Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-01-21


/ sort OF home we lived in!'
oh, no, no. aunt" Hester protested.
"IIe would have come-I would have
brought him, but l wanted to tell yoa
about him first"
And she told her about him now. and
: ii was all only that she loved him, and
.ishe loved him more than all the world.
land she Lad promised to be his wife,
but
1 There was bound to be but; it was
1what Miss Quincy had beer listening for.
''But it will not be for long while, be-
cause he is going away
Going away, child! Why? Where
| tor
| He has spoken to his father about
lme," said Hester, her lips quivering, "and
| he refuses to see me, and threatens to
turn Richard into the street if he will not
| give me up"
They are rich, you see, dear" muir
INJURED Miss Quincy, bitterly, aud we are
poor. Probably his mother
"Shc has been dead several years"
| "Then it is his father He probably
intends his son to marry money, on social
infuence"-
"But Richard won't. He says he will
never marry anyone but me- If | will
wait for him."
why is he going away?'
His father is sending him to manage
large bralch of his business in Ceylon.
| He is to be out there three years-per-
haps longer. His father is only sending
him, he says, so as to separate him from
me, and he can't refuse to go without
running his prospects, and for my sake
kn u \ 7 -
care whether he is rich or poor, but Rich
ard says if his father turns him adrft he
would have nothing-and so il is best to
wait, because he will never change, and
shall never change And so he is going
away at the end of this week. ] can't
lear him to go. | might never see him
fagain; but if he lives, he will come back
t. me-"
She said it half deGantiy half despair
ingly, and laid her head on Miss Cur
rey's lap again to hide her tears
For fully ten minutes neither of them
spoke; then, rousing herself with heavy
sigh, Miss Quincy said, hesitatingly:
4 might do something. l don't know
what can debut bring him home with
you tomorrow evening, and let me see
him. dear. If he is all you think he is
but let me sec him for myself Bring
him with you tomorrow evening"
And the following evening, when Rich
ard Harwood came, Miss Quincy was
easily converted to Hesters opinion of
him. His frank, honest eyes. his unaf-
fected simplicity of speech and manner
his difdenee, his shy alteration of Hes
ter, his unconcealable love of her-all
conspired to win Miss Gurney's confidence
and approval, and won them in spite of
Herself
Again and again, while he was there,
ana after he was gone, she owned, erudg-
ingly at first, but with a growing salts
faction, that he realized her girlhood's
ideal OF the man she had loved years ago,
and WAS not, as she had feared a rein
eanation of that man as she saw him
now in the light of bitter remembrances
cruel, hcartless, faithiess.
She lay awake that night living
Nsfough again in thought the long past
happiness and misery that the sight OF
Richard HARDWOOD had brought back upon
her with renewed intensity. She had
loved, and was to have married, but
seemed predestined to misfortune First
it was her mothers death that postponed
the marriage; then, a year later, her
fathers; and her father dying bankrupt,
the man she loved had ultimately Weld
ed to the wishes of his family and broken
his ngagement with her, but not before
he had cruelty betrayed her. though her
blind love of him, and could leave her to
bear alone shame whose memory was
not buried in that little grave in the far
off country churchyard, but lived to
haunt her yet, and scar her very soul as
often as it returned to her. She had
never seen the man since. or written to
him; she was too proud to ask anything
of his pity, and all the love shs had felt
Tor him had died within her.
She left her old home and came to earn
her living in London among people who
knew nothing of her history Being
clever with her needle, she was soon able
to support herself in reasonable comfort,
but the hard work and the solitary. love
less life We're fast aging and hardening
and embittering her, when Hester came
with her childish needs and sympathies
to melt the frost that had gathered about
her heart and reconcile her to humanity
and make the world habitable again.
Hester was the orphaned child of Miss
Gurney's younger sister, and it was not
strange that the two, each left desolate
should grow to be all in all to each other.
If Miss Guney's love was the deeper, the
more self sacrificing, that was not strange
either. She was no longer young and
had not hoped that her forlorn heart
hunger would ever be satisfied. but Hes
ter had come and satisfied it, 1t was
enough for her now that there was one
living creature whom she could love and
who loved her. and her love for Hester
was such that to insure her happiness
she would gladly have endured rebuffs
and humiliations that she would sooner
have died than have submitted to for any
advantage to herself.
No sclf-interest could have annihilated
her pride and urged her to such lengths
as she went nhesitatingly for Hester's