Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1898-09-08
A HEART WON BY LOVE.


as varied as the make Of the gowns
of the sweet girl graduates, as full Of
promise as the early spring with my
riads of blooms and blossoming fruit!
1t was an ideal day upon which oc-
CURED the graduation of 20 young
women in Nine. Fishers select board
ing school. 1t was not large, this in
stitution of learning and polished
manners, but it was very, very select,
When auth kennerly entered the
school three years ago her father was
one of the most prominent railroad
men in the east. Her mother had
been dead for some time, and Mr..
Kennedy looked forward with good
deal of pleasure to having his daugh-
ter home with him at the end of the
term.
But il was decreed otherwise. In the
Christmas holidays of her second year
Ruth was called home to the death
bed of her father After his demise
it was found that he left his only
child a handsome little fortune, but
that did not compensate Ruth for the
loneliness Of her destiny without him.
Her aunt, the youngest sister of he;
dead mother, offered the girl home
during her vacations, and it was
agreed that Ruth should live in the
family of her relative after her grad.
uation. This aunt had arrived at the
school, accompanied by Prof. After
bury, whose sister was classmate
OF Ruth, and was to be graduated on
the same day.
Ruth Kennerly had not wasted her
opportunities and honors were show.
cred upon her. She read the valedic.
tory and received the gold medal as
reward for her many excellences Of
conduct and scholarship.
Lucy Atterbury was not so well
favored, but two learned personages
would have been too much for one
family, her brother, the professor,
filling an important chair in north.
ern university.
What beautiful creature" wits.
pered the professor into Mrs. Chap
mans ear, as Ruth stepped forward
to read her essay.
Eyes, our girl has inherited her
mothers beauty" replied the lady.
with gratifed smile.
Ruth was tall and queenly Of beau.
ty. The finely chiseed features OF
her face betrayed patrician blood and
unusual intelligence. Withal there
was the charm of the child, pure, I'm,
spoilt and modest in the hgh-bred
countenance, and her large brown
eyes bespoke tender soul.
After the exercises Mrs. Chapman
introduced her niece to Prof. After.
bury. The professor said many fiat.
tering things to Ruth, and expressed
the hope that he might meet her at
one Of the watering places along the
Atlantic coast, where both the After
burys and the Chapmans had planned
to spend the summer,
Early in August the professor and
his sister registered at one 81 the
fashionable hotels at Narragansett
Pier, where Mrs. Chapman had prom.
ised to stop during their summer out
ing, which was to begin about the
middle of July. Much to his astonish.
ment the professor not only failed to
find the Chapmans at the Pier, but
the clerk in the hotel office informed
him that they had Cancelled their en-
gagement of suite of rooms, saying
that they would not find it possible
to come. Lucy Atterbury had not
heard from Ruth since the day she
bade her farewell in the parlors OF
the school. Her disappointment was
almost as great as that of her broth
er, and she Immediately wrote to her
friend, addressing the letter to her
home. In the course OF
a week an answer came from Ruth,
saying that she had been i'll and that
Mira Chairman had decided. to take
ner TO Europe instead. Inc isu,vl
was not as frank and ingenious as
those Lucy had received from her
colleague on former occasions, and
she feared that something more than
illness had come into Ruth's life since
they laid aside their books and dia.
res for the turmoil of the fashionable
world.
How much her brother was dsap-
pointed by Ruth's failure to come to
The Pier Lucy did not know just then,
out she soon suspected that he must
have conceived more than a passing
interest for her friend, since he be-
came moody and irritable, and sud-
ienly announced to her one day. that
lie was obliged to 60 to Philadelphia
IN pressing business.
1t was on one of the hottest of the
log days in August that he arrived in
he Quaker City. After hasty toilet. I
lie ordered cab and drove out to the
fashionable boulevard, where Ruth
ived with her aunt. He found the
hutters barred, the storm doors
losed to protect the inner entrance.
he house wearing a general air Of {
esertion, like many of its neighbors.
A ring of the bell brought to the
DOR an old negro servant. She knew
he professor, and readily admitted 7
i'm to the desolate, linen-swathed {
arlor, with its musty air and c
hrouded Windows. q
A question for Mrs. Chapman {
rought the information that she and I
lisS Ruth had rone abroad to rpa.t