The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-07-05
CHAPTER II.
CONTAINS A FEW DETAILS.

n
In an old secondhand bookshop in Lon
don an old man sat reading Gibbon' S His
tory of Rome" He did not put down his
book when the postman brought him a
letter He just glanced indifferently at the
letter and impaticntly at the postman.
Zerviah Holine did not like to be inter
rupted when he was reading Gibbon, and
as he was always reading Gibbon an in
terruption was always regarded by him as
an insult.
About two hours afterward he opened
the letter and learned that his niece, Ber-
nardine, had arrived safely in Petershof,
and that she intended to get better and
come home strong. He tore up the letter
and instinctively turned to the photograph
on the mantelpiece. 1t was the picture of
face young and yet old, sad and yet with
possibilities of merriment, thin and drawn
and almost wrinklcd and with piercing
eyes which, even in the dull lifclessncss of
the photograph, seemed to be burning
themselves away. Not II pleasing nor II
good face, yet intensely pathetic because
of it's undisguiscd harassment.
Zerviah looked at it for "a moment.
she has never been much to either Of
us, i" he said to himself. And yet when
Malvina was alive used to think that she
WAS nafu Oh L btlitNO L sdiSi
so once or twice. But Malvina had her
own way of looking at things. Well, that
is over now.
He then with characteristic speed, dis
missed all thoughts which did not relate
to Roman history, and the remembrance
of Malvina, his wife, and Bernardine his
niece, took up an accustomed position in
the background of his mind
Bernardine had suffered cheerless
childhood in which dolls and toys took no
leading part. She had no affection to be-
stow on any DOLL nor any woolly lamb, nor
apparently on any human person, unless
perhaps there was the possibility of a
friendly inclination toward Uncle Zervi-
ah who would not have understood the
value of any deeper feeling and did not
therefore call the child cold hearted and
unresponsive, as he might well have done.
This she certainly was judged by the
standard of other children, but then nc
softening influences had been at work dur
ing her tenderest years. Aunt Malvine
knew as much about sympathy as she die
about the pI perties of an ellipse, and ever
the fairies had failed to win little Bernar
dine. At first they tried with loving pa
thence what they might do for her They
came out of their books and danced ant
sang to her and whispered sweet stories tt
her at twilight, the fairies own time
But she would have none Of them for al
their gentle persuasion. So they gave al
trying to please her and left her, as the,
had found her, loveless. What can be sait
of childhood which even the fairies hav
failed to touch with the warm glow Of af
fection?
Such little restless spirit striving b
axnress itsAl now In this di rectiOn now II
that, yet always actuated by the same con
slant force, the desire for work, Bernaz
dine seemed to have no special wish 10 b
useful to others. She seemed Just to hav
. natural tendency to work even IS other
have natural tendency to play. She wa
always In earnest. Life for little Bsrnaz
dine meant something serious.
Then the years went by. She grew n
and Allied hsr life with many interests an
ambivions She was at least worker
nothing dis She had always beeu al