The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1885-01-23
HIS LIES ONE HOLIDAY.

! Huntingdon Wayne was thirty five ard
/ had never yet been in love He had worked
bard and we'll and had made a fortune which
even he felt would enable him to marry
/ without being recklessIy imprudent, and he
/ began to think vt was time to decide upon
wife who should satisfy his somewhat fas-
/ ttdious requirements She must lie Of a
stately and noble presehce Wayne had
rather an idea of a fine woman not too
young nor too emotional; Wayne was
person who hated sceues-in short, she was
TO be a woman made to Orde er, and he found
it more difficult to discover her than he had
at first supposed.
it was with a feeling of something as akin
to failure as his we'll regulated mind ever
INDUCED in that he ordered his portmanteau
packed tor fortnight's visit to Newton-on-
Sea. and tore himself away from the fasci-
nations OF club and Office lie to pay a long
promised visit to his old friend, DIR. Mar
shall. He had seen nothing of the Marsh
alls for years past, though there was tie
Of old associations between them, and even
something OF sadder interest Five years
ago, when Waynes uncle offered him a
berth in the tea business. of which he was
now the head, he extended like offer to
Huntingdon's younger brother, Jack but
Jack, always something of hot headed fel-
low, took Offense at some word or deed of
his elders and refused the offer. Soon after
he took some post on the east coast of Afri-
ca, and went out with high hopes of the for
tune Re was to bring back and lay at Het-
ty Marshal's feet.
Huntingdon heard of the engagement
with some contempt for the folly which pos
sessed two young people without penny
bat when, three years later, news came of
poor Jacks death out n Zanzibar, the little
bride that was to have been passed out of
his mind, and it was only when an invita-
ton came for him from the Marsballs, who
were at Newton-on-Sea for Hetty's health,
ttat the thought of her existence crossed
him again.
He had not even seen her since she was a
little child in pinafores, and when ne was
brought up, on the evening be arrived, to
the side of a crimson hammock swung be-
tween two tall pine trees, and introduced TO
slight, pale girl, whose great blue eyes
we're raised to his with pathetic gentleness
and sweetness, feeling such as in all his
thirty-fve years of sensible life he had nev-
er before experienced shot through him with
a thrill of wonder, and almost bewIIder-
ment. He TOOK in his own the small frag.
lie, white fingers. and then laid them down
almost reventIy on the soft cushions amid
which she lay.
/ suppose if any one had asked him then
and there whether he believed in love at
first sight, he would have answered as con-
temptuUuslv as ever; and yet, for all that,
he was as deep in love as ever man yet fell
at one blow. He told himself it was a pity
"a pity that only grew as the days passed
by. and he saw how frail and delicate a
creature her great trouble of two years had
left her, it seemed TO him it was his duty to
try and atone to her for all the suffering
and loss she had underg one. as if his life
ought to make up to her for Jacks death,
somehow. Strange, that duty had never
bad such zest and pleasure in it before.
She was thing so new to bis experience,
with her pleading blue eyes, her soft little
WAYS, and the pathos that hung about all
that she did and said. Wayne used to sit
and watch her furtively, as if she was a
creature of some unknown race
Three days after the first evening and the
hammock, the ideal fine woman" had died
the week was over he had said to hiIuseIf-
be, the practical, cool headed Huntington
Wayne-that life without little Hetty would
be hardly worth the living, and that he
must have her for his own, or die. Practi-
cal common sensical men often take the
hardest form of the disease called love.
He spoke to DR.. Marshall before the mid
die of the second week, and asked bis con.
sent to win Hetty. The doctor listened
with good deal of surprise, but no appear
aDce OF Gispleasure, and when Wayne had
finished, he grasped him heartily by the
hand.
My dear fellow he said With something
between a smile and sigh, you have my
heartiest consent and my best wishes, If you
can get Hetty to say Yes You are almost
part of poor Jack, and there's no one else
should so gladly call my son. OF course it
rests with Hetty; but 1 know she does not
dislike you, and you must trust to time for
the rest. Love such as she gave poor Jack,
perhaps the same woman never gives twice
over; but there's no reason why she
shouldn't love you we'll and make a good
wife. The grief of two years back is pass
ing away-it is more the physical state left
by the shock of that time that wears on her
now. Perhaps she will never be very robust
but you will take good care of her, I'm GER
tain
she shall be strong again, please God, il
can make her so by my DEVOTION said
Huntington, while vision of unspeakabe
happiness danced before his minds eyes-a
snow white yacht cruising among smiling
Islands in a summer sea, seekiLg health for
her own who was its queen.
I'm leave the business to look after ITSELF
he thought, with a glow of raptsre, "and
travel round the world with her till the col
OF comes back to her pale face, and the light
to her eyes-yes, and the happiness to her
heart.