The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1889-07-27
ANNORA.

| A1N1NOlN1s
1t is an odd story and terrible
one. but absolutely true. 1 knew
Annora Masters; l have stood by
her grave often and thought how
little we know of life or of each other.
! have studied character n good
deal. / am q novelist, SO it has
become like second nature to me to
analyze motives and actions. Jthas
been SO through a long life. The
habit has only strengthened with
added years; but in Annora l studied
nothing; could study nothing.
A country town is a very good
place for gaining and adding to
knowledge of that sort. The inhabi-
tants, to an extent hardly realized
by people who do not know them,
live in common; 1 mean, they have
all known each other and each
Others faults and feelings since they
were children together; and the feel
ings formed then, and the keen in
terest in each others affairs, last on
f, through middle age and the down.
, hill part OF life:
. Every one knew Lucy Cherry.
| Every one in the town liked her.
Most of the young fellows-l was
young then, and one of them-did
more than like her.
When she came into church on Sun
day mornings, look of agonized
expectation would come over about
thirty faces in the congregation.
They all gazed eagerly at Lucy, in
the hope of one glance from her as
she went up the very short part of
the aisle leading to the square pew
where the Cherrys sat. Square pews
were not gone then. A great mis-
take it was, surely, that they ever
did go. Sleep during the sermon is
what most of us secretly wish for.
Under thenew arrangement, though,
who is bold enough to take it?
Lucy would sometimes look up
not often-during those moments of
her quick walk behind her brother.
On whichever side OF the aisle her
glance fell radiant faces were visible;
on the other side q proportionate
despair showed ITSELF Had they not
been in place where private senti
ments are rarely manifested the rela-
tions between those gentlemen would
instantly have become extremely
strained"
1t was not to be wondered at.
Lucy was very pretty. Brown hair
Just the sort which most becomes a
woman-scft and wavy; blue dark
blue eyes, and q tall figure, straight
and upright as an arrow. 1t is Meth
er here nor there to say that | never
saw woman like her, and had ever
married-but how could ! when she
never even gave even a thought to
me? Still the act intensified my feel
ings atterward, when-but evident
ly even the practice have had is not
able to hinder me from telling this
story confusedly unless | take care.
Well, am growing old, and it was
terrible do not half like the task
l have set myself
One Sunday came, when both sides
of the aisle showed only disconsolate
countenances. Lucy looked neither
on one side nor the other. She look
ed on the ground to hide q very
pretty blush, and then fixedly on her
brothers broad shoulders, as he.
good soul, walked in front, thinking
of nothing less than his sister.
She was engaged to be married.
we had all heard it in the week-to
doctor, who had recently bought
a practice in the town. He had
many friends and few enemies, and
was decidedly popular. Clever, he
was most certainly; strikingly hand
some, and SO pleasant to talk with
that every one who met him did
stop ond talk to him.
This is IL mans praise ola man,
so it is not likely to be overdone,
and it is hardly likely that should
have any reason for overpraising the
man who won the only girl l ever
cared jor
No; did not wonder at Lucy. No
one did. And they looked so well
together-she SO womanly, he so
thoroughly manly and yet so gentle,
to give the much-abused compound
word its real force
Lucy, perhaps in mercy to us
perhaps to him-was content with
only six weeks engagement, and
their wedding was fixed for New
Years day.
The weather that winter was I'M
usually cold and dreary, and on the
last day OF the old year there was a
terrible snowstorm, which lasted all
day, and only ended just in time to
let the clouds roll away from IL fiery
red sunset. New people came to the
town in the middle OF thesnowstorm.
people who hadrecently taken one of
the few large red-brick houses the
town posscssed-a really large house
standing in its own large, old-fash-
Toned garden. But every one who
knew her-and that was all the town
was SO taken up with thinking of
Lucy's wedding that no one bestowed |
a thought at the time at what would
at any other have been great ex-
citement-the arrival of the new ten
ants. Annora Masters and her hus-
band. | use the words assuredly, for
those two names could go in no 9th
er order.
Not until naYt ,norninr ,uhar, I