Year: 1877

"What charming person" l said.
'She is most excellent" said my
friend.


Although she is so young, Miss
is the bread provider of her family. Hel
father and mother have, according to
! the cant phrase, seen better days in
fact, they are people of good birth, and
once had good fortune. They have. a
son and daughter the son is fine fell
low also. Both the son and daughter
give the greater part Of their earnings
to their parents but the son has not
been very fortunate. Ny little COVER
ness, she is only seventeen, (my chill
dren are so young they do not require
prim regular governess,) does more
with her salary, mediocre as it is, than
her brother can do with his hard work.
He is clerk in bank"


"And she helps him also, suppose p


" [ dare say she does, but have nev-
er inquired, for she is full of reticence
and reserve on thesepoints, 1 only know
she would set up all night,-aud work
like horse all day, to help both f1br
parents and her brother She is going
home tomorrow and he, l fear, cannot
afford the expense of the journey. The
parents live now in Scotland"


:" Gould we not help him p said,
bashfully.


My friend smiled. Both brother and
sister spent Christmas at home.


My good fortune threw me good
deal after this with my friends COVER
ness. Must say from that Christmas
Eve 1 was never heart whole?


The following Easter we were. en-
gagged, and before the Christmas Eve
which followed we We're married. What
an aim and hope my life has now ac-
CURED


We have little suburban homo, and
leave my wife every morning to pursue
my editorial labors, and return every
evening, forgetting my work and my
worries, knowing that the sweetest heart
and the fairest face I have ever known
await me in my modest but happy home.
never heard again from the author of
the manuscript which had so much in
terested me; and, truth to tell, had
never thought of her since that Christ
mas Eve. Two or three years have
passed since then, and we have two
babies.


Their mother is always playing with
them. She often puts her delicate,
slender white hands under my baby
girls foot, and the baby makes believe
to stand on it. What picture it is it
is like rosebud laid on white
camelia.


As I walked up and down the room
reading scratchy, scrawly manuscript,
and fumbling over it in desperation, for
the tiresome person who had sent it had
by some ingenious carelessness mulcted
it of its last page, my thoughts flew far
and wide, and, by some association |
cannot attempt to explain, the pretty
manuscript from the youthful writer
who had sent me no more was recalled
to me


Unconsciously the manuscript held
faded from my mind, and the other was
present with me. / wondered what had
become of her-had she written any
more ?--where and how was she?


Every moment I became more and
more possessed with the memory. l
was so happy myself that felt for all
who seemed to have care and struggle
in their lives, l looked out the address to
which 1 had written before, and wrote
to the unknown few lines. l said that
time had passed, that the youthful in
experience which had prevented the
paper she had sent from being accepted
must now be corrected, and that I should
be glad and willing to see anything else
she had written, if she had written any
thing since then.


Within a few days ] had an answer.
The, writing was in feigned hand, quite
unlike the round, hesitating, girlish
hand I remembered. The words were,
however, as sweet and innocent as the
first had been. The note ran as follows
cit is SO good of you to remember
me, but do not write any more. am
SO happy. l have dear, good, noble
husband. Oh, these womanly exaggera-
tions, 1 thought, as 1 sat in my editorial
chair And such darling babies ]
wrote, for wanted to help my dear
! ones, bat they have been better helped
by others than / could ever have hoped
to help them. God has given them q
better friend than / could be. If you
! seek to know me, you shall do 80. II
when You go home you see woman
with rose in her hand, hold out yours.
! You will know me-"


! L smiled at..the romantic fervor of this
reply, and a faint desire arose that my
wife and the writer of the letter should
know each other, and then | went on
with my supplying avocations.
AS went home, confess looked
about for a woman with rose in hel
hand, but, as might naturally be sup
posed, neither in cabs nor omnibuses
did such an apparition manifest itself.


AS | entered my own door I gave al
impatient shrug at the idea of having
been the subject of foolish Jest. But
whom did l see standing within the
threshold of my home? My darling
with her fair, child-like face and brigh
hair (; love, and Joy, and youth crowninG
her with triple crown, and in her han(
was rose


Dear husband" she said, as kissed
her, 81 think / loved ysu from the mo
ment 1 had your kind, indulgent
thoughtful note. / had written tina
absurd little story for 1 sadly wanted
little money to pay for Gerald's returi
home at Christmas, to be with papa an,
mamma. and had foolish notion
could write"


"And you were disappointed, m
pet. What a savage l must hav
seemed 70


"No; I felt how foolish l had been
ane cried heartily, but / thought yo
good and kind all the same. And Gen
aid got home, too. and we had happ
Christmas after all.


/ kissed her.