Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-11-10

stopped "I cannot thank you enough for having calmed Leslie. His nurse left this morning and he will not be consoled by any of the other servants. So finally told Mrs Clarke, the house. keeper, that l would try him for a walk. But will you not take the umbrellaP 1t will be a shame to expose yourself to such a deluge."
 She gracefully declined al thanks and such kind offers. and glided quick ly of, tall, black-robed figure daring the watery drops But perfect shriek from baby arose when he found him self deserted in this fashion, and each succeeding cry became louder and moro distressing. Again Gabriel could not go. Again she came back to him.
 Twill you please come into the house with him? Mrs. Clarke may there be better able to get him away than L."
 So Gabriel, carrying his child. en- tered his house, unknown. but welcome even then.
 Leslie was not to be easily deceived, and all the ruses were seen through inn mediately by his careful, big blue eyes.
 ''We must get nurse-maid this very night" declared Mrs. Clarke, as she en- deavored in her practical, cold-hearted way to inveigle the young lord from his new mamma"
 But" groaned Mir. Courtright, "where can one get one which he can trust on such very short notice9" A bold idea entered Gabriel's head She tried three or four times to speak. and her voice failed Finally she choked back the lump in her throat and said:
 Would 1t be presumptuous for me to offer myself? can show you excel lent references, and am now looking for some such position"
 "You a nursemaid?" exclaimed Mir. Courtright, in amazement. Then a moment later he would have given much to have it back unsaid; her plain black gown was alarmed at the elbows; it was merely her way of wearing 1t that gave her the appearance of 9 wom- an of long-founded culture and deli cacy.
 Two years went by, in which Miss covered, was loved by and loved in re- turn Mir. Courtright's two children. It was one evening in March just before asleep and had just come down to the W4LA IAdOc4 bO 6Gdy WILL the child till her father come to dinner. He was late, and Mabel wandered off to back parlor, thus leaving Gabriel alone in tho dimly-lighted room, when Mr. Courtright finally entered.
 "I shall call Mabel" she began, starting from her station by the win dow.
 "No, Miss varney, stay. have A@ k1 Der how moved was the first time that Leslie called you 'mamma% You thought then, no doubt, that 1t was Partly so, but mostly because as I that you were the woman who-who might have been his mother if the fates had been kinder. Do you know, Miss verney, that you often remind me cru | ely of a woman l loved better than the worldq''
 "Your wife?'' She .was glad that it of her lips.
 "No, not my wife Iloved Marie one way; she was tender and true to me. | But the woman that I really 1oved-'' Then after short pause he went on: | | this: have learned to love you a thou sand times better than Marie, and sometimes. almost think, as much as loved-the dearest one. Can you, will you hate me if ask you thus to be Leslie's mamma in truth as we'll as in | wordp"
 Slowly came the reply: "But you love the first woman best of all even yet9"
 'Yes, do. But, as said, often almost think that you are she when stop to realize how I feel toward you. ,
 Moment after moment went by. The shadows came closer and the rim ot lighter clouds near the west horizon grew narrower. At last she said: "I too. loved in the long ago. But car never in any way love another man. l But"
 Miss Varney," he broke in.
 "No, let me finish" she continued '"Take an umbrella and go down to the east gate Do not ask a question, but take the umbrella and wait there"
 Then she sped upstairs He wa: dazed; maybe that was the reason tha he, as in dream, did as she had bic and took his station down by the rustic gate, where the softly falling rair dripped through the leaves on to tho gravel of the walk
 Suddenly he was conscious of rustic at his side, and, turning, there stood ; tall girl. with a loving smile beamins above the same dark collar with sweet face shining from beneath thu same velvet bonnet remembered st well from long ago, and an old-tim, voice murmured: Robert"
 ''Gabriel?" he gasped.
 "Yes," she laughed Gabriel ant | your nursemaid in one"
 When they walked up to the hous that night she chung lovingly to hi arm under the narrow umbrella, fo they were strangers no longer.-Ina J Hegler, in Chicago News
 A fearless humming bird has beel breakfasting all the past summer upol the sweets hidden within the depths O | many OaSt11rtiunS ahlOorn ou tha ve