The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-11-04

heart was not his own, but hers. He re-
called all doubts and hesitations, all the
delicious self-torture Of a young man in
love, all the abounding joy of an un-
expected proposal frankly accepted. OF
course, marriage was not to be thought
of till he was able to support wife.
Until then he had led happy go-lucl1y
life, making out as best he might. 1t
was understood that she was to wait for
him, and that they were to be married
only when he had at least begun to make
his way in the world. And she was wait
ing yeti
At first he found it difficult to settle
down. Four years of army life. good as
its discipline had been in many ways,
were not altogether the best training for
making money. He tried one thing
after another, and he staid nowhere long.
He remembered Lis last day as an auction
eer's clerk and his first attempt as a re-
porter. In time, his heart began to fail
him little, and he discovered that he
had not the grit to gainstand burly mis-
fortune. He reflected on the text, "Un-
stable as water, thou shalt not excel, :"
from which he absent-minded minister
had preached the morning he was bap-
! tized; it came back to him with all the
force of a prophecy from the pulpit
When he was most despondent about his
future, and well-nigh ready to give up
the struggle, Susan came to his rescue
Not only did she cheer him with low
ing words, but she induced her father to
get an old friend in Boston to give
him another chance. It so happened
that the new situation fell in with his
wayward mood, and he took hold of his
work in earnest In another year or
/ two he had an assured position. And
| as Alfred Rollinston reached Thirty
fourth street and began to retrace his
steps, he remembered that it was on
/ Christmas Eve, just ten years before,
that his employers had given him the in
crease of salary which warranted his
writing to ask her to name the day. But
in the four years which had nearly
elapsed since their engagement, her cir
cumstances had changed. Her father
had made unfortunate investments, and
! his health had begun to fail. She was
an only child, and she could not leave
her father alone. They must wait
little longer yet.
She had a deferred hope that her
father might be persuaded to move TO
Boston, and then the marriage might
take place. But the old man chung to
his native town. His little property
shrank into nothing; and his health
faded until he took to his bed at last.
Then, after lingering two years, he died.
Susan Hallett settled his affairs, paid his
few debts, and collected the scant 800
which remained. Then the wedding
day was fixed, after long years of wait
ing, and, week before it arrived, the
firm by which Rollinston was employed,
failed, under the pressure of panic and
long-drawn depression. and he was once
more thrown on the world to begin
again. She had an aunt in little town
in Ohio, and she went there and began
to teach school. He started again on
the search for work. And again the
taint of instability in his character was
made evident, and he did not prosper.
So it had been for years now; whatever
he turned his hand to crushed within his
grasp. AT last, however, it looked as
though luck had changed; and Alfred
Rollinston quickened his pace, and
raised his head. Across the square,
on a screen high above the heads of the
people, was a magic-lantern advertise
ment, just then setting forth the best,
cheapest, and quickest route to Omaha.
This struck him as a good omen. Sam
Sargent, the great Speculation, wanted
man with a wide experience of life to
take charge of the Omaha division of the
Transcontinental Telegraph company,
and with the new year Alfred Rollinston |
was to begin this new work, So he had !
written to Susan Hallett, asking her to |
marry him and to go on with him to !
Omaha; and he had requested her TO
answer him by return mail; and he was
hoping against hope that there might |
come refusal.
AS he crossed the double street before |
the Fifth Avenue hotel, he looked again |
at the windows of one apartment. He |
saw it was lighted up; and as he gazed, |
slight, girlish figure appeared at one
of the windowg and lowered the shade.
For moment her outline was visible;
then all was dark, as the inner curtains
had been dropped. He knew the room and
its gracious inmates, and he had been
made welcome there more than once in
the past few weeks. He sighed bitterly
as he entered the hotel.
HAS that letter come yet ?T he asked. /
Nothing for you as yet, MIR. Rollins
ton," answered the clerk, But we shall
have our mail in few minutes now"
Rollinston went out again into the
open air, and drew long breath. He
thought how man changes in time, and
woman also. In the dreary years of |
waiting, he had become very different
from the stripping who fell in love with
Susan Hallett. She, too, had altered.
He wondered if he had changed for the
worse. He knew he was not good |
enough for her-and he caught himself
wishing she were not quite so good. If
she had not been hawless i'll character,
he might have loved her longer. 1t was
not that he resented her moral superior
ity exactly, though at times he could
not but chafe under it. Her code
of life was almost too exacting
for every day use. Even as a girl, there |
had been a trace of rigidity in her man
ner. She was as gentle and as kind as
any one, but as she grew older she stiff
fened and hardened. She had led
plain and simple life in the country,
while he had enjoyed the gaieties and
pleasures of the city, not always as whole
some as they might be. On the rare oc-
casions when he was able to be with her,
he began to feel i'll at ease. He thought !
that she had seen the constraint which
grew ON him In her presence, With
wider and diverging experience of life,
they seemed to him less well-mated, and
the marriage at last appeared less de-
sirable. They had developed in different
directions, and difference of taste in the
enjoyments of life may strain the affec-
tions severely. He felt the tie between
them loosening, andhe was conscious that
they were drifting apart, although she
seemed not to suspect it.
She kept all her little country ways,
and she elung to these provincialisms
with strange persistency. She had
she simple and natural good manners of
her ancestors, but these did not always
accord with the higher, artificial code
Rollinston had learnt to obey. His every
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