The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-10-15

gentle guardian was fading out of life,
for her mother was at that stage the
one idol of her earnest soul.
One evening Mrs. Riching complain
ed of little pain about the heart.
Emmy noticed that her lips were white,
and kissed them, as she said to make
them red again. The two sat late before
dying fire. Business often kept Jacob
Riching busy far into the night, and
he had fallen into the habit at such
times of staying in a room of his own,
that his wife's light and easy broken
slumbers might not be disturbed by his
coming. Very often mother and daugh-
ter sat alone, as on this evening; but
tonight something unspoken seemed to
draw them closer together than usual
as they sat hand in hand in the low
freight.
"You are getting almost woman"
the mother said.
''Quite. think" Emmy answered.
''Why, I've heard you say grandma
was married at Is, and I'm taller than
you, little mother, Already
The mother smoothed back the brown,
waving hair from the girls broad
brows, and said fondly:
''That was in oldsstimes, dear. Girls
are not so foolish nowadays. hope it
will be many year yet before my
girleen goes away to leave me in the
cold. Child, You have been the one
joy of my life. .
''Then you can count on vonr joys
for a long time to come, think. He'd
have to be such a man as I've never
seen yet who could coax ME away from
my NANNY
And then some brands fell and En-
my picked them up, and the fire sprang
into fresh life and glinted on the girls
bright, dark eyes and warm cheeks
and soft hair, and q sense of her beauty,
keen almost to pain, struck home to
her mothers heart.
"Ah, but you will marry, sometime
she said with long sigh, land some
how 1 dread it for you. You need
warmth. You could not bear cold,
dead life. What l am going to say
will sound romantic, dear child, but
there's no one but you to hear me, and
| tell you now that of all the good
things that belong to this present life,
true love is best. Marry the man
whom you love, and who loves you.
Let nothing else tempt you-nothing
prevent YOU
It was after events, no doubt, which
made these words seem to Emmy so
sacred and so binding, for they, and the
goodni ght that followed them, were
the last her mother ever spoke.
That night Emily Riching died, as
quietly and uncomplainingly as she
had lived. When the morning sun
looked in to find her, she had gone,
beyond the night and the stars, to the
world that has no need Of the sun bv
day.
Jacob Riching took his wife's death
very calmly. From his point of view
her life had been a failure, for the firm
of Riching 4 Son had been exactly
twenty years postponed by his marry
ing her. 1t looked little as if prov
idence had been opposed to his
designs; but Jacob Riching was but SO
then and rich, and his purpose sprang
up afresh from his wife's grave. He
waited decorous year, for he was a
proper man, and then he proposed to
young lady who seemed to him, as
Emily Ford had done, a quite suitable
wife. Unfortunately the young lady,
views did not coincide with his own,
and her decided refusal took him by
surprise. Twice afterwards he made
similar vain attempts to ally himself
properly, and then ceased his efforts in
that direction.
Meantime, Emmy, left very much to
herself, had found her chief comfort in
the house of her fathers head book
keeper. Mrs. Shines had been one OF
the few persons whom the late Mrs.
Riching had welcomed into her retire.
ment. and Emmy had liked her from a
child. With her heart well nigh broken
by her mothers death, she had turned
to her old friend for comfort, and had
grown to be almost like daughter in
the Shines house before it had even
entered in Jacob Riching's head to ask
himself what had become of her. And
in the Shines house was son, some six
years older than Emmy, already doing
very reasonably we'll in business, and
quite capable of knowing his own mind.
And this son, Thomas Shines, Jr., had
been quite aware that he was in love
with Emmy, ever since day when he
had found her sitting with his mother,
clad in her deep mourning, with a face
that seemed to him the saddest thing
in the world and the sweetest. And
though the subject had never been
limited at between them,- be sure that
Emmy knew his heart, and had
answered its unuttered question with
all her own.
After Jacob Richlng had failed in his
third and last attempt at wooing, he
quietly conceded the point that fate had
baffled him in that especial direction;
but he was as much disinclined to be
beaten as ever, and new plan formed
itself in his mind. Emmy should
marry. Emmy's husband should add
the name of Riching to his own, and
thus, at last, should Riching & Son
come to be one of the great business
names of New York, and might after
all be handed down from generation 10
generation, even as he had first
planned.
Having come to this conclusion, and
being man of business and trader
to the blunt ends of his strong fingers,
he went home to take srock-that is to
say, to look at Emmy with a keen eye
to her market value. 1t would have
been hard to find a lGvelier young
creature of seventeen than this one who
awaited him in his warm, brightly
lighted dining-room. Jacob Riching
perceived this fact with a pleasant sur
prise. He was more social than usual,
and after dinner he even turned Emmy
compliment on her good looks, and
accompanied his request that she should
leave off her mourning and choose her.
self proper wardrobe to 60 into soci-
ETY., with check which quite astonished
her by its magnitude.
"But 1 have no chaperone, papa,'
she said gently. ''Mrs. Smith does
very we'll to keep house, and to sit in
the room when my music and language
master comes, but 1 could hardly go to
parties with her."
"Certainly not" Mr.. Riching an
swered with heroic self-denial. II will