The herald., 1895-04-17

despe ate. II
g ';Liteie Fool" he said to her one day,
~ don t know what the end will be.
The situation gets worse every hour.
Child, have not got opence-farthing
to bless M, self with.
Little Fool. little -Fool.' cried Ralph
Ogilvie. you are, not negotiable. We
can't live upon nothing. Bread and
! cheese and kisses axe food for the gods.
no cheese, no bread. We cam t keep body
and soul together upon that. | can t
think what to do. ! can think what my
! people were dreaming of ito put me-into
an expensive cavalry regiment with my
poor little pittance; | suppose they
thought that should marry money"
! And you fell in love with me, said
she pitifully. Look here, Ralph. | am
not an expensive girl. l shall have some
thing by and by, something to look for
ward to. Couldn't we be married quietly
and go off to Canada or New Zealand or
somewhere, and farm and things of that
| kind? Father would help us. He would
give me couple of hundred for my trous-
seau-well, l needn't spend twenty of that,
and some OF the people would give rue
silver things and some would give me.
checks, and could sell my jewelry, and
you could sell yours. and / am sure we
coud make up enough to start with. And
would cook for you and wash the clothes
and sweep the house, and you would-sow
the barley andyou know-all the other
things. Don't you think We could man
age that way?"
He caught hold of her and kissed her
in a storm OF passion. Dear little
Fool!'' he said. you are too good for me
too unsetsh-too sacrificing. expect
| shall end by breaking your heart. had
no right to make you love me-a poor
devil without money enough to live on by
myself. How dared ask you TO share
such lott"
! II cont mind. said she. 'I'd
rather have you without penny than
Would have any other man IN the world,
if he were studded with diamonds. What's
money? Why. nothing. What's love?
Why, everything-everything: Life ism t
/! worth living without it. Why, it you
you Just the same. AS long as you love
me. | care for nothing--dread nothing.
! Yes, mean it. Jfyou were to enlist to-
| morrow, would marry you at once. and
if we could get on the strength, Ia wash
and scrub and cook and sew With the best
Don t. little Fool. said he, don t
say it. No man in the world is worth
such love as that, least of all. !"
Well, she was in love. 1T was no mush-
room growth, but "A steadily increasing
love of more than five years. And he
WAS III love 100, Dut IL IL never an III an
to the man as it is to the woman. His
mind would think of such mundane
commonplace things as roof to put over
their heads, a carpet to lay under their
feet. a FIRE to warm them IA bed to sleep
upon, clothes to cover them. In all his
lie be never. forgot his position or her po-
sition, he never forgot the luxuries that
he was used TO and the luxures without
which she had never done. without
which she had never tried to do. The
thought of her insa new country, sewing.
baking, scrubbing, cooking living the
life Of a drudge without wages.
was absolutely ma, maddening, w. wish Isl,
PICTURES he SAID You are "A
dear little Fool, but you are only little
fool after all. | always told you so.
never called you anything else ! never
thought of you as anything else. came
to tell you that am going to town for
that may get all my affairs straigh ened
up and. that we may be able TO be married
at once without contemplating any such
horrors as sweeping your own floors and
cooking your own, dinner. You Will be
very anxious. little Fool. but if ] get
so as to put you out of your suspense. |
have already sent IN my papers-l am
practically free of y, the regiment now.
And thought was going to stay-until
| commanded it. | thought that you and
were going to follow the drum together
but that you see, is not to be, little Fool.
Fate is against us.
So the girl waited and waited during
those few anxious days. hopeless days, but
no reassuring telegram reached her to
tell her that the way was more smooth,
that the project was more hopeiul;I buto on,
the fifth day she received Il letter from
him. 80
II .Jn~l 80 I
feel that it is wrong in the face of all my
ies-overwhelming difficulties
and my absolute lack of prospects to hold
YOU to your promise that one day you
would marry me. Don't think that am
asking for my'freedom in any underhand
way. have thought the situation over
and over again and cannot see that the
time will ever come when | can even
provide you with the bare necessaries Of
life. You, little Fool. Will have no for
tune to speak Of, and even that is, in all
probability. in the too distant future for
us to build any hone upon. If I,were rich
you know that would lay myself and my
all at your feet, where l have been all
these years so sadly ended but so mex
pressibly sweet in emembrance. AS it
is, am beggar. | cannot say what will
become OF me. I, suppose | shall drift
out Of sight like all the other poor devils
who have gone under before me. Or per-
baps may sell myself to some woman
who wants to buy husband. Without
you it will be all one to me. Wherever [
60 shall carry with me the best sweet
est, hottest and tenderest memories of my
dear little FOOL whose only folly was
that she loved me too well"
Little Fool never hestated what to do.
She sat down and wrote to him: II will
never give you up. Do you know me so
little in all these years that you think
am frightened by poverty. When told
you would marry you if you enlisted [
meant every, word of it, when | told you
that | was ready to go to Canada or any
where else you liked l meant every word.
What meant then | mean now. | refuse
to be given up. You made me love you
and you cannot leave me starving by the
wayside for | am always your little
FOOL
The greatest events of our lives often
turn upon the veriest trides. 1t hap
pened that on her way to st. Thomas
Street with the letter to Ralph Ogilvie
tucked into the breast of her coat, little
Fool went into shop to give commons
place household order. While standing
there she heard voices on the other side
of theistand OF bonbons. ''Oh yes, - the
voice said, 'he has left the regiment
stony broke. Such nice fellow. What?
You thought he was going to marry the
major daughter? Well. there was some
thing. but rather doubt that there was
oor;ous - I, ;., NJ