Middletown transcript., 1894-06-23
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with sentiment. Even the calendars
hanging beside the desks were ugly,
business-like affairs setting forth the
SURPRISING merits of particular patent
medicines or life insurance companies.
Nevertheless it was there that Mary
sat and read and reread tie love letter
which brutally announced that it would
be the last.
1t told her so many things In plain,
unvarnished, unpleasant language. 1t
said that she was Quixotic to continue
in the hopeless, endless struggle to pay
her fathers debts and clear his name.
1t pointed out that she was losing
health, freshness and enthusiasm and
missing happiness in the course. And
it wound up with the cold blooded
statement
'For the last time, I ask you to give
up that hideous existence of yours
there, and to come to me who love you
and long to protect yon. There is no
legal obligation upon you and no moral
one. The task you have undertaken is
hopeless. If you persist in it you will
break my heart and ruin my life-to
say nothing of your own. For I shall
never ask you again to marry me if
you refuse me now. Will you or will
you not marry me9 ROBERT"
In the dingy Office Mary went over
the letter again and again. She went
over arguments it contained. She was
very tired already. She was not one of
those whose hearts are in their work.
She had gone into the Office simply to
make enough money to pay her fathers
debts. She knew when she entered il
that Robert Graham wished to marry
her, and had no sympathy with what
he called ''the strained notion of
honor" that made her struggle to pay
her fathers creditors. She wished to
marry Robert, too, which made the
situation little harder for her to bear.
But she had steadily resisted his en-
treaties and the stronger pleading of
her own desires.
She calculated, rs she sat there, that
at her present salary it would take her
eleven more years to save the money
she needed. She could not hope for
increase of wages, for she was not
trained to work, and her work was
commonplace. In eleven years, if she
did not lose her position or her health,
she would have saved the necessary
money. In eleven years she would be
thirty-six years old She was already
tired almost beyond endurance. She
could never bear eleven years more of
that Office and that hidcous, poorly kept
boardiEg-house. Her employer had
been rude to her only that morning.
She loathed the city. She hated her
work. She longed for peace, a home
and quiet life with the man she loved.
Perhaps she was Quixotic. Her hand
trembled as she lifted her pen and
started to write. She could not say
what she wanted to say. Sentence
after sentence was begun and thrown
away. Finally on the white sheet was
just one line: 81 will give up"
When that message was sent, Mary
put her head down and wept for long
time. But her relief in the thought of
giving up her work and being happy
was greater than all the remorse she
felt at being false to her duty to her
father.
So they were married and settled
down happily in the little white cottage
with green blinds and a vine-screened
piazza and a garden fnll of sweet
williams and pansies.
n
Ihey had Deen married year and
Mary was venturing mildly to object tc
one of her husbands plans.
SIT seems to me a little-a little
well-not high-minded," she said.
mot high-minded?" repeated Ro-
bert, turning upon her. pardon me
Mary, if | suggest that person with
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. here
ditary instincts concerning money is
no judge of high -mindedness in busi
ness. If your fathers name had bee
cleared of the stain thattrests upon it.
your opinion would be more valuable.