Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-04-21
EIVira and Her
Love Letters.
BY CLAUDE ASKEW.

duIullleu openly CHelr pIlue III ElVlFa-
that would have been impossible to
their grim tenets of faith; but they
took the same pleasure in the girl as
they did over the bright flowers in
their gardens, glorious Gala lilies,
light wavy princes feather, sweet
scented honeysuckle, Towering candy
tuft. Elvira was very pretty, so slight
that by the side of more h~eavily-built
quite as ethereal; blue-eyed and with
a cloud of fair fiaXen hair that would
fall in soft drifts round the sweet oval
face. She lived with an old unmarried
aunt in a house close to the road, a
thick hedge of evergreens surrounding
it and fencing off the garden. The
house belonged to the aunt, also a
small sum in the bank, on the interest
of which they lived in fair comfort.
Elvira wanted to carr her own living
Once she had persuaded Anne Hardy,
the village dressmaker, to take her as
an apprentice, but old Clarissa Lane
had descended with flaming cheeks on
the busy little woman.
81 just guess, Mis- Hardy" she cried,
chat we amt so hard put to it that
my own brothers child goes out to
work. 1t was real kind of you to take
her-but-Elvira, you just put on your
bonnet and come home this minute"
So Elvira rose from the table where
she was sitting sewing with another
girl-and as she shook away the scraps
and ships of silk from her gown she
shook away her own freedom and in
dependence. From henceforth she
would belong utterly to this erect,
gray-haired old woman-she would GO
back to the white house-and live
there, an imprisoned princess.
Old Clarissa worked herself to the
bone for Elvira. She hated to see the
girl doing rough work and selling her
delicate, pretty fingers. In 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; I guess the
SUI 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 adj
miration given involuntarily to pretty
Elvira by even the strictest members
present, watching every fold of the
white dress and f1utter of the ribbons
her eyes dwelling lovingly on the pale
yellow hair and slender, graceful form
Clarissa was exalted by her great ant
passionate love out of a chill winter
spinsterhood into warm and rich ma.
turity.
She loved to dress Elvira in soft
girlish muslins and to tie her straw
hat with fine silk ribbons. For her.
, self a rusty black alpaca and an oil
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 un'
needed by the strong, masterful ole
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, fiowerlike girl
who was not for them and their kind
gaze with a half reluctant admiration
also a dim perception that here was
material too fine.
But the lover came-came in the
person of M Gilman Holmes, a young
New York pressman, who was spend.
ing his brief holiday in search Of
copy" Chance or fate took him tt
Elvira's village. He came to study
types, he remained to study-love.
An alert, bright-eyed man of 80, pre-.
else in dress. slim in figure, Gilman
spoke with a sharp crispness pleasant
in contrast to the slow New England
voices. Compared with the village
young men he raj as the racer to the
willing cart horse, trimming over witt
nervous vitality, a creature of higt
pressure.
He had taken rooms with Deacon
Elvin, but the good man saw little o.
his boarder, for Gilman took the vii,
iage by storm, and every door wal
open to him. He went about with his
notebook, his keen eye ever ready tt
seize a likely picture, his fingers itch.
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 O
Elvira and her beauty.
1t was with peculiar care tina
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 ONT
thing, wafer slices Of bread and butter
two glass dishes filled with preserv'
and a plate of red currants from thu
garden. Clarissa put out her mother
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 a vase in thu
center of the table.
Elvira looked on with large, wide
open eyes. Her lips framed q ques
ton.
..I,,, not o-ooino 70 have a moor set