The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-08-19
BLANCHE MARVIa'S DEFEAT.
by DWIGHT WELDON.
, you hear that, Mr.. Arlington"

out strangely with her surroundings.
BY her side stood a man whose hand
some, earnest face won her admiring
glance every time she looked at it.
They stood in an untenanted room in a
crowded, broken down tenement house, the
man gazing rehectively out at the wilder
ness OF roofs and chimneys before them,
the woman listening intently to the soft,
mellow notes of song, which echoed from
the hallway without.
Its rare harmony impressed the man at
hast He aroused himself from his reverie
and looked at his beautiful companion in
wonderment.
Not a word was exchanged until the last
note of the song was completed. Whoever
the singer was, her voice was one of mar
velous scope and sweetness, and a mutual
appreciation showed in the rapt faces of
the two listeners.
Maurice Arlington's usually calm fea-
lures wore an expression of curiosity and
interest as he started to leave the room.
"This is another surprise, he said. I'VE
expected to find the tenements here model
home for the poor, instead of which they
are a pile of struggling, ill-kept barracks.
Then, when we pause to reflect over the
misery and poverty around us, voice as
famous as that of cantatr.ce startles us.
Come, Miss Marvin, | must know the pos
SCISSOR of that voice"
Mr. Arlington's companion frowned
slightly. The voice belonged to a woman,
and she was naturally jealous.
Besides, she did not like Arlington's deep
interest in the beggarly tenants of the house;
at distracted his attention from herself, an
attention she was eXerting all her siren
like wiles to secure.
1t was strange combination of circum-
stances that had brought these two togeth-
er, and to the block of dilapidated tene-
,ments known as Rossiter Row.
Two months previous Maurice Arlington
was a poor and struggling artist in New
York City, living on the bare pittance his
.avocaiion afforded him, and the beautiful
Blanche Marvin was secretary to a parsi-
smonious old money-lender named James
sRossiter.
James Rossiter died. In his will he be-
4ueathed to his nephew, whom he had
never seen, his entire fortune. Ii was a
surprise TO Maurice Arlington, and a source
of great disappointment to numerous dis
hant relatives of the dead miser.
SO Arlington had come into his for
tune. lie had found Miss Marvin in charge
of the little Office where his uncle had
transacted his business, and had learned
that for years she had kept his accounts as
a proficient and reliable employee.
She was the sole support of an invalid
mother, and he was interested in her from
the first.
~You shall retain your position, if you
choose" he had told her. The numerous
tenement leases demand some clerical SUI
,pervision, and you seem to thoroughly un-
.derstand them"
And now he was visiting his property,
and was amazed at the misery ana wretch
>edness of the habitations from which his
uncle had made his immense fortune.
Secretly he resolved to better the condi-
zion of his tenantry. and it was of this he
was thinking when the incident which opens
our story occurred
Miss Marvin had accompanied him in
his visit to the tenements, and they had
reached the garnet floor of the house in
their tour of inspection, when, from some
room near by, there issued the song al
nuded to.
1t was a plaintive. tender love melody,
and even Blanche Marvin, her mind filled
with scheming thoughts concerning her
wealthy employer, was momentarily en-
Ftranced.
She followed Arlington to the hall, and
then TO the open door of an apartment
near by.
There she paused, for Arlington had
halted and stood surveying "A homely but
touching picture within the room.
The apartment was meanly furnished
and showed evidences of extreme poverty.
II held two inmates, an old man half re-
ciining on a couch, and beautiful girl just
blooming into womanhood.
Upon her the attention of Arlington was
.centered. Her perfect face and full, ex-
pressive eyes looked down tenderly upon
her companion, whose aged features were
pale and emaciated and careworn.
She held in her hand the manuscript
music of the song she had been singing.
Neither she nor her companion noticed
the silent watchers at the threshold.
will it do, cara mia?" the old man was
saying.
"Oh, my father, it is beautiful"
The old man sighed despairingly.
-''Your lovely voice makes it so, then"
<'No, no. II is the very soul of express
sion. the melody and words.
''Then why does not the stage manager
give me hearing? All, Inez! the years
are fieeting, the dream OF my life is broken.
L shall never live to see the one labor of
my existence bringing joy to those who
Aove music"
Blanche Marvins dusky lips trembed
with suppressed passion as she noticed by
Arlington's face that he was deeply af-
tfected.
LET us 90, she said, almost harshly
Without another word Arlington left tn
place, and descended to the ground floor.
In the weeks that ensued Blanche Marvin
forgot the incident of the beautiful singer
an the events of the days as they passed by.
She attended TO the routine of her bust
ness tasks as methodically as ever, but her
mind was ever fixed on the man she had
learned to love, Maurice Arlington.
She hoped to allure him by her beauty;
she believed she would yet be his wife.
Day by day she sought to become more
valuable to and more esteemed by him.
He scarcely noticed her. His mind
seemed of a naturally melancholy cast, and
ne devoted most of his time to art. to
music, and to making plans to better the
condition of his tenantry.
She did not know also that he very often
visited Rossiter's Row. She supposed lac
had forgotten the song and the singer OF
the day of their mutual visit to the tene-
ments.
The picture of the old composer and
his lovely, faithful daughter had haunted
Arlington.
He had made a visit to their rooms, hat
interested himself in the musician, and
had learned all their sad, strange history
Alvin Nincpnt waa an artist like bsnsolf