Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-05-01
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! LOVE FINDS A WAY. I
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8 >>-~N>esS q:
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!. BY JEAMMETTE q. WAL W@RTM, s:
$ Copyright, $780, by Jeanette Il. walworth. =;
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BY JIEAM1E7TTIE q. WAlW0RTEl.
COPYRIGHT, 1892 by Jeanette q. walworth.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
THE NEGATIVE OF YEARS AGO.

b OuVld.
q tsWell?,
"What on earth have you done with
at?''
Miss Malvina was crocheting one of
those mysterious receptacles which ev-
cry woman makes and no woman uses
when she asked that direct question
with a face full of amazement. Olivia
was writing something in her diary
which wild horses could not have made
her reveal when it was asked. She
glanced across the table to find the
wide eyes of the crocheter fixed Upon
her denuded third finger.
II have given it back to Mr.. West
over" she said and bent her head
quickly to hide the importunate tears.
you don't mean me to under
stand
ssThat our engagement is broken off !?
Yes, do. Please drop the subject"
Miss Malvina flushed an unbecoming
red and looked very unhappy. II can't
but think, Olivia she began in an in.
jured voice.
81 know-I know exactly what you
think. You mean that, seeing you are
trying to be father, mother, friend und
brother to me all in one, you dear, good
Miss Malvina, you are entitled to more
respectful treatment. l think SO too.
But it is hard to talk on some subjects.
have just made up my mind that
don't want to marry anybody. think
you are the wisest woman know. I
Rm going to do just like you"
"Oh, but, my dear, you just can't"
ssCannot?"
mo. You see things are entirely diff
ferent with you. Some women are put
into the world just to fill up chinks-
substitutes, as it were, for better things
that are unattainable. That's me. The
Lord makes them plain, so that they
, shan't be tempted by mans homage to
forget what they are put here for, and
meek, so that they shall not disdain
their mission. I'm only chink filler,
my dear. Other women he makes SO
pretty that they must be loved, so
lender that they must be lowered I'M
her sheltering wings, so sweet that it
Is happiness just to do for them. That
{ Is you. You could no more fill my
place, Ollie, than I could fill yours"
Ollie looked at her disconsolately.
mo, don't suppose there is any
chink in the world SO small that l
could fill it respectfully"
No, but you can have your pick and
choice Of LOVERS
Il have made my choice"
Miss Malvina's face was fairly IL
Illuminated. With that flashing ring
Sgone and Westover eliminated, was
the road made clear for her dear Tom ?
Almost involuntarily she called the
name aloud. Olivia recoiled with a
:. frown.
Don't mention his name. 1 have
chosen you. You and / are going to
live on just this way until you get to
be an old lady hobbling about with a
stick and l am wearing nose glasses.
You will have to wear a mob cap, be-
cause you won't have any hair at all,
and will have just few gray wisps
left. I'm never going to marry any
body"
"You ridiculous child!' said Miss
Malvina and fell to crocheting again,
I with an inscrutable smile lowering
about her thin lips.
The first snow Of approaching win
ter was powdering the earth. when
Olivia dispatched a letter to Thomas
Broxton. She wrote:
Dear Thomas-Miss Malvina and start fol
Nice in about two weeks time. We will spend
the winter there. She has cough that makes
me very uneasy. Dr. Govan recommends Nice,
but she will not consent to go without me. She
has been everything to me since my father died
and all my other friends forsook me.
She begs me to ask you II you cannot find time
to spend one evening with us before we start She
says am to ask you to come at once. She espe.
cially wants to see you, and refusal will give
her great pain. We had hoped you would come
to see US some time without waiting for formal
invitation, but since you have not we are sending
the invitation. We understand that you are one
OF the busiest men in the world and that you
Rave invented something that is going to make
Eou rich and famous. Come and tell us all about
for auld lang syne's sake. Your friends
MALvINA SPILLMAN AND OLIVIA MATTHEWS.
With the pen suspended over her
own signature Olivia fell into som,
Der reverie. Quite year now since
her father with his last breath had
hidden her marry this man, almost as
long since, in the spirit of compromise,
she had sent from her the man she
loved and declared her intention to
marry no one. Surely the hurt she
had inflicted upon herself might be
taken as expiration for lack of ODE
/, dience. II she had denied Thomas
happiness, she had also denied it to
herself.
81.
Would Clarence come back, as he
had said he would? She doubted it. She
( maryeled languidly at her own utter
Indifference to his coming. Was she
becoming like Miss Malvina in her
frank Indifference to all men? She
knew that the Westovers had come
beck to Broxton Hall, for Jeanne had
come once to see her, only once, to up
braid her for her maltreatment of
poor dear Qlarrie. But from him new.
!