The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-07-18
CHAPTER II.

Happy as Helen naQ declared nerSelr
to be, she rose in the morning with a
certain depression and anxiety. For
all changes to the thoughtful heart
must have an air of melancholy. What
we have to leave behind is part of our
selves. We are dying in measure to
the life we are quitting and must do
so ere we can fully enter on the life
we are going to. And, although she
did not tell herself these things, she
felt them. Roy had spoken of their
own home. Her heart was turning to-
ward it. and the home she was to
leave had already lost something of it's
charm. AS she went about her usual
duties she was dreaming of the cottage
Roy was to prepare for her and of the
life they We're to live in it, and her
present life was the poorer for this
projection of her best self into the fu-
ture.
Still affairs went on with their ac-
customed peace and regularity, and
Robert Brodick was not at once sensi-
tive to his loss. He was far more SEN
sitive to the annoyance which the brag
caused him. Roy had won the hand
soonest and richest girl in the neigh
borhood, and he was not able to bear
his success mOdestly. A man so enam-
ored so transported with love, no one
had ever seen before, and the fisher
wives shook their heads over his noisy
happiness and said such hot love was
soon cold.
1t certainly soon became subject to
moods which troubled Helen's nature
to it's very depths, for as the young
man grew accustomed to his good for
tune he began to find faults in it. The
elder was a standing grievance. He
felt his presence generally to be a
wrong to Helen and himself. 1t was
true that the father was only sitting on
his own hearthstone, but Roy wished
him far away. He said he had mae
consideration for other folk" and as
the nights grew cold and dark the Of
fense was aggravated. Then he vowed
''there was no pleasing the auld man.
that is, he could not make Brodick
laugh at his funny stories and mimic
ries In the first place, laughter was
not natural to Brodick; he took life
too seriously to make sport out of it.
In the second place, he had that con-
tempt for mimicry and punning which
all but the most elemental natures feel.
There was not any obvious quarrel, but
no disagreement is so intolerable as
that divided from union by only a semi
tone. 1t is far more intense dislike
than one which explains itself in yig-
Orous dispute or contradiction.
TO be constantly between these two
opposite natures and feeling the fret Of
both was not good discipline for
Helen. She was nervous and fearful
when her father and lover were to.
gether. She longed for her own home;
but. though Roy talked continually
about the joy they were to have in it,
he made no efforts toward its realiza.
ton. He was waiting for Robert Bro
dick to do this, and Robert Brodick had
conviction that it would never be re-
quired. Sooner or later, he was sure,
Helen's clear, honest nature would di.
vine the falseness Of the man she had
chosen, and then he knew it would be
impossible for her to marry him.
But for three months Roy kept his
position intact. Helen believed in him
with all her soul and loved him with
all the intense affection of a self re.
strained. truthful woman. No one could
doubt her affection; it had the charm
of absolute sincerity and of truthful
ness without flaw. But such an at
mosphere was naturally too tiresome
| an endeavor for man mingled of ex-
actly diverse elements, and gradually
Helen was aware Of some change, too
| slight for analysis, too elusive to COM
| plain of; but
All. the little more. and how much It is,
| And the little less. and what worlds away!
Ir was just 'the little less" and It
made Helen's heart quake as she look
ed into the future. For if man is not
noble and unselfish when he is in love
he never will be so either in this world
or the next, and Helen could not dis
guise, could not explain away many
little incident which no noble or un-
selfish man would have been connect
ed with. These events each made a
distinct impression on her, but she told
herself that no one was perfect and
that Roy had been motherless all his
/ life and had never been taught to de-
fine with imperious clearness the line
between right and wrong. When she
was his wife and had the lad always
in her care, she was sure he could be
made to see things with her eyes.
Alas, women in love tell so many lies
to themselves
The dim doubt, however, grew sud
denly, and In one fateful hour, to a GER
tainty she could not deny or tolerate.
1t was stormy night nearing the new
year. The elder had gone to a kirk
session, and Helen had given to the
CHEEKY home place wonderful air of
cozy beauty. The fire danced and
blazed on the snow white hearth, on
the deal furniture, scrubbed with meal
till it was like ivory; on the gayly
patched cushions and crockery, on the
house plants in the windoW and the
prints and ballads upon the walls. Roy
came In out of the storm, laughing
and GAaking the frozen snow out of
his black curls. He threw off his plaid,
took Helen in his embrace and then
snuggled comfortably down among the