Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1889-11-08

III Il mousse as grand as this one.
"All very we'll then. Matters are
different now"
"There is no difference in my love for
Rhoda."
"a pauper! The daughter of bank
rupt who committed sucide."
"Your brother"
swell, what of that! He never asked
me to help him, Or" was the harsh
voice husky? Frank wondered-"I might
have been idiot enough to do it,"
at was pity he could not know that.
Father" in a softened tone, s'don't stand
between Rhoda and me. | won't give
her up, but you make her hard to win.
She is as proud to-day as she was when
her Garage drove up to our door, and she
brought you fruit from her hot-house
No, / am wrong! She was not proud,
then, Heaven bless her, but she is now."
''Beggars have no right to be proud !!
| won't have it! Do you understand?
If you persist in this folly, you may suit
yourself to the situation, for your allow
ance stops; stops, understand, the day
you propose to your cousin Rhoda. You
can find home and an income else
where"
II don't mind that threat, but should
be very unhappy if l left you alone,
fa ther"
''Don't do it, then
''But it will make my life utterly
wretched to give up my cousin"
Bah Go to bed. You're a head
strong boy, and you have not tasted pow
erty yet. Keep your heroics till you
have"
Frank Lewis knew that there were
some moods in which his father was
utterly stubborn, and that to argue was
to take time for no result SO he ac-
cepted his dismissal, and went to his
own room. Thinking deeply, he came
to the resolution 20 try his power to con
quer fortune before seeing Rhoda again.
She knew he loved her, and if his love
was returned, would trust him: if she
cared for him only in a cousinly way,
then the separation might help him to
bear later disappointment. He would
not desert his father, but perhaps when
he had proved himself no braggart, his
father might relent.
1t was dreary enough in the weeks
that followed in the tiny parlor, behind
the little stationer's store where Rhoda
Lewis strove to keep the wolf from the
door Brought up in utter ignorance of
business, the young storekeeper had de
pended mconsciously upon her cousin
Frank in all financial difficulties. Frank
had taught her how to keep her books,
had given her instructions about renew
ing her stock in trade, managed her
banking business, had been her adviser
and best friend from the day when she
returned from her fathers funeral, to
know she must be breadwinner for her
self and her invalid mother. She had
never looked upon him as lover, only
as her very dear cousin, until her uncle
rudely opened her eyes and heart by in
forming her of the penalty attached to
his sons courtship. Then love awakened
to sting her sharply when pride forbade
her cherishing the sweet intruder.
Yet, while she suffered in heart, there
was magic of prosperity about the tiny
store Customers tlocked to her, and she
found sale for better class of goods than
she had ventured upon at first. She had
some skill in water-color painting, no
wonderful talent, but sufficient capacity
for much of the pretty decorating, just
at that time coming into fashion For
what she had leisure to accomplish in
that line, she found quick sale at large
profit.
Her sorest grief was in her mother
wasting health, and the certainty that a
long standing disease must terminate fa-
tally, though the decline was very slow.
Heart and brain were sorely taxed, the
more that she had been so carefully
guarded from all care and sorrow during
her fathers life. But she was brave and
faithful in the discharge of daily duty,
trusting in Gods care for her future, as
| humbly rs a child trusts its mother.
/ Two years had passed since Frank
Lewis put up her shutters, when he wrote
to her from another city, telling her that
he had good position, was working
faithfully to make himself Independent,
and asking her to be his wife if his in