Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1885-04-18

was fifteen years of age she and her
guardian could converse in French
quite fluently, and she could also
read Schiller and Goethe in the orig
inal.
For music, Percy was obliged to
call in teacher; and it so happened
that one was at hand who seemed to
have dropped down upon them for
the special purpose. He was Edgar
Atherton, youth of one-and-twenty
who had just completed a term of
three years musical study in Europe.
His father was Judge Johh Ather-
ton, of the Supreme Court of the
State,--a man Of wealth and influence
and a leader in society; leader po-
litically and socially. And the judge
had only two children--a daughter
who was married and his boy Edgar.
Mable had already taken several
courses of lessons in music from an
excellent female teacher of the viii
lage, SO that Anterior found her
quite proficient, and only requiring
what might be termed finishing
touch. And she very soon began to
exhibit to her guardian the result of
the new teaching.
Mable was in her sixteenth year
when Edgar Atherton began teach
ing her, and the first time that Per-
cey saw them together at the piano
forte, the two young heads SO close,
and the two pairs of hands mingling
in common work, he felt pang at
his heart as though knife had been
plunged into his bosom! The first
effect was that of astoundm ent. He
felt the pain, and the sight of the
handsome, bright-faced youth bend
ing over his Mable, was hateful to
him. He felt as though he could,
with good relish, hurl the interloper
out at the window!
As quickly as possible, he got away
from the scene, and walked out into
the garden. What did it means?
All it did not take him long to de-
termine. With himself he could af-
ford to be honest; and he knew that
he was giving to Mable that place in
his heart which her mother once fill
ed
Yes, he knew it! The first discov-
cry frightened him. He felt upon
the impulse that he had been guilty
of great sin. The innocent child
had been left in his care with calm
and holy trust, and now he had al
lowed himself to look upon her with
a love which a true and proper lover
alone had the right to feel. But
when he had reasoned further he put
away his alarm. Said he, at the end
of half an hour:
Mine alone must be the penalty.
O.! Mabel ! Mabel! / will be true to
the trust reposed in me! And yet,
would to Heaven that the trust had
never been mine. Bitter, bitter, must
be the sundering of the sweet, &C.
static tie! Yet, can do it, and she
shall never know-neverl
And from that time the guardian
fancied he was guarding his heart,
and he thought the pain he felt was
from the old shock.
Six months had passed since the
new music lessons had commenced,
and Mabel had seen the sixteenth an.
niversary of her birth day, when, one
evening, Edgar Anterior, with true
gentlemanly dignity, asked Percy if
he might be permitted to speak with
his fair ward of love-if he might de-
clare his own love, and ask for hers.
1t was well for Walter Percy that
he had been expecting this. and was
therefore prepared He had detected
the signs, and bad made sure that
the request would come; and his an
swer was ready:
Mr.. Anterior, / can have no OBJ
| lection to you as man, or as q lover
| of NV fair ward Tn foot Lnnru of