The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1904-04-29
EIVira and Her
Love Letters.
BY CLAUDE ASKEW.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

admitted openly their pride in Elvira-
that would have been impossible t
their grim tenets of faith; but the,
took the same pleasure in the girl q
they did over the bright flowers IL
their gardens, glorious Gala lilies
light wavy princes feather, sweet
scented honeysuckle, Towering candy
4 tuft. Elvira was very pretty, so Sigh
that by the side of more heavily-buil
girls she looked like wild flower ant
quite as ethereal; blue-eyed and witt
& a cloud of fair flaxen hair that woulC
fall in soft drifts round the sweet ova
face. She lived with an old unmarried
aunt in a house close to the road, 8
thick hedge of evergreens surrounding
r it and fencing of the garden. The
house belonged to the aunt, also 8
small sum in the bank, on the interest
of which they lived in fair comfort.
Elvira wanted to earn her own living
Once she had persuaded Anne Hardy
the village dressmaker. to take her a.
an apprentice. but old Clarissa Lane
had descended with flaming cheeks on
the busy little woman.
II just guess, Mis- Hardy" she cried
that we amt 50 hard put to it that
my own brothers child goes out. to
work. It was real kind of you to take
her-but-Elvira, you just put on your
bonnet and come home this minute"
Old Clarissa worked herself to the
bone for Elvira- She hated to see the
girl doing rough work and selling her
delicate, pretty fingers. III the same
way Elvira was debarred from working
in the garden.
"Don t you go for to brown your
face like them wild Mellor girls, Ell
vira," was Clarissa's constant cry if
she saw her niece digging in the gar
den-'go right in at once; guess the
sun won't hurt me-"
To see Clarissa at her happiest mo-
ment was to see her on Sundays, walk
ing up the aisle of the meeting house
behind her niece. conscious of the ad-
miration given involuntarily to pretty
Elvira by even the strictest members
present, watching every fold of the
her ayes dwelling lovingly on the pale
yellow hair and slender, graceful FORM
Clarissa was exalted by her great and
passionate love out of a chill winter
spinsterhood into warm and rich ma
turity.
She loved to dress Elvira in soft
girIish muslins and to tie her straw
hat with fine silk ribbons For her.
self rusty black alpaca and an old
faded bonnet. but Elvira must always
go fresh and dainty. The girl re-
belled, with flushing. sensitive face
and weak tears-she hated to go fine
while old Clarissa wore her ugly cot
tons to rags, but her protest was I'M
needed by the strong, masterful old
woman.
Elvira was allowed no sweetheart.
Other girls could walk home from
meeting with their beaus, and sit with
them at winter time in a lamp-lit par
lor, but Clarissa trudged alongside Ell
vira like some old duenna, and the
young men of the village could only
gaze at the delicate, aowerlike GIRL
who was not for them and their kind,
gaze with half reluctant admiration,
also a dim perception that here was
material too fine.
But the lover came-came in the
person of one Gilman Holmes, a young
New York pressman, who was spend
ing Ills brief holiday in search Of
"copy." Chance or fate took him to
Elvira's village. He came to study
types, he remained to study-love
An alert, bright-eyed man of 30, pre-
else in dress. slim in figure, Gilman
spoke with q sharp crispness pleasant
in contrast to the slow New England
voices. Compared with the village
young men he was as the racer to the
willing cart horse, trimming over with
nervous vitality, a creature of high
pressure.
He had taken rooms with Deacon
Elvin, but the good man saw little of
his boarder, for Gilman took the viii
lage by storm, and every door was
open to him. He went about with his
notebook, his keen eye ever ready to
oOAAC O AAAOAy HA~SuAS, AAS AA6Clo AtNA'
ing to transfer to paper the homely
speech of his rustic entertainers, jour-
nalist first-Gilman Holmes afterward.
Clarissa. not to be outdone in hos
pitality, wrote a prim, formal note in
viting the young man to tea, an invi-
tation which he accepted with alacrity,
for rumor had already reached him Of
eElvira and her beauty.
1t was with peculiar care that
Clarissa laid out her tea on that occa-
sion. Generally the meals were SPAR
ing, for her income was a very small
one, but this time her tea was lavish.
There was excellent cup-cake for one
thing. wafer slices of bread and butter,
two glass dishes flied with preserve
and a plate of red currants from the
garden. Clarissa put out her mothers
wedding china, pale, apple-green tea
cups and plates, and then, to crown
all, she picked a great bunch of flow
ers and placed them in vase in the
center of the table.
a+tI THl~~&xn VroEnH nm rr{lo