The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-06-17

himself has suggested it.
She listened to him with surprised in
terest. She liked what he said
and she liked the way in which
he said it. But why on earth should
she give up all the brilliant possibilities
of life, and settle down as the wife of
country doctor2 An orchid, gay as
butterfly, was at her throat just then
and orchids did not grow in Sea-
view.
81 am proud and glad" she said,
that you care for me. No, l don't
suppose l ought to be glad, if it will
make you unhappy; but really don't
love you, and so 1 can't say yes"
Had the green light, that was like
eyes? DR.. Gentle thought so-but it did
not brighten him. He smiled.
"Do not pity me-" he said. 81
would rather love you in vain than not
to love you"
And to himself he added-"I can
wait"
CT would rather love you in vain
than not to love you Ethel James
did not at all understand these words;
therefore they haunted her memory as
does puzzle we are trying to solve.
DIR. Gentle relapsed into silence and
waited. The long, bright days went
by, and Stanhope's attentions filed
them brim full of pleasures. He was
undeniably at Ethers feet; and fancy
no doubt of the ultimate success of his
wooing ever crossed his mind.
He would have been surprised to
know that not only did Ethel not care
for him deeply, but that she scarcely
thought of him as an individual at all.
He represented TO her an unknown
world, an unknown life-the fascinating
gaiety of great New York - balls,
operas, the pageantry of movement
among the glittering throng. 1t seemed
to her that to share this life was the fate
for which she had been born.
She even carried these thoughts to
church with her one Sunday. She tried
to put them aside, but the sermon did
not interest her. She looked around
the house. Quite within her range of
vision, at the right, sat DR.. Gentle.
Equally we'll in view, at the left, sat
Morton Stanhope. For the first time
she cOntrasted them. Suddenly she
found herself wishing that Stanhope
were as big and strong as Gentle, and
that he had the same resolute courage
in his eyes and about his mouth. But
DR.. Gentle did not live in New York.
1t was on the very next day thai
Stanhope proposed to her. His time
if he had only known twas scarcely
better chosen than DR.. Gentle's had
been, for the memory of Sundays con-
trast still fingered in her mind. More
over, she was feeling strangely weak and
ill-so weak, indeed, that for once the
march with the social procession, from
gaiety to gaiety, did not even appeal to
her imagination.
She looked at Stanhope with re-
serve which he thought was the pref
test girlish shyness. Shs thanked him
serenely. If the green light that was
like the light of the sea had come into
her eyes, Stanhope did not perceive it.
She could not answer him at once, she
said. She must consider; and then she
would let him know. On the whole,
Stanhope was quite as we'll pleased as
if she had said yes. He had theories
of his own about coy maidenliness, and
he had not the remotest doubt as to the
conclusion of his love story.
The next day his posies went love-
making as usual; but they went in vain.
The illness that had been expressing
Ethel for several listless days had de-
velOped rapidly, at last; and DR.. Gentle
had been sent for, and pronounced it
typhoid fever.
News travelled rapidly in Seaview, and
that evening, as DR.. Gentle sat alone
in his office, Mr. Stanhope was shown
in. The two men had met, not infre-
quently, and Stanhope's attention to
Ethel James was the talk of the town.
1t was natural that he should come to
inquire for her, DR.. Gentle thought;
but he soon perceived that this inquiry
was not the sole object of his visit.
Are there any other cases of fever
in the village?" Stanhope asked, with 9
little hesitation.
eyes, several"
of an epidemic?"
cit is possible" DR.. Gentle replied
81 suppose one who is not altogether
strong would be more liable to be at.
tacked?"
The slightest of slight smiles crepi
about DIR. Gentle's mouth, as he an.
swered:
Perhaps, yes-at any rate, the fever
would go harder with any one who had
little strength to resist it,"
81 came here because l was mol
strong "a physician sent me land
having said that, Stanhope relapsed
into silence. The doctor looked at him
and pitied him-a little-Gentle was
kind.hearted. AT length Stanhope said
earnestly:
- don't suppose could do the least
atom of good to Miss James by staying
on here, could Ip'
"Not the least, l should think" was
the answer; and then again a long 81
lence. At last Stanhope spoke, i'm.
pulsively, and as one who must free his
mind.
at is a strange thing, perhaps, for
me to take you, whom l know &c
slightly, into my confidence. but see
no other way. 1 love Ethel James.
have asked her to be my wife. She
answered that she would consider, and