loved him
as woman should love before she weds,
I could trust him with all that it was best
I should not know, and go with him into
bonds or exile"
''I believe that I know it. But
martyrdom, my child, is nothing beside
right to knowledge that goes unsatis
fed. You would meet lion unmoved,
but let this mysterious and undescribed
lover refuse to tell you of himself, his
income, and you would lay bar before
him beyond which he could not advance.
You would say to him: You will not
trust me, and dare not trust you The
marriage license would never be put to
USE"
"You do not understand me, sir" she
said simply. ST could not give the love
until had given the trust-such trust
as child gives to it's father in the dark.
/ could then close my eyes and be led.
Perhaps this sounds foolish to you, but
you asked me question, and I have
given you an answer"
If Farmdale knew little of this man,
there was less of Miss Denny that it did
not know. Its knowledge of him could
be briefly summed up: That he had
ridden into it one night on the down
stagecoach, and asked at the post-office
to be shown quiet place where board
could be had for week or so; that the
next morning found him at the coy
table of Miss Denny, beside the clerk of
the village store, fanked right and left
by the manager of the tannery and the
school-master, and opposite the mistress
of the house, who sat entrenched be-
hind the daintiestxof her household
gods; that he had slept, lounged, and
eaten with the air of one who, at 3S,
had thrown off some great mental or
business strain that had already grown
streaks of gray in his hair; that he
spent money as freely as need be in the
narrow ways and close economies of this
small Ohio town; that his chief delight
and one known vice was to ire good
humored trades at the urchins of the
neighborhood, in words far beyond
their comprehension; that he had given
to no man and to no woman one hint as
to his past or his home, and that the
bravest of them had not cared to ques-
ton him.
Laid beside these mysteries, the life
Of Miss Denny was an open book that
even the children could read. It's lesson
was pure and simple. Even that mis-
sionary of personal intelligence, who
had taken upon herself the responsible
ty of being mother to the shock-headed
boy, could find no letter or distorted
chapter in it that venom would lie upon.
Know Janet Denny?" she would have
answered you, well, should say so.
She was 81 last December 10th. be-
Geve-perhaps the 9th-it was a Tues
day, anyway. Her father gave up and
died ten years ago-didn't amount to
much, with his readin' in the haymow,
and a sermonizin' at the woodpile. Her
mother has been gone, too, goin' on five
years. Smart gal. Takes boarders, and
her folks didn't leave her the house she
lives in. She taught school once in
seminary at Mayfeld, but gave it up to
nurse her mother. Reads poetry not
that I can see the good of it, but 'spect
always says what she means, does her
own work like the rest of us, aud makes
her own bonnets. Heard she had The
chance to marry iabbering Dutchman,
one Of them professors over at Mayfeld,
but really don't believe it. 'Twould
take Drawer man than q Dutchman
with long name to make love to her.
She had beau once, when she was IL
or IL, but he died fore anything was
said, and Janet kept kinder quiet for
few years. No, she'll live and die an
old maid. I've always said that. But |
see herel What did that dodgin' fell
low in the speckled suit mean by tellin' |
my Bill that he come from the Land of |
Nod? My man says there amt no such |
place in these diggings; and my old |
man has travelled"
Janet had indeed answered his ques-
ton with honesty, but she was too |
much of the woman to confess that |
when the argument began to take shape |
between them some weeks ago, her posi- |
tion had been assumed for that argu-
ment's sake. But by dint of much rep
etition, and the searching of all the |
hooks and corners of her heart for
pleas in support of her theory, she had
unconsciously become her own first and |
most steadfast convert, and burned |
with all the zeal of the martyrs of old. |
Had she known-had she dreamed |
for moment-of the love that had |
sprung up in the heart of the stranger
who had halted for rest at her gate, and
that he was only hiding it until such |
time as confession should be the most