Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-06-03

While life is given.
Thou didst not ask for wealth or store,
Thy wants arefew. But little more
Will serve thy needs-as years pass DER
Now eighty
MARION'S CONQUEST.
"Such a wedding! No bridesmaids,
no music, no breakfast or reception; /
declare, should not feel as if had been
married !" exclaimed Marion Willough-
by, throwing herself down upon the
low fauteuil in her own elegantly ap-
pointed drawing room, and drawing
off the delicately tinted kid gloves
which served as a finish to the exquis-
tie Partisan toilet.
There was only one other occupant
OF the room, a man, tall and hand
some, standing with one hand resting
on the back of her chair. She did not
glance up as she spoke, or note that
Chester Thorley's face had lost it's COL
or.
"You are speaking ofMiss Marvin's
wedding" he said. ''There is one es-
sential to most marriages you have
not enumerated in your list of things
lacking. Was love wanting?"
ooh. no. l believe she loves him.
She certainly must do so to an almost
absurd extent. They aretogo to house
keeping in a small flat in an unfash-
ionable locality up town, where he
must be away from early morning un-
til quite six O'Clock. He occupies
some salaried position-clerk in q
bank, I believe-and she might have
married anybody"
"Honest labor degrades no man, Ma
rion," came the firm, quick answer.
"Even aclerkship is not always found,
and 1 would rather break stones in
the street than live on money acquired
dishonesty or doled out of charity,
though in such case I would ask no
woman to share my lot."
"This looks like breaking stones,
does it not ?" she laughingly answered,
letting her own jeweled fingers close
over the mans hand where it rested
a. hand whose shape betokened aris-
tocracy, and which was soft and white
as a WOman's.
At her light touch his strong arm
quivered. He bent and let his lips
rest an instant on her hair, for the
girl beside him was his affanced wife.
''It could break stones though, dear;
and don't know but it would make
me a better man. Suppose 1 lost my
money, Marion? Suppose it were all
swept away from me in an hour, and l
had had q position offered me to live
humbly, very much as your friend is
going to live-tell me what you would
do?
"You are only talking to try me,
Chester, and 1 hate such questions.
In the first place it is entirely out of
reason, for even if it were so, papa,
you know, is very rich, and our home
could always be with him."
II have said to you that l would
rather starve than eat the bread of
charity. Therefore, putting this pos.
sibility aside, tell me what you would
dor"
Her fingers released theirgras upon
his hand. Was their significance in the
action? He smiled bitterly as he saw
it. His face was very pale now. Ex-
cept that he stood still behind the
chair, she must have noticed it.
"You are utterly absurd this after
noon, Chester" she said said petulant-
ly. "Have l not just told you that
Edith Marvin's wedding was more like
a funeral than a. wedding? And
though l presume shall one day have
to attend my own funeral, l will not, I
assure you, be a voluntary agent
Have you nothingmore agreeable that
you can say to me?"
The man shook off a certain some
thing which seemed to envelope him
in an almost invisible cloud, and he
answered with the old courteous grace
which suited him SO well, and made
his power with woman almost prov
erb.
Money always seemed to belong to
him by an inherent right. It was so
natural that he should be rich. No
one could have imagined Chester
Thorley poor. He gave it so gener-
ously, yet without ostentation, that
no man envied him.
Yet he knew a half hour later, when
he left his farewell kiss on Marion Will
loughby's lips, that it was farewell to
all hopes and happiness.
The blow had already fallen. He
was ruined man, with scarce a dollar
he could call his own-he had had no
wish ungratified money could procure
in all his thirty years of life. It had
fallen, too, through no fault ofhis own,
thong h there was feeble comfort in
that. There was comfort, however, in
the knowledge that he owed no man
and that he might start afresh in the
world, with no burden OH his broad
shoulders or his conscience.
True, there was q deep wound in his
heart. He had loved Marion so well
that to give her up was to voluntarily
renounce Gods sunlight. But all her
life had been spent amid luxury. It
was to her a necessity. Deprived of it
she would droop and fade; and better
any lot than to see her struggle, and
to know that he had brought it upon
her.
Beside, she had made her choice.
10 her a wedding meant flowers,
music, friends, the toilet of the bride.
The future, the communion of two
hearts, the solemn responsibilities
incurred, were but secondary consider
atoms.
"Good-by, my darling" he said as
they parted, but when she added,
"Untl tomorrow" he added neither
yea nor nay.
"To-morrow," the world knew that
Chester Thorley's ship had gone upon
the rocks. Many of his business asso-
ciates would have held out to him q
helping hand, but firmly and kindly
he refused every offer.
He wrote Marion a few lines recall
ing to her mind the conversation of
the day before, and released her from
her vows to him.
eff any good fortune comes to me, -
he concluded, "you shall hear of it. If
I am silent, it is because my life is