Year: 1873

|
l answered as indifferently rs l
could. / oomforted myself after
wards with thinking I hadn't told u
lie ; but after that again | concluded
that had. We had come to our gate by
this time-my gate, | mean-and he
opened it for me without aword. Then he
put out his hand, and thought he was
going to make up. you'll mt least say
good bye, he said, i'll the same low,
strange tone--and had just sense
enough left to shake hands and say it
BY that time next day there had been
an exchange of notes and things, and
he was gone. | never saw him again
after that morning when | left him at
the gate. knew, when thought it all
over that night, that he was sorry
enough then, and that word from me
would have brought him back, but
something seemed to tell me that first
quarrel is hardly ever last one, and |
thought that very likely if / married
him he would be hectoring me before
he knew it, and then | should answer
back, and we should have cat and dog
life of it. And when / heard, six
months after, of his marriage to n pret-
ty doll, without temper or will, | con-
sidered ] had made n good escape
Every time | have heard of him since,
he's been spoken of as sort Of good
for-nothing, changing about from one
business and from one city to another,
and never seeming to know his own
mind. SO that has gone long way to-
wards reconciling me, can tell You,
for man like that would have set me
crazy in no time. But, bless your
hearts, I've left out the best part of the
story, or what you'll think the best
part. bought that bureau after all (;
| thought it would do me good to have
it in sight-keep me from crying over
split milk, maybe And when | heard
he was going to be married, | had one
made so like it, you couldn't have told
them apart, and sent it to him for a
wedding present. | did not forget the
scratch, either, and though | don't
know much about deceiving, | made II
pretty correct copy of that scratch, and
have no doubt he thinks to this day
that it was the identical bureau that
parted us !"


And Aunt Sally had stopped, as
much for want of breath MS because she
had come to the end of her story, and
nobody said anything for several min
utes. Then Netty remarked;


"Aunt Sally, don't YOU tbink-that
perhaps it was because George was I'M
happy, that he turned out so good-ior-
nothing?"


"Yes," answered the old lady, com
posedly, 81 thought OF that consider
ably, and for while it worried me a
good deal, but came to the conclusion
at last that when body once begins if
ing and but-ing, there's no end to it.,
and that man who would let one upset
spoil his whole life, outside as well as
in, was not man to be cried for. At
the same time, | don't know perhaps |
should never have found out that he
had weak side to his character, and so
it would not have hurt newly, what
an old fool am !" she cried, giving her
self vigorous shake by both elbows.
cts my belief that nothing short of
killing 'em will take all the nonsense
out of woman, or man either But
I'll say this much, she added after a
slight pause, eff anybody is silly
enough to fall in love, and be engaged,
and all that, I'd advise them to go
through with it, for, as | said when |
started, "A miss Is as good ms mile.


And with that to conclude, she picked
herself up by both elbows and carried
herself off


Icannot affirm positively that Netty
wrote note to the object, but she took
solitary walk the next morning, re-
turning with letter for Ada, and the
careless remark that she had called at
the post-ofiice, as she happened to be in
the neighborhood. And that evening
he came back, and the sounds from the
parlor convinced Ada and myself that
the quarrel had been made up, some
how


MARGARET VANDEGRIFT.