The Opelousas courier., 1889-11-16
MATTIE'S CHOICE.

If any one had limited to pretty Matte
Woolston that she would ever figure as q
heroine in a story, she would have opened
was the only child Of good old DIR. Wool
ston, of Greyport, a thriving town in
Yorkshire, and in the circle of local So
ciety was considered at once a belle and
an heiress. Hair and eyes the color of a
chestnut when first the burr uncloses, a
complexion as soft as satin and white as
milk, with the prettiest rose tint of color
or the round cheeks, white, even teeth
set in a pretty, smiling mouth, a figure
tall, slight and graceful, were the attrac-
tions in appearance of the village beauty.
But those who knew Matte Woolston
well were wont to say that her pretty
face and figure were the least of her
charms. She had a low, musical voice,
a manner graceful and easy, high-bred by
intuition of what was dignifed and maid
emily; she was the neatest housekeeper in
Greyport, and all her taste, full dresses
and hats were the work of her own deft
fingers. She had read intelligently, and
could I'VE well.
So it is no matter for wonder that
Matte had many lovers. But foremost
upon the list, to all appearance, was
handsome Ned Gordon. who had been to
the University, and whose father shared
the aristocratic honors of Greyport With
the doctor and clergyman, being the only
lawyer In the town.
The clergyman was q bachelor Of nearly
forty years of age, who had come but
recently to Greyport to preside over the
church where the Woolstons and the
Gordons had each a pew. He was a
grave, reserved man, whose face bore the
impress of sorrows and cares conquered,
and succeeded by the serene peace that IL
FAR above the careless content that has
never known interruption. lie wa not
o handsome man, but had large, tender
eyes under a broad white brow; and these
would irFadiate his homely face with a
light almost divine, when he preached
with an eloquence and simplicity rarely
combined: SO that men went from his
church, slowly and thoughtfully ponder
ing upon truths that were but hcmely,
everyday facts, but suddenly had been
illumined by earnest %eloquence into paths
TO salvation.
One Of these men, young, wealthy and
full of talent, was Ned Gordon, Mattie's
ardent admirer from bovhood. He had
left her in sobbing pain of love to go to
a boarding school, had felt his heart
torn when college took him again from
Matte, and had become more devoted
than ever when he came home s'for
good to find her grown to ~womanhood,
fairer than ever.
He had been won't to say of himself,
when he considered the subject at all,
that he twas not a bad fellow, as fellows
co. being simply an idle hanger-on to
his fathers wealth. a deS,ltnrv student
% musty law-books when the mood
seized him, floating carelessly down ife's
stream doing no especial harm by the
way, but assuredly doing no good either.
Of his personal responsibility in the
schemeo of creation, he had never thought
until the Rev. Harvey Stillman was ap-
pointed vicar of the fine old church at
Greyport, where Ned's fine tenor wa
quite q feature in the choir. It must be
confessed that, under the dull prosy
preaching of Harvey Stillman's prede-
ecssor, the choir seats had been a gather
ing place for much quiet Irritation
among the bellies aud beaux of the town;
and Ned's chief magnet was the certainty
of sitting near Matte, and hearing her
clear sweet soprano join his own voice.
But before Harvey Stillman Kathleen
a month at Grayport, Ned was uneasily
conscious that many of his words were
as dagger thrusts at his own aimless. use
less life, and waking to this conscious
ness, he also awakened to another disa-
greeable fact-nanely. that Matte was
aTso perce1ying rnar rlre was q more earn
est, real thing, than she had before pic
TIRED it 10 herself.
She had never been a drane ia the
Rive, but she had become more actively
useful outside of her little house-World.