The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-02-16
SEVEN OFFERS.
What Happened While Waiting
for the Next.

iSi oAlS ANSNo'
sWeil, good night, Elizabeth" said Tor
Barbury, and opened the front door an
went out.
Miss Elizabeth Lawton stood a few mir
utes in the hall where he had left her
There was half smile on her face.
"Poor Tom," she said, 'poor, dear oil
TOMB Then she sighed little and wen
back into the parlor, where the chairs wcr
drawn up suggestively near together il
front of the bright CRATE fire.
'sThis is the seventh time, "she said, softly
"Yes, the seventh time. poor, dear oil,
Tomi''
She looked around the beat ifui luxuriou
room, and wondered how IL would seem /
she had given different answer to tn,
seventh asking of the same question. WoulC
he he here still7 Would she be sitting be
side him on the sofa, his arm, perhaps-bu
Miss Elizabeth blushed slightly, ant
changed the subject in her own mind. Suct
thoughts seemed hardly decorous in {
maiden lady past thirty.
She rose and walked across the room Il
ring the bell, but paused as she noticed
letter on nne of the little tables. 1t haG
come in the evening post, and been brought
III Nllllc lOll N.lS bi'Sit. anu ou nhC hdu io
read it, She opened it now aud her face grew
surprised and little hard as she read. And
yet it certainly contained only pleasant
news Her old friend Helen Armstrong
wrote to say that she was going TO be mar
ried, and wanted her to come and be @
bridesmaid at her wedding. Surely there
was nothing distressing in this, nothing
that should make Elizabeth feel suddenly
betrayed and deserted. and yet she did. She
had curious feeling of having locked the
front door in the face OF an enemy while her
5r'nra weakly anu deceitfuuy admitted hin
at the back
~ ell, well, she calculated as she read
''a widower with two children" and she
thought with the rapidity of lightning tina,
Tom Barbury at least was bachelor. in
good and regular standing"
al am ashamed at my age" the letter ran,
"to be so much in love and to fee! so happy
over it, but If you only knew him, Eliza
bethi He is the dearest man so good and
honorable, and so fond of me. Every one
respects him, and am SO anxious for you
TO know him. He is of the firm OF Cochrain
& Brown, merchants, quite well off and
with lovely home"
Miss Elizabeth instantly stripped the
sugar coating from the pill and examined it.
sin trade, is he-a dry goods merchant
We'll, certainly shouldn't have expected il
of HeenW And then the dsagreeable
thought rose in her mind and confronted
her. that the reason, the real reason, why
she had said "no" several times to Tom
Barbury was because ne owned a shoe store.
She had never acknowledged this to herself
before, il was such horrid, snobbish rea-
son.
-t,a,,, ,,.al rf ohf. bod raI
IL up with finer more dignified explanations
and hidden it away, even from herself. But
tonight it shook them all off, and appeared
before her in all its unveiled ugliness.
Yes, she would have married Tom Bar.
bury years ago, except for her silly, false,
lNlwomanly pride. She was ashamed, lit
tie bit ashamed of him.
And what was there to be ashamed of
he was as honest and good man, as ever
walked the earth, and as true q gentleman,
too.
But the Lawton blood had never run in
channels of trade. Elizabeth's father, old
Judge Lawton. during all the years that he
had sat on the bench, had never known Tom
Barbury's father, who was sitting on a
bench of a different kind, and making shoes.
Tom had partly washed away the stain
winch retail trade seems TO bring, with
the cleansing waters of a wholesale trade.
He did not sit on bench as his father had
done; he did not button customers shoes.
fie sat in a little office, with pen behind
his ear, and wrote most of the time, but
still to sensitive Elizabeth Lawton, the
trail of the serpent was over it all. She
used TO look at the Lawton crest on her
note paper occasionally, and say sorrow.
fully to herself; 20, l could never quarter
il with button hook!'
she and Tom had grown up together but
their family backgrounds were different.
III Elizabeth's home every thing was
stately, elegant and refined. She had never
bccn inside Tom Barbury's house, but she
had reason to think it was otherwise there.
Ho had mother and shadowy sister or
two, but they were nebulous and uncertain
persons in Elizabeth's fancy, for she had
never seen them at q close social range.
With Tom it was different. he was all
that was delightful and satisfactory. 0
why is it that we can not pick man off
from his family tree, as we would a ripe
pear or peach, and serve him separately.
II was ten years since Tom had first
az lt''d her to marry him, and she had been
ashamed TO say yes; but she had been
ashamed OF her shame ever since, Poor,
dear old Toms Her heart warmed toward
him tonight, as she read her friends letter.
There is very strong esprit de corps among
unmarried women, who are no longer young.
Friendships between them are Unusually
deep and strong, partly perhaps because
tie sentiment generally called out by mar
riage is by them unexpended, and finds its
outlet upon their friends. They band to-
gether and stand by and uphold one
another. They watch each other anxiously,
and honestly mourn wheu one Of their
number defects FROM the course, and Joins
the great majority of the married. They
are always little disappointed In the alb
sconding member, and have peculiar
grieyed lonely feeling for her desertion.
They do not grudge her her happiness but
they wonder at her choice OF H.
Miss Elizabeth experienced all these feel
ings after she had read Helen Armssrong's
letter.
She shivered little and drew her chair
closer TO the fire. She felt unreasonably
angry with Helen. Presently she rang the
bell, and said to the maid who answered IL;