Year: 1875

Lucille had spoken Wnen she sad wal
ter Templeton was a perfect gentleman
His manner was the perfection of good
breeding, with deferential courtesy fol
all womankind, and most fascinating
Difference for one woman he loved
Stung by the bitter emphasis of Edna's
refusal, the contemptuOus sarcasm of hel
reasons, he withdrew from her presence
seldom coming to the room, where he
had read to his aunt while she sewed.


Truly Edna had defined his position
in that mental retrospect she had taken
He had been his aunt's plaything in his
boyhood, a handsome lad full of talent
and promise. When he attained ripel
years he was sent to school, to college
and, graduating there, was put into the
position of q dutiful nephew to an aunt
who openly proclaimed him her heir.
Courted in society, his aunt's favorite
with ample means at his ready command
his own idea of his course of life was
that il was far superior to that of com
mon men. Thoroughly imbued with his
aunt's pride, he rather scorncd the idea
of labor of any kind until he loved
Edna.


BY the light of that love he felt un,
easily that she scorned the money he
took freely, unless she earned it first.
More than once he had known of her
proud refusal of any gift for which her
nimble fingers had not given full equiv
alent He loved her first for her beauty,
then for the nobler attributes of mind
and heart she certainly possessed,
though she screened them well with her
sarcastic pride.


Gradually, indeed unconsciously, she
had sheathed the weapons she kept at
command, her pungent wit, her keen
satire, when her Cousin Walter was by.
| She let herself be interested when he
read, and spoke freely when they dis
cussed literature or art.


Mrs. Montgomery looked well pleased.
1t was one Of her pet schemes to leave
her wealth divided between Walter and
Edna as man and wife, and she encour-
aged intimacy with all her heart, hiding
her satisfaction under her usual curt
manner.


Partly from her hints, partly, it must
be confessed, from his own sense of su-
periority, Walter had settled convic-
tion that he was comforting an honor
when he offered his hand to Edna, a hand
that would lift her to his side in the atflu-
| ence of his aunt's favor.


So the first spur that drove him from
her presence was certainly mortified
vanity. More reasonable motives came
| later.


The fall sewing was completed, when,
with that unreasonable perversity that
falls often to the lot of the most favored
mortals, Mrs. Montgomery was obliged
| to have it all renewed in mourning for
her only sister, Edna's mother.
1t was dreadfully provoking" of
course, the more so as Edna, really low.
| ing the peevish invalid who had been her
care for years, could not attend to the
sewing. She sorrowed sincerely for
MANY weeks, and then, to Mrs. Mont,
gomery's infinite disgust, accepted po,
sition as companion to an invalid lady
and went abroad.


II suppose" her aunt said, when it
was too late, If had offered you a sal
ary with home you would have come
when asked you"


And Edna frankly admitted that she
would.


| So over the ocean she carried her sor-
rows and her pride, the one fairly stitled
for the time under the weight of the 9TH
ers. For she missed her mother, she
found her new duties uncongenial and
contining, and she gricved for Walters
love.


She did not regret her decision, know
ing the uncertainty of riches. She saw
no future of usefulness before him if, at
at the end, his aunt disappointed his ex
pectations. She knew him for man
who could turn his brain or hands to nc
purpose in life, and for this she despised
him as mere dandified puppet of hel
aunt's.


Yet in the hearthunger of her new life
she thought often of the glorious capa
bilities of her young cousin. She knew
he had a mind clear and strong-full OF
power to grasp any intellectual pursuit
She knew him patient, kind of heart
strong of purpose when once aroused
and it fretted all the grander attributes
of her nature to think of the waste OF
such a manhood.


For what was he? A walking tailor's
advertisement, a charming partner in d
dance, courteous gentleman, willing
servant to his aunt No more!


Yet when Edna wandered with hel
new mistress over the Old World, enjoy
ing with keen zest the intellectual
artistic and musical treat spread before
her, she turned mentally to Walter fol-
congenial pleasure. When the vapid
praise or weak criticism of the fashion
able invalid was poured into her ears
she wondered how Walters clear brain
would have viewed the same object



pleasant ones to her soul, full of sordid
cares, of mean shifts, of shallow pre-.
tense, and she rested upon those of hel
Cousin Walter, floating upon them tc
rosy dreamlands till stung to life again
by the fact of her rejection of his hand
and her reasons for that step.


Viewed through the medium of this
rose-haze of memory she softened to hel
discarded lover, thinking of the chivalry
of his wooing, the unselfishness of his
love. She knew well that Mrs Ambrose
Montgomery's heir might have chosen
bride amongst the wealthiest; thai
Walters handsome face, undoubted tai
ents and courtly manners would have
won him true love among the most fas
tidious. And yet he had turned from all
these to choose her, penniless girl
whose education was, for the most part
self-imparted, who was quick-tempered
and unpopular. In spite of her beauty
she knew well that she often owed it te
Walter and his efforts that she was not {
wall-fower in social gatherings.


He loved her, and she had shut hel
heart to his love. She did not regret thai
home of luxury he could have com
manded for her, the probable fortune
she would have shared with him, but il
her bitter loneliness she hungered fol
the sound of his tender voice, the love o.
his pleading eyes.


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