The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-01-18

venture to hint to Mrs. McGinn that
Jane could get a fair price for her
pretty little sketches of the old mill
and the river, if she would sell them.
But she famed into sudden fury.
''Do you know who Miss Saltere
is? We expect to hear from her kin
any day.. They'll come claiming her.
We left the case in the hands of an
agent in Edinburgh. And there's a
standing advertisement in the London
Times. Her kin might be here to-
morrow or today. Every time the
stage comes down that street I'm
lookin' for them. They may be bar
row. knights or dukes. And are they
to find her working to earn her liv-
ing?
So James white palms never were
stained by money which she had
earned.
She was welcomed with enthusiasm
into the little social world of the
country. It never had known such
heroine. She was grave, slow
moving girl, with no sense of humor
whatever. She had absolute faith in
her own high birth but having also
warm kindly blood, she met the rest
Of us, black and white-less lucky
folk than herself-with friendly toll
erence.
Two or three of the students in
the academy, SONS of good families
promptly fell madly in love with her
but were dismissed with plying sur
prise. "What would my family think
if l should make such mesalliance ?"
she said gravely.
After year or two, however, Wal
ter Gardette Gone of the Louisianian
Gardettes, not the Canadian) was
taken into partnership by DR.. Weems.
There was little sickness in the coun-
try that year so the young man had
plenty of time to assist Miss Saltere
in her search for orchids. She was
really almost a fanatic in her devo-
ton to botany that summer. Jane
was not a Jealous scholar. Hitherto
her studies had been limited to two
or three volumes of poems and some
large books which lay on her parlor
table and which had been bought by
the McGinns years ago. They were
"The Baronetage of Englan d."
"Burke's Peerage," and "The Coun-
try Families of Great Britain" She
never opened these books now, so alb
sorbing was her botanic zeal.
Young Gardette was frankly madly
in love. The whole village took a
keen interest in the affair, aud re-
joiced when, late in the fall, the en-
gagement was announced. Curiously
enough, from that day the interest of
the doctor and Jane in botany was
absolutely dead.
A little incident which happened
on the day of her betrothal made the
people of the village feel that they
never had known Jane before. Many
of her friends, old people as we'll as
-young. gathered in her parlor the
evening, "that the child might not
feel lonely, as if she stood alone in
the world
Doctor Gardette, flushed with his
triumph and joy, said, 81 have tele-
graphed for my father and mother.
They will soon be here to welcome
Jane, with her noble kinsfolk.
She laughed with the others, and
then looked at him thoughtfully for
moment. Then she opened the door
into the kitchen where old Sandy Nc
CHM was sitting by the fire, and
Hannah was busy with her knitting.
"Walter," she said, cit is very we'll
for me to look for my family among
the peerage. It's like pretty fairy
story. But there are my real father
and mother. They have given their
lives to me. And I never will go
into family which does not receive
and honor them. II never will
marry a man" here she began to sob,
"who will not love them as / do !"
On which there was much crying
among the women and many promi-
ses and protestations from Walter.
Old Sandy McGinn was annoyed by
''the fuss" But il seems to me
through the years to come the old
woman's face must have been happier
because of those words of James.
1 am sorry-but that is the end Of
my story. There was no dramatic
denouement No peer nor prince
ever appeared to place coronet on
lanes brow. She became the mother
and grandmother of large family of
capable, energetic men and women,
who now are scattered through many
states. In each family there is le-
gend, more or less definite, of noble
ancestry. Some of the younger peo-
pie have crest and coat Of arms, and
are ready to claim their progenitors
among the great heroes in English or
French history. But Jane died with
| her riddle unsolved.
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