Saint Mary's beacon., 1894-04-05

All she young LADIES smiled up0I
him, but all the mammas turnes
the cold shoulder upon him. Fol
though he belonged to a fine Ole
family, and had the entree of tn,
best society he was poor; almos
entirely. dependent upon a rich
uncle, who was repnted to be mis-
erly. and was 'hard upon fellow,
as Will expressed it. He and Cat.
ty fell in love with each other and
were engaged. Mother objected q
little at first, but it was no use tc
object to anything that Gatty had
set her heart upon; and Aunt. Ca.
leb's Cat went forth in favor oil the
lovers. It was something to have
one OF us married, at any rate; and
then the rich old uncle might be
brought to better mind; he prob
ably would, upon his deathbed, at
least, and he had no kith or kin ex-
except Will, and they were young,
and could afford to wait.
And so it was that the young cou-
pie were betrothed, with the bless
ing of everybody except the uncle,
who wrote what Ga.ty denominated
"a horribly hateful letter. advising
Will to try taking care Of himself
before he attempted to take care of
wife, and inquiring, with the Gym
icism natural to miserly old age,
'how long Unexpected it would last;'
and Will, whose greatest exertions
had hitherto been leading the Ger
man, and playing billiards and cro-
quet, departed for Philadelphia,
where the miserly uncle abode, ada
brought his aspiring soul down{to
the work of a clerk in bank o.
house.
And Gatty sighed that Will should
be brought down to such unconge-
nial labor, and hoped he wouldn't
work too hard, and wished she had
some wonderful gift that would earn
a fortune for him, and counted the
days that must pass before he couH
come to see her.
By-and-by we heard it rumored
that Will was devoting himself to
his old labors more assidnously than
to his new ones. We heard of him
as having his usual success in So
ciety. Gatty was glad that he could
'have the heart to take little re-
creation;' she was afraid he couldn't,
when he was away from her. But
when society absorbed so much of
the young mans attention that his
letters grew very short and infre-
quent, Gatty began to look little
troubled. Soon we heard that he
was devoting himself to an heiress,
who was making a great sensation
in Philadelphia society by reason Of
her millions. | do not think that
Gatty credited the rumors, at first,
but when his letters ceased altogeth-
er, at the same time that we heard
of his engagement to the heiress,
she was forced to believe him faith
less.
Just at that time, to Gatty's as
tonishment, a letter came to her
from Willis miserly old uncle. 1t
merely asked, in very courteous
way, il she was engaged to his neph-
ew. 1t was not ut all blunt, as
might have been expected from the
miserly old bachelor, and yet one
could not help gathering from il
that its author was in disturbed
and angry frame of mind when he
wrote it. And Gatty's tender heart
was alarmed on Willis account.
With the natural weakness of the
sex. she decided that she was the
cause of all Willis misfortunes; and
what did the foolish little chit do
but write the elderly uncle a long
letter, beseeching him tn 'remem ber
when he was young, and not be Sc
hard upon Will ~
One letter brought forth another,
and now for six months Gatty had
been corresponding with Will Far.
rington's old uncle. She used tc
read rs some of his letters, and they
were very entertaining; not at al
what one would expect from such
a crusty old bachelor. And as fol
Gatty, she always&Tites the bright
est, most piquan1 letters; we die
not wonder at all thathe liked I,
receive them. But it was so aueeI
that we teased her alittle, calling hin
Auld Robin .Gray-which was tn,
more appropriate as his name wa
Roheft-and nrnnhesyinp that sh,