The Van Buren press., 1898-12-24
at belongs to the past

att belongs to the past
"'Then it has not been opened for
some timer
Miss Foxglove's gray eyes turned
within.
"A quarter of a century, she said.
"He took the volume from the shelf,
and with strange misgiving turned the
leaves until arrested by much under
scored eanto, from which fell faded
foxglove.
with smile whose divinely deep sweet
ness disclosed
Some depths in her nature he never had
known
THE eyes of Lavinia Foxglove met
his.
1.-THE volume has never been opened
she said-sudden pallor in her queenly
presenee-'since an old, old friend bor-
rowed it, returned it-and then
then
"'What happenedP'
"'He went away
"'And then?
"'The world changed
'She took the volume Hillhouse hand
/ OQ uGI " lNdu III lliG llhtS llit IVA lpNC
had stained the confession she had
waited in vain to hear from the lips of
the borrower so long ago"
"You don't mean to tell us" cried
Miss Dashaway, that there lives in
this age a man stupid enough to ex-
pect a woman to look in book for a
proposal?"
But that happened quarter of a
century ago" laughed Mrs. Pentland.
True" said Betram, land the poor
lout supposed that the girl had eagerly
devoured every word underscored,
while she naturally laid the volume
away and never looked at it again until
Hillhouse opened it and bade her read
the lines which embodied his proposal.
Not having heard from her, he went
away in a moment of pique and never
returned From time TO time he heard
of her conquests, but ii seems they were
but flirtations which he stroye in vain
to forget Youth passed away, as did
her family ties, until she was left alone
in the world, with mere pittance that
cut her off from the gay circle in which
she was once so brilliant an ornament"
well, she must be a moss-grown
! foxglove,' laughed Miss Dashaway. 81
thought the species extinct. Fancy
modern woman pining over a delin-
quent lover, burying herself in hall
room with an Angora cat and window
garden!n
How does it come, Betram,' said
Pentland, that your quasiAusten hero
inc escaped clubdom?"
mo reflection on club women re-
proved the hostess. ITO forget history
there is nothing like helping to make
! it."
"Bravo," cried the telegraph editor.
81 can understand Miss Foxglove,"
said Mrs. Wetheren, giving the story
teller a sympathetic smile. "She was
born too early to grasp the spirit of
the new movement and adjust herself
to its exactions. Being an offspring
of the old order of things, she clung
instinctively to belief that her hearts
desire would some day be fulfilled.
As she waited, opportunity slipped by"
"If l recollect rightly" said Froth-
ingham, everything had plenty of time
to slip by in n Jane Austen story"
But isn't it time for the cleric ?"
| smiled Mrs. Wetherell. Jane Austen
without the clergy is Hamlet without
the prince"
Betrams glowing eyes took in the
guests who had followed his story with
the bantering old friendship admits.
Tomorrow at high noon" said he,
"Rev Dr. Broughton will await you at
the Red Brick church, and after the
ceremony Lavinia and will be at home
at the studio-its latch string, you
know, is always out-where we hope
10 dispense Christmas cheer through
out the year"
! "The deuce!" cried the city editor
"You said the chaps name was Hill
house"
"And so it is" smiled the sculptor
Return Hillhouse Betram," - Ida
Ross McCabe, in Detroit Free Press.