The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-02-06
DIR 6anlilp 9torp.
le End of Her Waiting.
pY ELLEN F. wYcoFF.

DY ELLEN f. wYCoFF.
was o now sensation to Doliy-this
feet, beautiful happiness. 1t SEEM
TO her that some wonderful new
ghtness must have settled down
T. the world.
nd 1t was only this morning that
had busted the old brown dress and
I'd tn brighten 1t with q fresh collar
i'd pink bow. Only this morning
iarcely twelve hours ago-she had
lnned on h brown hat. with its de-
Jected "drOopy" bows, and wondered
If she must walk about under it all the
summer. And now 1t was ell away
back in that pitiful past /!
For at noon n telegram had come for
her. She was eating her lunch, SO
daintily put up by Aunt Harriet, when
the messenger-6Oy came into the little
back room of the millinery store and
handed her o yellow envelope. And
the opening of 1t was all that lay be-
tween the old world and the new. Just
that tiny isthmus of time between the
old life and the new. Everything was
changed as by magic, and she wanted
to take the freckIed-faced boy in her
arms and kiss him Ghen and there but
instead, she wrote her name in the
book he held out to her, and when he
was gone, she read the scrawling lines
again.
ROBERT"
ThAs,.w was q. but oh, the meaning of
t! ~ meant n end to the years of
veagy waiting. 1t meant comfort and
'ayppiness and rst and the fulfllment
"a countless lovey dreams. 1t meant
everything to {e woman who ha@
Waited and VISITED foT her wedding
day. -
AndTt meant that an\heir had been
found at last by the puzzled lawyers,
and that the fortune of the old West
ern miner would no long& go /a-beg-
miners will had called for We son of
was the fortunate man
Dolly's hands were not qNite steady
that afternoon, when she fitted one
after another of the pretty hats over
her Cousin Kitty's yellow bangs, and
Kitty was hard to please.
"You amt interested, Dolly your
ayes are dreamy. Do you know Robert
" coming home Amy told me they
-~dHs telegram He is the heir isn't
he rich It he's had a hard time
taking care of his mother and sisters
and Mrs. Browns children. That one
Is q little too close try q flaring
Dolly brought another hat and patti
emily laid the blue feathers around it.
Maybe you'll be getting married
now. Kitty said, smiling under the
dropping plumes, "now that Robert is
Dolly flushed and bent over the hats
on the counter.
ut looks like it's time" Kitty went
on, If you are engaged, as people say.
But long. engagements rarely ever end
In marriage. mother says. Yes, this
n will do. Get it ready by Sunday,
Dolly; and I nearly forgot-mother
told me to ask if Aunt Harriet is
through with her headache"
Aud when Dolly had answered.,
pretty, dimpled, rosy-cheeked, yellow
haired Kitty tripped out of the store.
But 1t was not of her pretty cousin
that Dolly thought now, as she Law in
the hammock under the low spreading
magnolia-tree down by the gate. She
was resting and thinking of the bless
edness of this new world that had
formed itself about her-the world
that held Robert all her own, and a
home that she would make beautiful
for him.
It'was twenty years since Robert.
standing by her under this very tree,
all In blossom then, had told her the
sweet old story that every maiden must
hear. Twenty years! She had been a
slip Of a girl then, awkwardly conscious
OF her first long dress and Robert. u
boy scarcely older than herself, had
blnshed and stammered over the story
that IL never easy to tell.
And then his father had died, and
his mother and sisters; and, later on.
a family of little orphaned nephews
and nieces had beer left to him.
Dolly was the first to say that they
must wait. She could see how impossi-
BILE it would be for Robert to take care of
them all. He left school and worked
bravely on the old farm, and the wait
ing had gone on.
So twenty years crept away. Dolly
a remained in her auut's home, help
ing with the children at first, and
afterward working down town ; for her
aunt's daughters needed everything,
now that they were grown up, and
Dolly was used to looking out for her.
self.
But there had always been the love
that bound her n Robert to each
other. Not even the slenderest
shadow had ever fallen between them.
And now the waiting was over at
last, and h would be Roberts wife. |
She would rather have waited for this
n to have been n queen long ago.
1t seemed to her that the very leaves
knew and trembled, as she did, with
joy and the stars twinkled down be-
tween them, as if they too, knew all
about it..
The town clock struck ten, and Patty
and Ben came in from the reading
club. They always fingered a little at
the gate, as the manner of lovers is,
you know.
Dolly smiled as the soft murmur of
their voices came to her. She wonder
ed If the poor young things would ever
be as happy as she was then
And then, as they walked slowly up
the path, words began to grow out of
the soft murmur.
bob Brent has struck it, they saw"
Ben remarked in his elegant way, and
Patty replied mournfpfiy
"Ah, yes. How sorry I am for. Dolly
Poor faithful, loving Dolly"
Sorry? Why isn't she in it? |
thought they were"
"Why, Ben" Patty broke in, with
tears in her little babyish voice, "can't
you see that Dolly is only a faded
middle-aged oma now, while Robert
is In his ~prime-the handsomest mar
in town? And haven't you noticed
how he admires Kitty? 1t was all we'll
enough when he couldn't marry; but
now"
But the words were indistinct again