The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-10-31

not the silence OF Indifference: and, if not
that, what must it portend2
Once or twice he was tempted to break
it by writing again himself. But this he
felt it was impossible 10 do; no man can
insist on, or emphasize by unasked re-
petition, his own avowal of mutabiliJy and
voluntary faithlessness. Silence was, at
least, acquiescence and permission.
He had sought these and he could not
quarrel with receiving them. Meanwhile
he felt free TO do what he was bent on do
ing, and used all his powers OF persuasion
to induce Vernon to shorten his proba-
ton.
Vernon was very reluctant to do so.
"She does not love you. she does not
know what love is. You mistake if you
fancy she does, he said to GuilderoY,
who smiled.
'I viii teach her," he answered.
"Yes," said John Vernon with pain and
impatience, "and when she has learned
the lesson it will have grown dull to you,
and the teacher will 90 elsewhere. What
is the cause of half the misery of womenP
That their love is so much more tenacious
than the mans; it grows stronger as his
grows weaker. He desires one thing
which is quickly satisfied: she desires in
Vulnerable things which can never be sat-
istied; and among them as the most
mythical and the most impossible she de-
sires-poor soul!-tne mans cOnstancyw
Where other men would only have
seen the gain and honor of such a mar
riage he saw the gray cloud of possible, of
most probable, unhappiness. As be
walked in calm dark evenings by the lit
tie bay beneath his house the murmur OK
the waves sounded mournfully on his earl
and as he looked up at the attic window OF
his daughters room shrouded in the ivy
OF the caves, 1t was no mere selfish sense
of his own coming loneliness which made
him wish to heaven that Guilderoy had
never come across her path.
Happiness is not thing to be COM
manded, he thought with sadness and
anxiety, to be obtained by any ingenuity,
or retained by any obedience to preceptOr
to duty. 1t is the most spontaneous
thing on earth; boren only of the sympa-
thies of two natures which mutually sup
ply each others needs; it is ike the sun
shine and the shower, and can no mora
be brought into human life by any en-
deavor than they can be brought on earth
by the efforts of science. Happiness is
the dew of the heart, making all green
things spring where once the soil was
barren; but it is not in human nature to
create it at will, and it Is gift OF destiny
like genius or beauty.
True, ingrates mar the gift, as In the
fairy story the talisman is lost by careless
keeping; but it comes 10 none at prayer,
at exercise of Will; it is treasure of the
gods, and alas! "DeOs ridere credO, quinn
infeliX vocat."
But Vernon's wishes and his regrets
could not stay the flight oftime, nor change
a caprice which opposition or warning
only served to infiame; and before he was
wholly sensible that the winter was gone,
violets and hepatica were abloOm IN his
orchard grass, and the little fishing feet
was setting out for its springtide harvest
of the sea, and March was ended, and
Guilderoy claimed from him a promise
which he had no choice but TO fulfill.
They were married in the private chapel
of LadysrOod with no one present by her
fathers wish except himself and the old
servants of the house, and she wore the
white cambric frock which she had for
her best for summer Sundays at Christs-
lea. and about the throat of it were strings
of pearls which GuilderOy had given her,
and which were worthy a queens regalia.
The heart of John Vernon was heavyas
he left them to themselves, and took his
way back to mis- solitary house through
the pudding WOODS, over Tue Nluo mOOIs
lying in the pale afternoon sunlight, while
the sound of the more distant sea came
like human sighs through the rural ST.
lence to his ears. There was the scent OF
violets on the wind and the golden gleam
of gorse in the landscape; ever and anon
he came in sight of the sea, gray and still,
red sails and white crossing IL noiselessly-
The day was clear and soft and mild, the
scene was fair. and yet the sense OF great
sadness weighed upon him as he left his
child the mistress of all these spreading
woods and stately towers and pleasant
gardens which lay behind him under the
pale gray skies.
The world, he knew, would tell him
with all its myriad voices that he had. in
his solitude and poverty, had a stroke of
the most marvellous good fortune, social
triumph such as most would prize and
covet beyond all things. But John Yer
non did not see as the world sees and he
would with much surer confidence nd
greater Joy have known that his daughter
had gone to a lovelier fate, where the
world would have never given her that
crown of envy which is so often a crown
of thorns. Never again would the little
simple things of life make her happiness; /;
never again would she run through the