The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-06-10
Select Storp,
THE STORY OF MEG.
May Kendall, in Longman's Magazine.
CHAPTER 1.

Meg was the daughter of the rector of
Nunthorpe, Mr.. Thirlwall, with whom |
went to study before college, when | was a
lad of eighteen. He was not in the least a
typical rector, being a scholar rather than
clergyman; and Meg was still less like
the typical rector's daughter, She did
not visit the poor of the parish. She had
always left all that to Mrs. Pryde, who
was the prop OF the church in Nunthorpe,
and whom Meg hated, for reasons.
ssShe is setting her hideous cap with
primrose ribbons at my father" she said.
'sBut she shan't have hinl-I'll die first y
1t was Characteristic of Meg that she men
toned Mrs. Pryde's intentions to me on
the second day of my abode there. Most
girls would have waited to see if | was TO
be trusted, but this did not seem to occur
TO Meg. She treated me as a comrade at
once-at first with little air OF good
humored patronage because | was year
younger than she was, but this was re-
placed by slight awe when she found
that | was what she called lawfully
clever"
"Father will enjoy having you to coach,
she said eandidly. GAIL the other boys
who came have been such idiots. They
came to him to be done cheap, and he
couldn't afford not to take them. You
won't be nearly so much trouble, and yet
you're paying more. l think shall like
you, but you won't like me because I'm
not bit clever. I'm fonder of novels
than anything. Have you read "Cometh
up as Flower?" That's what I've got
ont of the library now. Isn't it lovely :?
And | like poetry. I'm reading Brown
ing's poems. There's The Cry of the
Children but | l haven't got very far
81 like Robert Browning best" said |,
rather priggishly perhaps, but was very
young at the time, ado you know any of
his ?"
4No," replied Meg. afhis is RliEaheth
something. Who was Robert Browning
Her father? Did he write books too p
In truth, Meg's education had been
singularly neglected, though she had been
to a boarding-sehool somewhere or other,
which had left her mind much as it found
It. But soon ceased to attach any i'm
portance to her want Of information, which
never embarrassed beF in the slightest de-
gree. She seemed to me to have Ehat Yas
better-a touch Of genius, or at all events
curious Wild charm of her own that
would make her remembered when wiser
peopIe were forgotten. 1t betrayed itself
most, perhaps, in her playing and singing.
She had Irish blood in her veins, and she
used to sing those sad old Irish melodies
| in way that thrilled one through and
through. | do not often think of Meg
now, but sometimes dream Of her, and
nearly always she is singing one of those
eerie songs.
I may say at once that never fell in
love with Meg, nor she with me. Though
only eighteen, ! was very much in love al
ready, and never could be in love with
two or three girls together, like the hero
of a modern novel; Meg, for her part,
was also otherwise involved, as willappeari
and so we got on splendidly.
/ | don't know whether she was hand
some / only know that she had wonder
fnl dark eyes-the saddest | have ever
/ seen. Yet she was not sad when first
knew her, but, as rule, brimful of life
and gayety. Occasionally, to be sure
there were fits of wild depression, but
these only seemed o natural reaction aftel
her exuberant high spirits. And sad a'
her eyes were, there was generally glin'
of humor in them, like sunbeam caugh;
in the depths of a gray agate.
1t was not long before | lesrnt Meg''
secret by something in her face whenever
Mr.. Weston was mentioned. Being il
love myself, l could tell the signs. The
Rev. Marcus Weston was Thirlwall's Gu
rate for the present, being a man who il
the nature of things would not be curat,
long. But he was friend of the formel
curates. and had come partly to supply
his place, partly because the air of Nun
thorpe was just beginning to be celebrates
and Weston was not a strong man. Their
could not have been two people more hope
lessly dissimilar than Meg and he. H
was gentle and sympathetic far beyond tn
majority Of men yet under it all ther
/. was kind Of hardness that did not exis
in Msgs nature so much wilder an
: more ppruly He did not fiirt with girl
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