The record-union., 1895-12-21
AN ARBITRARY LOVER.

only the day before Quilted it
1t was tWo-and-twenty years since
ne had last looked down the village
street-tWo- -and-twenty years since he
had turned and said "Good-by'' softly
10 the familiar scene before departing
with the policeman who had come to
fetch him. Twenty-Five years. and he
hao never looked on it since. He halted
on the gentle rise at the top of the
street, and gazed around him and in
front; he was not given overmuch to
sentiment, but his eyes softened as he
gazed.
IL was not much changed. There was
gap in the irregular row of brown
matched cottages where a fire had con-
sumed one of the Oldest; and its very
foundations were now lost under the
stfalght rows of cabbage plants in the
garden which had taken it's place. The
nr tree, TOO, was gone that had given
name TO the three cottages sheltered un-
der one roof at the further end of the
road, Just where it branched off at the
sQulre's park and the church The viii
lage green was inclosed by a stout fence,
ana cows were grazing on it in the
evening sunshine; the lord of the manor
had grabbed 1t, and the children were
playing in the dusty road instead of on
the short SWard that had belonged to
the children Of Seth Wavings child
hood. But nothing else seemed changed.
He called to a small boy of about
seven summers, who was making dust
pie in the road.
Come yer my son, wilt?"
The child came, obedient, and stared
at the stranger, with his thumb in his
mouth, and his eyes uplifted. Seth Wav-
ing had known eyes like those many
years ago-gray. with dark iris and
long black laSheS fringing them.
'Bist frowtened?" he asked the child
gently. "Yent no need, fur 1 wunt hurt
ZEE. Who lives in thic thur house, now,
down agen tn old tree stump"
The child took his thumb from his
mouth, and melted slowly into a pro-
longed howl. A girl, some few years his
senior, looked over the hedge at him,
and cried:
Speak up to the gentleman, Seth
Bradley! What is it you'd please to
want, sir?"
BE his name Seth Bradley"
Yes, sir
AN what be yourn?''
Jane Bradley. SIR with deep cour-
tesy.
An your mother's?"
Her be Widow Bradley. Fathers
dead
How long hev he bin dead?"
The girl looked at her small brother
meditatively.
He be seven" she said, "an' he were
barn'd the day father died"
The stranger looked closely at the
little maid before asking his next ques-
tion,
Thy mothers name be sarann,
bent-a?"
''1es, sir
Il thought I weren't maxim no mis-
take Little maid, wheer do thy mother
iive?"
The little maid pointed to the brown
roof which embraced three dwellings
under its motherly wings of thatch, and
Seth Waving strobe down the street,
and knocked at the furtheSt door of
the three A woman opened to him,
and he said:
Good evenin" Sarann-"
She gazed at him in a puzzled way
fornearIya minute; then after bewilder-
1nent came uncertainty, and after un-
certainty conviction
Good evenin', Seth,'' she said quietly.
''You be come back, then"
''I be, Sarann."
Fur good?'
Fur good or fur bad-one OF tother
on 'er1s''
'aThy feyther be dead this nine year.
81 knaws it: an Jenny be dead too,
an her husband married agen- We
a-heerd the main o the news out IN
Australia You was married, too,
Sarann, e'en-a' 'mwoast a year arter I'd
gone"
Mrs. Bradiey's gray eyes came in
search of his own, and then dropped 10
the ring on the fourth finger OF her thin
Il We're" she said, calmly and with
resignation.
WAS you happy
sI had a comfor' able home an a COM
for'able husband; l waited a bit Tor you'
an I couldn't wait no longer TO be
burden on mother. l thought you
come home after you'd a-done the Iouf-
Teen davs. but you didn't; l never was
one to chackle, but my heart were
pretty nigh broke, Seth.
sHow could / come whoam when q
a-ben took up for poachin', an AM the
country knawed it? Who'd ha' gin ma
reg'lar work agen, arter tnat ne
asked bitterly Farmers 'Ould ha en-
,1oved ma when 'em couldn't get no
other. an, when 'em could. Ia ma
starved. I went abroad wi Tom SIM
mons. an him an me've lived together
11p in the Bush ever since dlun
make my forum, but I've a-got what IL
hiring ma. in a. suv' 'ren a week as long as
I lives an sumun else arter ma WHO
somdever 1 med leave un to-
Mrs Bradley sighed MY husband
diad seven wear ago last Michaelmas,
She said. my eldest darter be twenty
vear old. anighst. I've got i've, an the
Youngest were barn'd the day his Iey-
ther died" -,.,+o.
ssIve a-sid he" remarked the VISITOR
che be called Seth, too.
faint color showed itself in Mrs
7radlev's pale cheeks and made her
look half a dozen years younger
eT,ve named him fur you, she SAID
s,r1nIv II thought 'twere no harm
when my husband were dead' an we
was friends, Seth"
YES we was friends, Sarann ne
answered, looking at her more CLOSELY
She Sas tall and thin, and her haH
was brushed back straight from her
5ow forehead in an unbecomlng man
ar T,bere were a few lines OF care
~ her brow. and her cheeks We're
sbrnnken. as though she haoltually
.,-ant short of food. There was look
@1n,oet of gauntness in her lean FORM
P,1t her eyes were gray, anu idIse,
and heavily frinsed; her nose was was
straight, and her pale Ips hau @ losl M lIui,,
of their curves. IN nen ti,, oie'i
,nantlad a delicate color Sun. ,
", hain't much changed, though
49,, he older remarked Waving medl-
so+iveIv An you be thin, too as II
r,ou didn't get awver much 10 eat no"
-, Times has bin hard, l reckon.
1T afn,t never gone to the parish i
10 t.-orlt two or three days week, an
TeIlie arms good wages an heips me
all she can. -,
AN your boysY --.,,,,o,
Fred baint very stiddy; ne pe young
vel. an he'll come up ali right P'ils,s PlalSe
80 b,,t he don't bring home more n
o,,ob to kin un. Dick on'y gets boy
s,.aoree an YOU knows what that be-
short. SaIaun