Year: 1871

| eaJlng at Gne same table with SER
! Uants, and that when one Of the boys


told your father he was mad, and


came to me and said, 'Huldah, you


must eat when the rest do. If you


stay away from the table on account
Of these city snobs, I'll make fuss


on the spot So, to avoid a fuss,


have kept on going to the table"


John was greatly vexed with this.


he was chiyalrous fellow, sqd he


knew how such aremarkmust wound


person who had never learned that


uomestlc service had anything de-


sraulng In it And the result was


JusI tne opposite to what his sister


lad hoped. John paid more atteD-


ton than ever to Huldab NTonDers


preston. " op-


The evening before Thanksoivino
Day, the ladies were going to mai-s5 ,1Is
a visit. 1t was not at all incumhen+
on John to go, but he was seeking
an opportunity to carry off the bril-.
liant Miss Dunton. Who would
adOrn his parlors when he became
rich and distinguished, and who
would make so nice a head piece for
bis table. And so he had determined
to go with them, trusting to some
fortunate chance for his opportunity.


But, sitting in the Old 'sbest room,''
in the dark, while the ladies were
getting ready, and trying to devise a
way by which he might get an op-
portunity to speak TO Miss Dunton
alone, it occurred to him that she
was at that time in the sitting room
waiting for his sister. To step out
to where she was, and present the
case in a few words, would not be
difficult, and it might all be settled
before his sister came down stairs.
The Fates were against him. howev-
er. For just as he was about to act
on this thought, he heard Amanda
Holmes abundant dresses sweeping
down the stairway. He could not
help hearing the conversation that
followed:


"You see, Janet, got up this trip
tonight to keep John from spending
the evening in the kitchen. He
hasn't BIT of dignity, and would
spend the evening romping with the
children and talking to Huldah, if
be took 1t into his head"


WELL . said Janet, zone can over
look everything in a man Of your
brothers culture. But what a queer
way your country servants have OF
pushing themselves. Wouldn't I
make them know their places P'


And all this was said with the kit
chen door open and with the inten-
ton OF wounding Huldah.


Johns castles tumbled. The cru
dite wife alongside the silver tea urn
faded out of sight rapidly. If knowl-
edge could not give a touch of human
regard for the feelings of a poor girl,
toiling dutifully and self denyingly
to support her family, of what &C
count was it?


Two minutes before, he was about
to give his life to Janet Dunton.
Now there was gulf wider than the
world between them. He slipped
out of the best room by the outside
door and came in through the kit
chen. The neighbor's sleigh that
was to call for them was already at
the door, and John begged them to
excuse him. He had set his heart
on helping Huldah make mince pies.
His sister was in despair, but she did
not say much. She told John that it
was time he was getting over-hfs-
queer freaks. And the sleigh drove
off.


For an hour afterwards, John
rOmped with his sisters children.
and told stories to the boys, and
talked to his father. When a man
has barely escaped going ever a pre-
eipice, he does not like to think too
much about it. John did not.


At last the little children went TO
bed. The old gentleman grew slee-
py, and retired. The boys went in
to the sitting room and went to sleep,
one on the lounge, and one on the
floor. Huldah was just ready to be-
gin her pies. She was deeply hurt,
but John succeeded in making her
more cheerful He rolled up his
sleeves and went to rolling out the
pastry. He thought he had never
seen a asweeter picture than the young
girl in clean dress and apron, with
her sleeves rolled up above her ell
bows. There was statuesque perfec-
ton in the well rounded arms. The
heat of the fire had flushed her face
little, and she was laughing merri-
ly at Johns awkward blunders in
pie-making. John was delighted,
he hardly knew why. In fixing a
pie-crust his fingers touched hers,
and he started as if he had touched
a galvanic battery. He looked at
Huldah, and saw a halfpainful ex-
preston on her flushed face.


For the first time it occurred to
him that Huldah Manners had excl
ted in him feeling a thousand times
deeper than anything he had felt to-
wards Janet, who seemed to be now
in another world. For the first time
he realized that he had been more in
love with Huldah than Janet all the
time. Why not marry her? And
then he remembered what the Gov
erner had said about marrying q
woman's heart and not her head.


He put on his hat and walked out
out, out, into the darkness, the
rain,and the slush of melt
ing snow, fighting fierce battle. All
his pride and all his cowardly vanity
we're on one side, all the irresistible
torrent Of his love on the other. He
walked away into the dark wood
pasture, trying to think and (would
you believe it?) trying to pray, for it
was great struggle, and in any great
struggle a true soul always find
something very like prayer in his
heart.


The feeling Of love may exist with
out attracting the attention Of its
pOssessor. 1t had never occurred to
John that he could love or marry
Huldah. Thus the passion had
grown all the more powerful for not
5einO observed. and now the unseen