Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-11-21
CHAPTER Continued,

Christian. | have not renounced tn
pomps and vanities yet"
"Oh, I'm so sorry" and Maddy's eye
expressed all the sorrow she professe
to feel. "You ought to be, now you'v
got so old"
The doctor colored crimson, and stop
ping his horse under the dim shadow o
a maple in little hollow, he said:
I'm not so very old, Maddy; onl.
wenty-fve-only ten years older thar
yourself; and Agnes husband was NOR
than twenty years her senior"
"Oh, oh over twenty years-that'
dreadful. She must be most glad he'
dead. | would not marry man mor'
than FIVE years older than l."
Not if you loved him, and he lovet
his voice low and tender in its tone.
Wholly unsuspicious of the wild storm
beatng in his heart, Maddy united hel
white sunbonnet, and, taking it in hel
lap, smoothed back her soft hair. saying
with a long brea h "Oh I'm so hot
and then, as just thinking of his ques-
ton, replied: Il shouldn't love him
couldn't. Grandma is FIVE years younger
than grandpa, mother was five years
younger than father, Mrs. Green is five
years younger than Mr. Green, and, oh
so many. You are warm. too; amt
you?" and she turned her innocent eyes
full upon the doctor. II wonder why
she married that old man? 1t is worse
than if you were to marry Jessie"
Money and position were the attrac-
tons, | imagine" the doctor said. Agnes
was poor, and esteemed it a great honor
to be made Mrs. Remington"
Poor, was she?" Maddy rejoined.
"Then maybe Mr.. Guy will some day
marry a poor girl. Do you think he
will?"
Again Lucy Atherstone trembled on the
doctors lips, but he did not speak of her
it was preposterous that Maddy should
have any thoughts of Guy Remington,
who was quite as old as himself besides
being engaged and with this comforting
assurance, the doctor turned his horse in
the direction of the cottage. for Maddy
was growing tired and needed to be at
home.
Maddy would never forget that morn
Ing or the nice ride they'd had. She
had enjoyed it so much. and she thanked
him many times for his kindness. He
was a very nice doctor, much better than
she had imagined, she thought. as she
went slowly to the house and entered the
neat kitchen, where her grandmother sat
shelling peas for dinner, and her grand
father in his leathern chair was whisper
ing over his weekly paper.
Did you meet grand lady in a car
riage?" grandma asked, as Maddy sat
down beside her.
Yes and DR., Holbrook said it was
Mrs. Remington. from Aikenside, Mr..
Guys stepmother, and that she was more
than twenty years younger than her hus-
it dreadful? | thought so
but the doctor didn't seem to- and in a
perfectly artless manner Maddy repeated
much Of the conversation which had pass
ed between the doctor and herself ap-
healing to her grandma to know if she
had not taken the right side of the argu
ment.
Yes. child. you did" and grandma's
hands fingered among the light green peas
in her pan. as if she were thinking of an
entirely foreign subject. Il know nothing
about this Mrs. Remington, only that she
stared a good deal at the house as she
went by, even looking at us through a
glass. and lifting her spotted veil after
she got by. She may have been as happy
as queen with her man, but as a gen
eral thing these unequal matches don't
work, and had better not be thought on.
S'p0sin' you should think you was in love
with somebody, and in few years, when
you got older, be sick of him. 1t might
do him a sight of harm. That's what
spolt your poor greatuncle Joseph, who's
been in the hospital at Worcester nine
years
1T was.' And Maddy's face was all
q glow with interest. Tell me about it,"
There is no great to tell, only he was
many years younger than |. He's only
forty-one now, and was thirteen years
older than the girl he wanted. Joseph
was smart and handsome, and a lawyer.
end folks said a sight too good for the
girl, whose folk were just nothing. but
she had pretty face, and her long curls
bewitched him. She couldn't have been
older than you when he first saw her, and
she was only sixteen when they got en-
gagged. Josephs life was bound up in
her; he worshiped the very air she
breathed, and when she mttened him, it
almost took his life. He was too old for
her, and then right on top of that we
heard after a little that she had married
some big bug, | never knew who, plenty
old enough to be her father. That set
tied it with Joseph he went into a kind
of melancholy, grew worse and worse, till
we put him in the hospital, usin' his
little property to pay the bill until it
was all gone. and now he's on charity.
you know, eIceptin' what we do"
Grandma had an object in telling this
20 Maddy, for she was not blind to the
nature of the Doctors interest in her
child, so she told the sad story of Uncle
Joseph as a warning to Maddy. 1t made
an impression on her, and all that after
noon she was thinking of the unfortunate
man. whom she had seen but once, and
that in his prison home, where she had
been with her grandfather the only time
she had ever ridden in the cars He had
taken her in his arms then, she remem-
bered. and called her his little Sarah.
That must have been the name of his
treacherous betrothed. She would ask if
1t were not so. and she did.
Yes. Sarah Morris. that was her name,
and her face was handsome as a doll, {"
grandma replied. and wondering IL she
was as beautiful as Jessie or Jessie's .