Year: 1865

choir and he never even spoke to Iae; and
the troubled look was ever on his face,
and he had grown older in this short space
of time


To love him SO and be so utterly sep
arated from him, even where | could have
touched him with my hand To feel to
my hearts core the GOODNESS of his look
and tone when he was forced to speak to
me- Oh, my heart was wrung in those
days


Itached as only Joung hearts can ache,
and the worst was, it was a grief that |
could share with no one. So, finding there
was no explanation coming, left the choir
| had a cold and my voice was weak
There was a real reason to give, and /
gave it, And Emily Otis took my place,
and sat on the Sabbath between grand
pa and grandma in the old church below
| could hear him there, but need not see
him


think grandma guessed something was
wrong. But she thought me such a child
that she could hardly think of any serious
wooing for me yet.


week after | had left the choir the
organ was dumb again. Andrew Hud-
sons engagement had expired and he re-
fused to renew it.


He left New Rochelle without even bid
ding me good-by Incver knew how much
was left in my heart until heard that he
was gone.


That day l stayed in my own ROOM
And iii enough | really was, Heaven
knows


There's no all of the body like that OF
the heart Though grandma's pills and
potions | flung out of the window by
stealth into the flower beds


The next day | dressed myself and
went down to breakfast. As | stood be-
fore the glass | said to myself: Soply
Norroway, the time has come when you
must play the woman. The only man you
ever loved, or eyer can love has no love
for you, that is certain; and though you
were not to blame at first for he gave you
cause to think he was fond of you, YOU
would be to blame to keep that love in
your heart. Crush it, or, if you don't
crush it, hide it Look as well and be as
merry as you can, and let nobody have
cause to point at you and say, Sophy Nor
roway was disappointed in love, and that
is why she never married, when YOU are
l,r.1,- E11 nod e., I,
For you see 1 had no thoug ght of liking any
one else | knew that could never hap
pen


Well, 7 thought with myself after that
battled down the tears. | forced myself
to pay visits and to have my friends about
me. ] would not cry even when alone
But do all | would there was the heart
ache still The fox gnawed at my bosom,
though | kept the mantle o7or it.


Sometimes | think it al.rost 2 pity
that woman shou ever love For we
can be sure of nothing on this earth, and
life is worthless to one of Us if the man
she loves dies or forsakes her a man
can love twenty women. But woman
never truly loves more than one man. /
used to Hish often and often that had
never met Andrew Hudson.


Fighting down the love it was wrong
now to cherish, aud trying to do my duty,
and, ! humbly hope, doing il in some
measure, | lived through the long years
At the end Of the tenth grandpa died, and
grandma followed him in few months


81 couldn't live without him, she said
& You see we'd been together these fifty
years, husband and l." And those were
the last words | ever heard her Greak
for an hour after that she died, with her
cheek lying softly in her hand like that of
sleeping babe.


| could not grieve for sfem-it seemed
so selfish But was all alone in the
world. | lived alone in the old house but
for nv one servant, and sat alone in the
pew with grandma name on the back,
where it had been fifty years. heard the
new orcanist-a lady-play, and the choir
sing--and thought despite myself, of the
hands which once touched the keys.
There were many changes in the church.
Old Mr. Danbury had been gathered to
his fathers. The girls who had sung with
me were mostly married, az might have
been had chosen; but would give no
man heart with another's name craven
on it. and had said % no. to more than one
who would have made my lonely life
pleasanter l was nearly thirty, and the
young folks called me an old maid.
| | knew, but was we'll content, for none
/ had found my secret out.


Nv thirtieth birthday fell on the first
/ Sunday of October. 1t was eleven years
! since the first Sabbath Andrew Hudson
I had played upon that organ, to which
/ had listened dreamily as Miss Phillips
! PLAYED (as she styled it, the people in-s
} strain he had been fond of and as | lis.
tened the old memories swept over me
thick and fast | bent my head upon the
flont of my pew, and prayed that Goo
might bless the man loved wherever he


might be; for, after all those years, and