Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-07-02
TWO LOVERS.
BY ANNA SHIELDS.


feel bltt erly asbamed9 Was he
glad7 Was he sOrryY
Will Speuc r asked himself these
questions over and over. wearying
OF the repetition, aud Yet never
able to end it 10y saying heartily
that he was glad aud Triumphant,
OF bitterly that be was sorry aud
ashamed. The plain fact stared
him ever in the tace, that Belen
Raymond did not love him, aud
that Hrs, Raymond had urged his
suit, and eXeTted her maternal in
tlnence and elOqueuce until Helen
had consented 10 be his wife, tell
ing BIN very frankly that her
heart was In the grave OF herlOve', ,
George NBuhOrn, who had been
killed in railway COLLISION nearly
one veal before.
Mother was never willing l
should marry George Helen SAID,
sadly, 'becauSe he Was poor, aud
We have suffered all that poverty
can ln1lct. He was on his way 10
Colorado, where bis brother had
been successful, when he was
killed.
VIII Spencer winked, for lie was
rich, very rich, but then he put to
the wound that soothing salye, Il
Will WIN her love when she is my
wife, that has wrecked so many
lives, 1t may come, this love that
will not be hidden, to a man and
wife after they are bound together
for lite, but the risk is great, and
Will Spencer knew it.
Yet he cherished the delusion
that lOvein The end would win a
return, and he knew his own love
to be strong and enduring. He had
stepped back when George Van
horn was met with such a smile as
he could never - iH, had kept from
pressing bis suit when the name OF
Helen's lover appeared on the list
of the killed in the account of the
railway collision, but after the
lapse of several mouths he had
won Mrs Raymond 10 his side,
and so, by proxy. wOOed Helen and
wOn-wbat9 a cold, reluctant con.
sent to be his wife.
Yet she was not cold, this girl Of
twenty, whose heart had seemed
crushed ever since the day when
George Vanhorh's name was re.
corded as dead, He could have
told how her eyes could soften with
loves tenderness, her cheeks burn
with loves bushes, her low, sweet,
voice trembe with loves whisper
ed words. He had won what all ii e
Spencer gold, the riches of long
generations, could not buy.
In the long ago. the RaymOnds
had held wealth, COO, but Helen 5
father, to use the expression of his
brother, had 'muddled away two
fortunes, somehow and had died
a pauper. Helen was but child
then, and her mother was sufficient.
ly wise to fit her, for teacher,
by a course of judlciOus education,
for which her uncle paid.
And Helen, nervous, sensitive,
quick in feeling, impulsiye in
speech, was about as unfit for a
teacher as a girl could be. Still
she trudged about III all weather
to instruct such pupils ia music
and French as she could procure
and helped her mother shoulder
the thousand and one cares OF g
clearinghouse when she was al
home.
Before that fatal railway coils
ion she was a bright, beautiful
girl, with large, expressive, brown
eyes, a voice of music, the step o.
fairy, singing as bird sings, from
sheer joyousness of heart, bringing
lest to all the household worries
laughing merrily over her own
blunders in the culinary depart
ment, turning old dresses, renovat
ing old bOnnets without a com
plant, living on love and hope.
After that day she moved abou
slowly, ber eyes dull aud weary
her duties met with rigid mechan
Iical precision. her lips compressed