Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-06-04
MISCELLANY.
THE LAST SACRIFICE.
by Ian Maclaren.
Copyright, 1897, by the Author.l
CHAPTER 7


CHAPTER l.
freight casts a weird enchantment
over an old fashioned room in the
cleaning betwixt the light and the
dark
1T is, 1 do believe, the dreariest room
IN Bloomsbury, and surely one cannot
go farther" said the young woman at
ease on the white bearskin before the
fire, land yet, l believe, my room at
Kensington will not show more lovely,
nor your black oak at the rCctory.'
If you had got your will Frances"
answered a sister some six years older,
from the couch, "every stick of this
furniture would have been sold long
ago, and the very walls draped in pale
green. You are full of sentiment to-
night.
Its our double wedding and the de-
parture from the ancestral mansion cast
ing shadows over my sensitive heart, "
and Frances concealed her emotion with
fan. Your already matronly staid-
ness is removed from such moods. 1t is
mercy one daughter, at least, reproduces
mother. -
Are you also deceived by mothers
composure?" and Gertrude's quiet tone
emphasized the contrast between her re-
fined face and Frances Spanish beauty
strangers count her cold as marble,
but she has always seemed to me the
very type of tenderness and faithful
ness -
"She is the dearest mater ever was,
and most patient with her youngest
daughter, but she is, well-not carried
away by emotion.
Frances, I'll tell you something
once saw and can never forget. When /
slept in mothers room, l woke one
night and found she had risen. She
opened drawer that was always kept
locked and took out likeness of father.
After kissing it again and again-can
you believe that?-she laid it ON a chair,
and, kneeling down, prayed to God for
us all, and that they might meet again.
and then she kissed him once more and
put the picture in its place.
pray God, Frances, that you and
may love as she has done, once forever.
Do you know I've often thought that
Grace is the only one Of us that has
mothers power of affection, yet we are
to be married and she is to be left?"
Eyes, Grace is like mother, and yet
don't think mother understands her one
bit What a wife she would make &c
some man, only it would be bad foI
himl She would serve him like slave,
and he would be insufferable.
"But there is no fear of that calam
ity," Frances went on, for Grace will
never marry. She is beginning to have
the airs of an old maid already"
ut passes me, " said Gertrude, chow
no man has seen her excellence and trieC
to win her Do you know I've some
times thought that Mr.. Lennox admired
her? They would certainly make per
feet pair. "
"You are the dearest old stupid Ger
trude. OF course George Lennox adore
Grace, as he would saint in a painted
window, and Grace appreciates him be
cause he teaches astronomy or conchol
ogy or something to workingmen in tn
east end Neither of them knows hov
to make love. Their conversation Is
religious exercise. And Frances eye
danced with the delight of a mistress i
her art "Why, 1 did my best with hin
just to keep my hand in, and, Gertrude
you might as we'll have fiirted wit
that wretched god would rather hav
the god, for he winked to me just nov
quite distinctly"
Perhaps you're right, and Grac
does not wish to marry. But it will b
lonely in this big, empty house &c
mother and her when we are gone. "