Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-05-12

Thursday meetin' as regular as the Gay came
round
''She sat up straight and queenly, beside
her father as they passed, and seemed not to
hear the malicious sally Virginia called out
| to her.
I'VE, in the back team, were near enough
| to catch the scornful glance she threw from
those deep eyes, gray as steel that night
'As for Harmon, he turned white to the
! lips, and for mile hardly answered the
banter that Virginia kept up. After that he
seemed to grow perfectly reckless, laughed
and joked louded than any OF the rest, and
was SO careless that he drove on stone wall;
and we, following, were all upset IN heap
! together, end had hard work to get tied up
so as to make our way home toward morn
! ing, more dead than alive
sit was sorry day for Harmon Page. He
was waited upon by a church committee,
headed by Deacon Avery, who denounced
his whole conduct toward Mercy as unchris-
| tian and highly inconsistent in church
member
"He didn't have much to say for himself,
and they churched him on the spot. He was
pretty down in the mouth, but kept up some
hope, till he saw Mercy Avery.
''Ife had refused 20 see Virginia Wake, and
that night he went up the familiar hill to
Deacon Avery's stone house.
Mercy herself came to the door, calm and
eif-possessed as if nothing had happened,
and showed him into the sitting room. There
was steady light in her gray eyes, though,
that made Harmon tremble, and, without
beating about the bush a bit, he came right
to the point, and asked if all might be for
given and forgotten, and they become as
good friends as before. He worked himself
into passion, cried, and took on like child,
they said
But law, it didn't move her an atom.
She had the genuine old Avery grit, if she
was mild hammered, and she told him that,
as long as the church had put him out, she,
of course, couldn't in conscience take him
back
"He pleaded and entreated until 10 o'clock
at night, late hour in them days, but it
didn't make mite of difference She wouldn't
overlook what the church had considered a
gross breach OF faith. He went out crushed
man, and from that time his spirit seemed to
leave him utterly
Sand what about Virginia WakeE7 in
te1Tupted, unconsciously cutting my finger
in my eager interest.
'Oh, after the girl had done all the mis-
chief possible, public opinion toward her
changed main quick, and she left town in
a few days, and was never heard from in
these parts again"
And Harmon Page; what became of
him."
'He never got over the shock. He became
silent and melancholy, and finally had to be
taken to the Retreat. De grew worse, and
the sight of a handsome woman with red
cheeks and black curls would always throw
him into his most violent tantrums. He died
in the asylum at last"
''Now, think that was real mean,n said I,
wrathfully winding cotton around my bleed
ing thumb. of Mercy Avery hadn't turned
him off, his life might not have ended SO
sadly 1 think she ought to have taken him
back
'Ah, ma said Grandpa West, quizzicaIly;
''do you mean that"
Certainly" said I, with dignity, why
shouldn't IF'
ooh, nothing be replied, ''only il she
had, Harmon Page would have been your
grandfather instead of me-"
My grandfather-why then" said I, in
some confusion, Mercy Avery must bel
"Mercy West, your grandmother" said
grandpa, chuckling me under my chin.
Confess no79 that 'alrs well that ends we'll"
Il suppose so,' said | reluctantly
ID Nhittlesey in New England Magazine.