Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1906-09-21

Gel Ion. lie is to be out there three
years perhaps longer His father
IS only sending him, he says. so as
10 separate him from me, and he
cant refuse to go without running his
prospects, and for my sake he does
nos want TO do that | don't care
whether he is rich or poor, but Rich
ard says if his father turns him
adfift he would have nothing-and
So it is best TO wait, because he will
never change, and l shall never
change. And so he is going away at
the end of this week l can't bear
him to go. l might never see him
again; but if he lives, he will come
back to me-"
She said it half defautly, hall de-
spairingiy and laid her head on Miss
GUrney's lap aagin to hide her tears
For fully ten minutes neither of
them spoke; then, rousing herself
with heavy sigh. Miss Quincy said,
hesitatingly:
Il might do something. l don't
know what l 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 see
him for myself. Bring him with you
tomorrow evening""
III.
And the following evening, when
n icharI Norwood anna Miss GurDoxy
was easily converted to Testers opin-
ion of him. His frank, honest eyes,
his unaffected simplicity. of speech
and manner, his difidence, his shy
alteration of Hester, his unconceal-
able love of her-all conspired to
win Miss Gurney's confidence and ap-
proval. and won them in spite of her.
self.
Again and again, while he was
there, and after he was gone, she
owned, grudgingly at first, but with
growing satisfaction, that he real
lied her girlhood's ideal of the man
she had loved years ago, and was not,
as she had feared, reincarnation of
that man as she saw him now in the
light of bitter remembrances-cru
heartless, faithless.
She lay awake that night living
through again in thought the long
past happiness and misery that the
sight of Richard Harwood had
brought back upon her with renewed
intensity. She had loved, and was
TO have married, but seemed predes-
tined to misfortune. First it was
her mothers death that postponed
the marriage; then, year later, her
fathers; and her father dying bank
rupt, the man she loved had ulti-
mately yielded to the wishes of his
with her, through her blind love of
him, and could leave her to bear
alone a shame whose memory was
not buried in that little grave in the
Car off country churchyard, but lived
10 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 she had felt for 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 his
tory. Being clever with her needle,
she was soon able to support herself
in reasonable comfort, but the hard
work and the solitary. loveless life
we're fast aging and hardening and
ombittering her. when Hester came
with her childish needs and sympa-
thies to melt the frost that had gath
cred about her heart and reconcile
her to humanity and make the world
habitable again
Hester was the orphaned child of
Hiss 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 Cur
ney'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 Hester had come and satisfied
il 1t was enough for her now that
there was one living creature whom
she could love and who loved her.
all her love for Hester was such
that to insure her happiness she
fasd gladly have endured rebuffs
and humiliations that she would