The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-09-18
s eleft Stury.
CECILY.
From All the Year Round.

..It's the fault of there being snch a
large family, dear, that is all. :
And very bad fault, too.
fsDick Don't you ike the family p
fsNot as 1 like you, child, and not
enough to ike them to monopolize you
and take up all your time and thoughts
and interests so that |. whom You are
going to marry, can hardly get so much as
q word or look from you
''Who is With you now, Dick z?
YES, for three minutes at the garden
gate, because if | come inside you will be
surrounded by the whole lot Of them next
moment, and for anything we may want
10 say to one another we might rs well be
at opposite poles You maynt mind it,
Cecily-you don seem to do so, at any
rate-but, upon my soul, it's hard lines
on man who loves you.
1t is an evening in April. The land is
all ahush with the pink blossoms of the
almond and the white blossoms of the pear.
He is very handsome always, rather
angry just now, nay lover, but | know that
the anger comes from love, and so | think
more Of the first fact than the second, as
[ look up smilingly into the brave, blue
eyes, bright with passionate gleam, and
mark how well the broad square cut
shoulders and shapely head stand out
against the golden glory Of that evening
sky.
And pray sir, do you expect me to
be always at your beck and call p | ask.
m sure you get your fair share Of atten-
ton
'sDo I, he says, gravely, "when |
wait a whole week for the chance Of one
walk With you, and when the promised
day conses you coolly send me word that
you We got something else to do and are
TOO busy even to see me? | might have
claimed your promise to marry me two
summers ago and again last autumn, when
was offered the making of that new Cana
dian line. ! refused it only because l
knew you wouldn't leave home SO soon
after your mother death, and could not
bear to 90 away without you, but now
there is this other job of the same sort in
Perthshire, and they say | can have it for
the asking. The works are to begin in
July, and if we are married in June-dear
Cecily, my own darling love, do say that
we shall be, do give me what ask !
Think how long | have waited for you
already and how badly | want you and
come to me Ceoily. dearest, if you love
me, say you will Say it now
Sin June r | repeat, my eyes wide
with dismay and drawing myself still fur
tber back. Dick, yea promised not to
be in hurry.
~ never promised anything of the sort,
but if | had done so | should have kept
my promise over and over again. Cecily,
will YOU ever find lover who has waited
as long as | have done already? And
yet you talk of my waiting on for another
year still If you loved me in the least
YOU would be as tired of these delays as |
ana, but You don't, and | see it only too
plainly. You dom even know what love
is You"
..Hullabalo, hullabalo Cecily, Cts,
where are your shouts boy $ voice from
the laburnum bushes behind.
Don't be silly, Dick. Let me go.
Please let me 90, stammer out, bur
riedly, but have no need to repeat the
request. At the first sound of my rough
tongued little brothers voice Dick has
dropped my hands and stepped back.
LET you go? Oh, certainly, he
says, with strange, bitter accent in his
voice, ''for good, if you like. expect
it will come to that some day. Good-by p!
And off he goes, striding over the dewy
grass and under the milk white blossoms
of the thorn trees, without another word
or look
1t is too bad. OF course the children
don really mean to hurt me, but it is too
bad, and the worst of it is that | dare not
show my vexatioa.
Poor Dicks squirt Of temper is forgot
ten, and tea proceeds without further allu-
sion to him. / cannot bear Dick to be
angry with me-Dick, who for all his
quick, fiery nature is gentle as woman
;n general with those he loves, and who
has been so tender and true to me all these
years that at times his very generosity
makesone forget that those who give much
have right to expect much in return.
A long engagement is very trying
thing, not that it diminishes the alptual
love of those most concerned, but that It
is apt to lessen the outward expression of
it and bring about unintentional Sights
and apparent coolnesses, and it is trying,