Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-02-01
"A MODERN JOHN ALDEN.
Aaron Pencils Ruse Worked Like
a Charm.


'Tf in all our lives you need me-if
there should be any thing that can do
for you'll swear to do it," said Julian
Hicks "You can ask me nothing which,
at any personal sacrifice, will not en-
deavor to accomplish. mean that when
] say it. beg of you to remember 1t.
You are rich-I am poor. You are some
.. body-I am nobody. But the time may
come when the promise is worth some
thing, and, on the honor OF q gentle
man, will keep it."
An hour before this speech was made
Aaron Pennel had saved Julian Hicks
sister from watery grave and brought
her safe in his strong arms to the very
spot upon the beach Of Northtown where
the two men now stood together. And
Ada Hicks was in very truth pearl Of
great price to her brother Julian-the
only one of his near kin,sttll living,
younger than himself by tenfgood years,
and from her birth pet and plaything.
So he made this VOW to the man beside
him, hitherto mere acquaintance, in
the fullness of his gratitude to one that
had done all that one could do for an
other.
There were never Uwo men so utterly
unlike as Julian Hicks and Aaron PEN
mel. The first, Woodworking profess
sional man, who had struggled for such
little success as Fate had meted out to
him, unaided save by his own hands and
brain; not handsome. not snowy; his
greatest charm q certain. gentle sweet
ness, peculiarly manifested to women:
The other, man who had had Fortune for
his friend from his birth; who neither
toiled nor spun; who was very hand
some, very elegant, very charming, q
man of society, and one with whom fine
women might easily fall in love.
But from that day they were friends,
not only as the world goes, but in very
truth. And so it.came to pass that walk
ing one day, arm in arm latter their re-
turn from the seaside to town. they met
Amy Atkins, that Aaron introduced her
to Julian, and that, few evenings aft
-erwards, Aaron took Julian to call upon
Of. ~. '.;S = !.
She was an heiress. She was beauti'
full or had the name of being so. Her
eyes were black and velvety; her hair,
natures own bright gold. All the en-
amel in the chemists shops could not
make a complexion like hers. But that
tells you nothing about the woman-the
frank, sweet, sparkling, womanly wom-
an with whom Julian fell in love before
he had known her month, though 1t
seemed to him that he must in some
mysterious way have known her ever
since he began to guess what love was,
Since she did not seem so much like q
new friend as one long loved and hoped
for.
Wrapt up in his profession as an
architect engrossed by struggles for
bread and butter, which, while they
seldom prevent man from doing great
things, always unfit him for society,
Julian had known few women of Miss
Atkins position. He had no experience
by which to guide himself, or by which
to measure his own feelings. For while
ne did not suspect he was in love, and
30 was drawn nearer and nearer to- the
whirlpool, until, when the truth at last
dawned upon him, there was no retreat
He whose means were insufficient for
any thought of matrimony had lost his
heart to the heiress. He who, in his
alteration of human beauty, had some
times almost hated himself for being so
very plain, loved and worshipped the
loveliest woman the sun1shone Onl
1t was out Of the question that she
should like him. 1t was impossible for
him now to cease to- love her-to be
happy without her-to leave her and
.see her no morel As the moth, which
has futtered about Q flame until. its
wings are singed, is still tempted to its
doom, so he felt he must linger near the
woman who had his heart in her keeping.
That she could care for him never en-
tered his mind; that she did would have
been an absurdity too preposterous to
dream Of. But 1t was true, neverthe-
less. Amy Atkins, though too bright
not to keep the facta secret, had grown
fonder Of Julian Hicks than she had
thought that she could be of any man.
So now the play began in esrnest-a
drama oftener acted than most people
guess. Two hearts afpe, while one
would think, from look and speech and
manner. that they we're ice to each
.Other-love guarding itself with shield
81 calm good hTsOdingI f