Nevada County picayune., 1890-02-05
50 THE YEAR BEGAN.

Noulu SHe give up all IleSe ue- lightful things which her soul loved rich raiment, imperial jewels, her handsome horses and fine carriages, her grand house in the city, her pretty villa at Newport!
 Could she go back to the old hum- ble life of a year agO-to paltry six hundred dollars a year-rented apartments - home made bonnets, and turned dresses?
 Vivian Montaine shuddered as these queries recurred to her troub- led mind.
 Of course she could not do it! No, thousand times no.
 was sheer idiocy to contemplate such a proceeding for a single second.
 And yet she should be obliged to do it, if she would wed the man she loved.
 By the terms of her deceased un- cle's will, the fortune was to be hers ; 'shers, her heirs and assigns forever y -only if she married a certain re- motelv-related individual, or if she remained spinster.
 To we'd any other, except the per son indicated, would be to forfeit all the riches which she enjoyed with so keen a zest, which afforded her such intense and exquisite satisfaction.
 And she ought not to repine be- cause her hearts wayward fancies were restricted.
 She ought, instead, be grateful that the marriage mentioned was a suggestion merely, and not made ob- ligatory by terms of the will
 Her wealth would not be half SC delightful if she were really com pelled to share it with this person of whom she knew nothing, whom she had never met, of whose very name she was. indeed, ignorant.
 They had alluded to him as the son of her deceased uncle's favorite neice; and he was a very excellent and deserving young man, no doubt.
 But she was unspeakably thankful that she was not bound to ascertain anything further concerning him, and that he was not at all likely to thrust himself upon her notice, or obtrudt himself into her life in any way.
 She was perfectly free to remain spinster, if she so desired-to live unloved and alone all the peaceful years stretching before her.
 And perhaps it was best, after all For what was love but unrest and vexation of spirit?-a ileeting en chantment and glamour of tn, senses "a distemper of the brain eternally breeding jealousies ano fears and all sorts of fever-madness
 She would put love aside, from hel dreams, from her life.
 She would bury the little blind god so deep and fast that he would never rise to pierce her quiverlns heart with his magic-tipped arrows
 She should have her compensa tions. She should not be forever worrying lest she should somehow fail to please an autocrat whom sh' had sworn to honor and obey. les' she should fail in some small degree in her duty regarding his buttons and warmed slippers.
 She should not grow prematurei, old and gray and unlovely with tn thousand petty tribulations of look ing after a household.
 She should be free to come and go when and whither she liked, and n one to forbid her, no one to com mand her doing otherwise.
 Oh, yes, she should certainly hay her compensatlons,
 Only would not life without an, responsibilities whatever be ineN pressibly tame and empty and lgno hIpY should she not weary of l with deadly wearlness!
 And as she drifted on toward ol' ape should she not be unutterabl,