The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-04-09

GOunCll JnaG SaFan naQ q leIUer DI uudni
the excitement was equal to that which
would have been felt in any well estas-
1ished household in Salem to-day II a
large square box had been sent from the
English ste amer in Boston marked - ~,
order of the Queen" and left by, t4e
American Express at the door.
Sarah Paris had never had five letters py
mail in her life, and probably, indeed, the
women of the household would not re-
ceive five in the next two years: one
had expected the excitement WPlcn the
letter would cause, and when IL was aC
last brought up to her from ner uncle ;
store on the wharf, from when tlolnSs Oh
ITS arrival had already been received, she
called the family. around her, before she
opened it, and explained to them the SUD
ject. Every one of them grew pale with
surprise dear Aunt Huldah threw her
arms around the girl and broke into tears.
The scene was just such as she had an
~ticipated; but. she had now had days upon
DAYS in which to forecast what 1T would
be, and what she should. say, and she
bore herself bravely through the Whole.
She told her dear Aunt Huldah that she
must not think that she was going away
forever. What had happened was this:
that she was determined to see more OF
the world; they had often laughed o
1t, and in their laughing about 1t she had
been more serious than they had thought.
She was determined to go now, and they
would see how she was going. Thus she
broke the letter OPEN, and revealed 10
them its contents.
Of course it was not long before the
whole of Salem knew her secret. There
was no reason why it should be a secret,
and the girl faced this possibility as-she
had faced all the rest of the adventure.
The passage in it which had the one thrill
for her Of keen excitement was the in
evitable visit from Harry Curwen. q
That visit came at s o'clock in the
evening of the day of the arrival OF the
letter. Harry came into the room play
ing with his little cane, and affecting to
be in light spirits, but Aunt Huldah knew,
and Sarah knew, that this was but affeeta-
ton. He did not so much as take off his
coat he said at once:
81 thought perhaps, Sarah, you would
walk with me. The roadway is dry, the
night is lovely, and I have something l
want to say to you"
He was too intimate in the house to be
afraid to be frank, and in two minutes
the girl was with him In the street. Then
he was eager, then he was. passionate.
Why had she done such a thing as this,
without letting him have a word? Had
he not some rights that nobody else had?
And the girl, with dignity, said that she
did not know that he had, and did not
know why he should claim any. To which
Harry replied in an eager protestatlon OF
his affection. He supposed that she
understood that be could not live without
her, and did not pretend he could live
without her. He had not supposed that
she was like a girl in a book, who wanted
to see him on his knees, or to hear any
protestations in words. But he had tried
to show, in a thousand ways, that her
pleasure was his pleasure, and that he did
nothing in life which he did not associate
with her. But now he came, on the first
instant that he heard this folly, to say
that if he had done wrong he was sorry.
He was hers, and he was only hers, as
she perfectly we'll knew. Would she
take him, bear with him, love him, and
let him show, as life went by, that if he
had not offered himself to her in the right
way at first, the offer was none the less
sincere?
1t would not be fair to say that Sarah
Paris was not affected by the dignity
which, after all, this spoiled child man
aged to throw into his protestations of
attachment. 1t would not be fair to say
that she was not proud, that at last he had
made the protest, which he had been so
sluggish in making, and which he had
been willing to leave unmade. But If she
was proud, or if in any way she were
pleased, she did not let him know that.
She simply said that he had no right to
presume upon any good nature of hers.
She said that they all lived in a simple
life, as she had said, and that he had no
right to charge her with showing him any
more regard than she would have shown
TO anyone else with whom she was on
friendly terms of daily intimacy.
The poor boy interrupted her to say
that he made no charge at all.
Then sheaEent on to say that she was
honored, as any-Ewoman might be hon
ored, by what he was pleased to say to her
but with a good deal of dignity, and with
words which he never forgot, she said
that he dad no right, and she thoughthe had
no right to ask any woman to be his wife.
She told him that he was a spoiled child ,
she told him that he lived merely to
amuse. himself; she told. HIM that if m
amusing ehimself hes played with other
people, he didinot seem taLeare a great
deal; she told him, in short, that he had
no right to ask any woman to marry him,
while he was a butterfly playing around
the life of the world, which he seemed
to her t6be. al cannot see," said she,
that. you are of any use to anybody 1
do not see that this world is better that
you livesin it. l do not choose that
my husband shall be a man who cannot
stand before God and men and say 1 am
doing sonRe service to the country to
which Lifelong"
Such was, condensed only too severely
for the purposes of this little i4sle the
subject of-the sharp dismissal which "a