The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1923-12-20
PhineaS Harden S
Inheritance

They stood about the farmhouse in
awkward. constrained groups, waiting,
as they might have expressed 1t, for
the funeral to start" The dead WON
an was lying in the best room. It
had been the passing away Of hard
life.
Phineas Harden leaned his head
against the shutter which had been
closed tc keep out the glazing light
and as he sat there, half hearing the
sounds which came to him through
the open window, he heard quite dis
tinctly these words
eDied peaceful at the last, they say
Well. there'd ought ter be some peace
in the course of a natural life, an ii
there was going ter be any in old Mis-
Harden's life, guess it had ter get its
innings in at pretty nigh the last lick,
an a close shave at that My, didn't
she lead Dick Harden life. Rec'lect
when there warnt a sprucer man In
town, but she took the spirit right out
of him. an it warn't much of job fer
consumption ter finish him up"
Phineas never forgot that. 1t had
been the putting into words what he
had never quite admitted even to him
SELF
The days that followed his moth
ers death passed peacefully enough.
After a while he became used to the
quiet of the house 1t didn't seem
lonely to him; he had never felt lone
ly, not even at the first
People sometimes looked curiously
at him and wondered if he ever
thought of LorindaN North. But no
one could read the thoughts that were
hidden back of his eyes. They were
eyes that rather bafded you; they
had always annoyed his mother, When
he was child she had said one day,
where he gets that look beats me,
He minds we'll, an he'd oughter, see
In the trouble I've been to bring him
up. His hands an feet are quick
enough to do as say, but can't feel
but what there's somethin' back Of hil
eyes that l amt never touched
Lorinda North kept little shop.
which was the exponent of metropoli-
tan styles She was a woman who
took life hard It did not come easy
to any Of these hard worked, narrow
lived women, and she had fought
against each hard knock until all the
softness, which may once have been
hers. had been rubbed off. There had
been an old love affair between these
two, but how far 1t had progressed no
one ever quite knew Some one had
once yentured to ask Lorinda about
1t. "She wasn't going to be an old
woman's nurse" she had said, Shed
always made out to make living for
herself, and she guessed she could
still.
Perhaps IN these years in which
there had been plenty Of time for
quiet thought. she had sometimes re-
GREETED her lost chance of happiness,
Surely they had been lonely years,
hard years, too, and they had borne
their fruit in Lorinda North. There
wasn't woman in the town who did
not feel a little uneasy when under
the battery of her sharp eyes. Phin-
cas- Harden had been the only one,
who had ever pushed open, even ever
SO slightly, the door Of her heart, and
after she had closed this little chink,
love had gone to easier pathways. and
left the door of Lorinda's heart closed
hard and fast.
People had speculated somewhat as
to how she would take the news of
Mrs. Harden's death. Perhaps 1t had
stirred, more deeply than she knew,
the undercurrent of her life. Surely.
Phineas was often in her mind in
these days. Not with any tenderness
of feeling did she think Of the lonely
man, but perhaps because his solitary
life bore so closely on her own did
her thoughts so often turn to him.
AS she looked forward, as she did
sometimes of late, to the years and
years stretching out their weary
length before her, thought which
was at first vague and underlined.
gradually took definite shape In her
mind.
They had both always been regu.
lar church attendants. Through the
summer Lorinda had sat Just back OF
Phiheas Harden's pew, and the time
seemed very long ago when the pew
in front had been empty at the even
ing meeting and he had sat back with
her.
His mother had been dead just siz
! months. The cold and dreariness Of
the winter was gone, and 1t was soft
night in early June. The windows
in the old church were open, and per
haps Phineas listened more to the
sounds of the night than to the mono
tonous voice Of the minister. Wher
he was a little boy he had officer
! wished that they would have church
outdoors. God seemed nearer there
The woman sat and watched his face
during the long sermon. She looked
at 1t more carefully, perhaps, than sh,
I had ever done before. But Lorindi
North was not capable of seeing thu
! real Phineas Harden. All she saw
was a slight, bent figure face Will
eyes that were apt to fall little be