Year: 1879

called her his Rose.


1t was winter as they came to that,
and the skaters were making merry.
She had come down to the lake with her
uncle, who was a famous skater; had
bound on her skates, and slid away with
him; had left him to tighten a strap,
had lost him, and had been found by
Adrian, and together they had glided
away; and then the late afternoon red
dened into sunset and purpled into twi-
light, and they were skating up the
stream, and leaving all the cries and
fires and flashing forms behind them.
How soft and fresh was the vigorous
air! how rich the violet of the gathering
night! how great the glow of the wind
shaken stars Now it was no longer
hand in hand that they went, but his
arm was about her; they swept out on
long curves together, and moved as il
the pulses of one heart impelled them /;
and now they turned the corner of a
bluff; now, far out of sight of all the
world, they paused, and there, in the
wintry dark, they were folded heart to
heart and mouth TO mouth. If the
SHOWS had fallen around them there and
clothed them with garment OF death,
if the ice had parted under their



drowning waters, they would hard
ly have asked any more. Their
passion wrapped them, so like Dejanira's s
robe of flame, from all the frostiness of
death, that the coming of eternity upon
them in each others arms would have
seemed but its sacramental seal. And
suddenly rude, hOarse cry broke in
upon the sphere where they were rest
ing-the great rough voice of Professor
Redmond, and Ella was snatched from
Adrian's grasp, and a dozen stin0ing
words were whirled at him, and the un-
Gle had carried her off as the wind car
ries off feather.


Adrian skated back alone. He scorn-
ed to move till the Professors heels cut
ting the ice could be heard no more.
Where had all that splendor of the night
gomez 1t was the darkness and cOldness
of desOlation now. He took a terrible
grind at mathematics that night, and the
next day presented himself before the
Professor, and asked of him the promise
of his niece in marriage, only to receive
in return the flattest and curtest and
most insulting of orders never to darken
those doors again.


- For all that,'' said Adrian, stoutly,
Z" shall marry my wife"


The Professor. looked at him, and
burst into a furious, roaring laugh.
{" Tooral-looral!'' sang the Professor.
BegOnei'' he Numbered.


The winter wore away at last, and if
the Professor kept the Rose from her
lover, he could not keep the color from
the velvet cheek if he were near, the
glow from the darkling eyes if she were
there, the smile, forgetful of all the rest
3 x,fh hOK 10
gan to hate Adrian. He would have
been glad to mark him out of existence,
if marks could have done it-out of his
college existence at any rate; but the
boy gave him no chance. He deserved
no reprimand, and none could be tor
tured into shape for him. He studied
as a machine works. He covered him
self with laurels-all the more he would
rather they had been roses.


'Who is the beggarP' the Professor
growled, one spring day, when they met
him in the square again, and the bare
headed silent reverence ended, he had
passed on without a greeting. To
Adrian then it did not matter that red
bud and laburnum and dogwOOd were
in bloom, and that the rose itself would
soon be here it seemed to him rs dead
and burned out a world as the craters of
the moon, till looking back he saw her,
so long forbidden to speak TO him, yet
glancing over her shoulder with that
smile. s'Who is the beggar?' growled
the Uncle Raymond, E'tO whom you
choose to give a glance when 1 forbid
it-I, who stand in your dead father S
shOes?n Enormous shoes they were,
judging by the Professors claim to au-
thority, and perhaps their potency was
stretched enormously by the wearer.
GA fishing merchants son, indeed
One might suppose that, reared as you
have been, the very Thought of such
connection would smell to heaven


I" He never touches fish, said Ella,
feeling obliged to answer, although il
he had been fisherman on the BradoT
coast, it would have made no difference
with her. g He never sees them. He
| sits at a desk in a counting room miles
away from the warehouses, and his clerks
write in books all day. And Adrian
will do so too"


"He is rich, then, SUPPOSED"


is heP' she asked, innocently. "l
never thought, indeed"


a. He is not rich enough to have you, >
was the reply.


q Yes, uncle, he surely will said the
timid thing solemnly, with her heart il
her mouth, but ready to die for hel
faith. Then something in Greek eX
plOded, loud and angry, from the Pro
fessor's throat; and he never again le
his ward out of his sight when she ha6
crossed his threshold. Love laughs a
locksmiths without doubt; but this lock
smith was very skillful. 1t was almOs
midsummer, and not one word haC
Adrian heard from the lips of his Rose
and letter after letter had been returned
to him unopened. But his ardOr wa!
unchanged; his love burned with tn,
same white flame, although there wer,
only smiles and glances to feed the fire


And now at last the college life wa


drawing. to a close, and Adrian was tn,
class poet. Perhaps his passion hat
warmed genius into life; there haC
never been such poem uttered Their


before; but no other poet had had thOs


tender, yearning eyes before him wit
the tears suspended in them, that fac


so like a flower in the fresh dew. ''Mor


Organ-grinding, growled the Professor


The lovers met in the press, for on


instant, not long afterward, as that POI
ton of the exercises ended. And whe


he had left her side a great bunch c


red roses was in her hand, the most dc


licious dewy roses, whose perfume swep


around her like an atmosphere. But tn


Professor had relieved guard. His lyn


eye caught sight of white CLEAN anon
the roses. He took them suddenly OF
of her hand, abstracted little note
and gave the flowers back to her. The
he slipped the note into his coat pocke
1t is pity the Professor did not rea
: that note before next day. This Is wis
> was written there:


MY RosE:-If your affection for me is a
! ! it was, is all that my adoring love for yo
l would claim, you will hold these roses
l your hand tonight as you enter the receI
| ton -rnnms of ReX. Ii at any time in u