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'iylZlr'- AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY NEWSPAPER. ! .fT,:'
Vol. "VII. New Bloomttcld, Pa., Tneeday, Airil 22, 1873. f ' IVo. 10.
ljc fjlooinfitlii imt5.
IS rUBUBHKD EVERT TUKSDAT MORNING, BT
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Miss Vernon's Lover.
fcfc 4 SUES to ashes, dust to dust"
XJL Argeline Vernon said the words
over slowly coldly folding up closely the
withered hearts-ease, and violets, in their
wrapping of silver paper. There was a
curl of soft, bright, chestnut hair twining
around them she put the whole within a
little box that had treasured them for
years, snapped down the lid, and dropped
the wholo upon the gloaming coals, in the
grato.
There was a (lash a momentary sparklo
a wreath of thin, blue smoke ascended
a pale.ghastly flame shot up, quivered, and
died, and then the fiery coals gleamed on,
blood red as before, '
"There, Philip Desmond, rest in peace!"
She rose, and went to the mirror, push
ing back the heavy braids of hair from her
face, as if they hurt hor. The scrutiny to
which she subjected herself was no light
one. Perhaps she wanted to compare her
negative attractions with the fervid bril
liance of Miss Montgomery's beauty.
She recalled the sparkling, blonde face,
with its dark violet eyes; white and damask
complexion ; pearly teeth J hair like Bpun
gold, and that nameless fascination of wo
man that made tho young belle's admirers
swear it was witchcraft that so enthralled
them. Yes, there was no disputing the
fact ; Lettie Montgomery was very fair,
nay, more than fair, she was beautiful. It
was no matter of wonder that Desmond,
with his aitist fancy, should love her.
For three years, Miss Vernon had .been
the belle of her set. She was an orphan
heiress, residing with her father's widowed
sister, a woman of ' fashion and influence,
whose ruling ambition was to see her niece
well settled in life. Mr. Desmond suited
her, as far as personal attractions were
concerned, but iu the way of property he
fell far short of Mrs. Marlowe's require
ments.1 .... t
But Argeline was of ago, and had, be
sides, a will of her own, and would brook
no interference, so Mrs. Marlowe had been
obliged to hold her peace. Now, that the
thing was all over.the lady secretly rejoiced
at Philip's falsity ; especially as Argeline,
seeing the condition of things, had given
him a dittmlt.Mi1, even before ho had durcd
to think of asking it. .
- It was very hard for tho girl to bhsak off
this connection. As ono knows, who has
. been through it like trial, how these ties of
daily companionship and love wind around
oar hearts. No one knows how it hurts to
sever them rudely, and take home to us
the cold fact that What has been so sweet,
can never be again 1 that all the . pleasant
hours, when heaven seemed to bo drawing
riiirh to earth, are gone forever : aud that
henceforth we must go on to the end, lack,
ing something ; knowing and feeling al
ways, that we have lost some sweetness
And glory out of life that can never return.
There was a great struggle in Argeline'i
soul she had nearly lost faith in creation,
because of this unstable Philip Desmond-"-
but after the first bitter disappointment,
better thoughts came back.
' Two week after sho had broken with
him, she saw a phase iu his character,
hitherto concealed, that made her thank
God devoutly that she had been saved from
booming his. i ,
She was walking in Broad street one
. morning, when a light phaeton drew up
at the door of it shop near her. 1 Philip
' sprang out and assisted Miss Montgomery
to alight. Just then, a tattered UUla
begger girl laid her hand 'on the dainty,
trailing silk robe of the lady.. - , '. ,
" Charity, sweet lady I for the love of
heaven, charity 1" said the thin, dead
voice.
Mlsa Montgomery -swept rudely on, the
hild still clinging to her garments.
Only a few cents, lady ! My mother
is sick and hungry ?"
" Begono, you little brat 1" cried Philip,
"or I will have you placed in the hands of
the police !'
" Please, sir, my mother "
" O yes, tho old story 1" and he struck
the feeble arms clasping the end of Miss
Montgomery' rich sables, with his whip.
The child's face crimsoned she drew off
a little distance, and looked at him with
wondering surprise.
Argeline sprang forward, and laid her
hand on the shoulder of the beggar.
" I will go home "with you, my child,"
she said, "and see your mother."
The littlo girl without a word, lod the
way ; and Argeline followed. The young
belle had never set foot in that part of the
city before, but she unhesitatingly followed
the lead of her conductor.
The room into which sha was ushered
was low and meagre ; the utmost poverty
reigned over the whole place. It was,
indeed, as Philip had said, the old story.
A woman widowed, poor, with only this
littlo Edith ; bIio had tried to support her
self by sewing, but close application had
ruined her health, and now she was too
near death to care for aught belonging to
the world.
Argeline sat by hor, listening to the
plaintive story, while Edith, with the
money their visitor had given her, weut out
to buy fuel and food, Sho- returned in a
littlo whilo, but no Are could ever warm
that white, cold woman again ! for Mary
Ashe, all suffering was ended I "
Argeline took Edith home with her, and
after she knew her better, sho decided to
keep her always. She was already thirteen
years of age, and thanks to the careful
teachings of her mother, she was advanced
far beyond the generality of girls at that
age. .
She now was sent to school, and neither
pains nor expense was spared to perfect
her education. Under the influence of
kindness, Edith's dark face grew positively
handsome. The great, black eyes lost their
frightened appealing expression the sunk
en cheeks glowed with faint crimson, and
the mass of neglected hair foil into heavy
curls, that were the delight and admiration
of the whole school.
Argeline still held her old place in so
ciety, and many were the suiters who laid
their fortunes at her feet. She rejected
them all. She had been deceived once, by
one -she thought faultless, and she was sat
isfied to let all these pass from her thoughts.
She said she should never marry ; she
should find enough in Edith to satisfy all
her woman's craving after love. '
A year and more passed. Spring was
just opening.. Philip and Miss Montgom
ery had gone to Europe with a paity of
friends. They were to be married in Paris.
Argeline read the notice of the wedding a
grand affair at the American Legation
without a thrill. Then she knew she had
overcome all tenderness for the banished
past.
In May, tlieie came a great shock for
Argcllue. Veinon. Most women would
have wept and stormed over it sho only
sat quietly down to think. ,
A financial crisis was upon the country,
and taking advantage of the general con
fusion, Elkins, the banker with whom
Argoliue'a funds were deposited, had em
bezzlcd everything he could lay hands on,
and fled the country! There was no help
for it the shrewdest dotectivtea failed to
obtain trace of him he had escaped and
left nothing behind.
Though not absolutely penniless, Miss
Vernon had not enough left to warrant hor
continuing in idleness, eveu had she been
thus disposed. From the first, she knew
she mustVork she, who had never even
dressed her own hair I
tier aunt was almost frantio at tho change,
and sought with all her power to dissuade
Argeline from going out to earn her living.
She should be welcome to remain with her
as long as she chose, aud Edith could go to
the orphan asylum. . .
. Argeline made all her arrangements
quietly. Inclination pointed her to the
country be looked to the green bills,
and fresh, free breezes that she knew swept
the New Hampshire meadows into billowy
seas of clover, in the sweet month of June,
At just the right time, a local paper full
into her hands. She could never regard it
other than a special providence. It con
tallied au advertisement of the school com
mittee of' Kllwood a village fifty ' miles
away. They wanted a young lady "of ed
ucation and respectability," so ran the
notice, " to take charge of a school of fifty
scholars, situated in the beautiful aud sa
lubrious village of Ellwood, on the western
boarders of Lake Winniplseogoe."
The very thing ! Argeline answered the
advertisement immediately, and in less
than a week she had the reply of the com
mittee. She might come out to Ellwood,
if mutually pleased, she could enter upon
her duties at once. She could come to the
house of Esquire Dracut, where the teachers
always boarded.
She packed up her wardrobe, took Edith,
aud went to Ellwood. The place disap
pointed ber most agtoeably. One might
travel hundreds of miles, and not come
across so attractive a spot as the quiet val
ley in which Ellwood was situated.
Esquire Dracut met her at the depot, and
carried her home with him, in the super
annuated, bellows-toppod chaise. The
Dracut farm-house was a gem, she thought,
as they wound slowly up to tho broad porch
through a green lane of sycamore trees.
If was set down in the middle of a great
field old, rambling and roomy surround
ed by trees a century old ; and command
ing from its windows the most delightful
view in the world. The blue, hazy hills
stretching away into the distance, pile
upon pile ; the unruffled lake, mirroring
every tree and shrub with life-like ac
curacy; the dense forest of maple and beech
clad in their young green O, it was beau
tiful to Argeline ; and to Edith, the city
child, who had never seen a field larger
than the dusty park, it was like a glimpse
into paradise.
Mrs. Dracut was just tho woman one
likes to see the mistress of a farmhouse.
Robust, ruddy, active, cheerful she made
her guests at home without ceremony.
The school would begin tho ensuing
Monday, if Argeline , passed the examin
ation. .She did pass it, so splendidly that
old Deacon Grimes rubbed his hands, and
declared that she must have managed to
smuggle herself through Dartmouth. The
old man had a prevailing belief that no one
ever achieved eminence unless he bad been
graduated at his own Alma Mater.
The school was new business to tho
young teacher. It was her very first at
tempt to apply herself to work, and it came
hard, but she bad brought to it a bravo
heart, and a determination to succeed.
She did well. The scholars liked her;
she pleasod their parents. She was solicited
to take charge of the fall term, and gladly
accepted the offer. Sho liked Ellwood
Edith could keep on with her . studies the
same as though she were in the city, and
the country air made such a beautful girl
of her !
The term closed with an examination,
and among the strangers present, Argeline
saw a face that interested her strangely.
She did not inquire to whom it belonged ;
it was not like her, but she heard George
Pbolps, the medical student, address him
as Mr. Ashcroft.
So the palo-faced, dark-haired man, with
the singular expressive eyes, and smile of
womanly sweetness, was Eugene Ashcroft,
the master of Ashcroft Hall. Argeline
passed the grounds of this fine old mansion
every day on her way to school, and more
than once sho had stolen a blood-red rose
from the profusion of vines, that had crept
over the high fence to bilghteu the dusty
road.
She had hoard a great deal of Mr. Ash
croft since she had come to Ellwood. He
had been absent in New York through tho
summer ; now he had come home to oversee
the harvesters. Is thore a country village
under the sun which has not its celebrity ?
its own particular groat man? Of course
not. And Ellwood was no exception, for
it claimed Eugene Ashcroft.
Argeline board his praises rung, and his
faults chronicled by every young lady
whom she had met they said he was hand
some, wealthy aud very self-oonceited.
Women have a way of flattering men till
they fill them with self-concolt, and then
blame them for it.
Mr. Ashcroft was naturally noble-hearted
but flattery, and the world's fame had
tarnished the fine gold of bis character, and
given him, perhaps, too exalted au idea of
his own attractions. ,
Argeline could not help thinking of him
that night; seldom bad she been more in
terested. She was obliged to confess the
humiliating" truth that she thought of him
so deeply as to dream -of blm when she
weut to sleep, and remembored the very ex
pression of his eyes the first thing when
sha awoke In the morning.
A week afterwards, there was a pkmlo
in Harvey's woods. ArgeVine waa rather
late. John Dracut, the eldest son of the
'squire, drove her over. The party had
straggled off, some in one direction, and
some In another.; 'John went to 'find some
friends of Argeline, and she sat down be
hind a clump of trees to wait their coming.
The fragrance of a cigar warned her of
some gentlemau'i propinquity, and at the
same time she heard George Phelps pro
nouncing her own name. .
" Argeline Vernon rather a romautio
cognomen for a school-mistress, isn't it ?
There is another lady added to your train,
Ashcroft."
"Thank you," replied a rich-toned,
careless voice, languidly, " I have no pen
chant for school-mistresses. . All that I
ever knew were , lean, snuffy, . wore cork
screw curls, and had been just twenty-five
for the previous twenty years. . Excuse me,
if you please." ' . , ., .
" Wait till you see Miss Vernon. She is
young, beautiful and has been a great heir
essalso a belle."
"O, of course. A princess in disguise,
no doubt.
"Miss Vernon is a lady you will admit
that when she comes."
" Don't get enthusiastic, Phelps; most
likely she's seeking a husband, and it would
hardly be safe to be too much exercised on
the subject of her attractions."
The twain sauntered away. Argeline
was high-tempered and proud. , She was
cut to the quick by the unmeaning insolence
of this Eugene Ashcroft. Ho had no right,
she said, to judge her thus, having never
seen her; and when a half hour after he
came up with Mr. Phelps, she was cold as
an iceberg. . Aslicroft's manner was def
erential enough now, as his friend presen
ted him.
"Mr. Ashcroft, Miss Vernon."
Bbo swept his person with her calm,
proud eye, and bowed slightly.
" AVill you take my arm for the prome
nade?" he asked, courteously.
" Thank you, I am engaged.
"I regret it, but if you will dance the
first set with me, the disappointment? will
not be so great." .
" I have not decided to dance."
He looked a littlo disconcerted, butquick
ly recovered . himself. Ho had a cluster of
scarlet cardinal flowers in his band. He
offered them to her with some' gallant
speech.
" Excuse me I do not like them. They
burn mo."
John Dracut came back and led her
away. Ashcroft looked after her in silent
surprise. A farmor's clod-hopper boy pre
ferrod before him ! The thing was iucom
prehensible.
Through tho day, Mr. Ashcroft made
numerous attempts to enter into conversa
tion with Argeline, but all to no effect.
She avoided him persistently. And this
very avoidance only made him the more
eager to know her better. Surely the wo
man who bad independence enough to turn
away from his admiration, to the society
of a bashful, country clown, must have
something original about her, worth oul
tivating.
After that, they met frequently. Arge
line was Invariably cold Ashoroft silent,
reserved,- though always courteous. He
became the best of friends with Edith.
They had taken to each other from the
very first. He brought her books aud
fruits and flowers; took her- out walking
and riding, and taught her the barbarous
Russian language, which he had acquired
during a ten years' residence in that in
hospitable clime.
' One day, Argeline was returning from a
walk to Frinton a village four miles dis
tant. It began to grow dark suddenly, and
she saw the top of a dense thunder-cloud
looking over the mountain. She hurried
lier steps, the oloud opened, the thunder
reverberated among the hills, and the wind
began to arouse the forest. '
Ashcroft was the nearest house, but she
would not seek shelter there not if she
were drenched. A quick rumble of wheels
behind her crossed the bridge over the
brook, and in a moment batted at her side.
Mr, Ashcroft stepped from tfie ohalse. .
" It is going to ram, Hiss Vernon let
mo assist yon In I" . !
She would - have restoted, but be did not
stop for ber remonstrances. He was seated
beside ber, and urging on bis horse be
fore she got breath to speak. The rain
began to fall heavily he turned into the
avenue leading to the hall she touched his
arm. . . "i.- - ,
"I will cet out here, if you please, ' I do
not wish to go in.' , 1
Co pointed to a huge ash tree a littlo in
front of them, that a fierce thunder-bolt
had riven from top to root. , 1
" I mn sorry to force my hospitality npon
you, but there if no other way. You must
oome iu." ,
fie stopped at the hall door, and lifting
her out, Ushered ber into the sitting-room.
While he was gone to find the hostler, Ar
goline opened one of the low, French win- -dows,
and stepping out on the terrace,
crossed the lawn, and then the meadows,
reaching the Dracut farmhouse in a few
minutes, drenched to the skin. ' ' ' '
Mr. Ashcroft called that evening to ask
Edith to rido to Lily Pond with him, the
next morning. He made no allusion what
ever to Argeline's escapade, and sho occu
pied herself with a book while ho remain
ed. Edith went out on the piazza with
him. He put a shawl around her. his arm
with it; ' she rested her head on his arm,
and they talked in subdued voices.' Edith
was fourteen now, and royally beaatiful.
Argeline saw them, and wondered from
whence arose the sharp pain at her heart.
She dashed down the window and went up
to bed.
Late in October, she waa walking with
Edith on the shore of the lake. It waa
near Bunset, and everything was wrapped
in a glory of crimson and gold. Great piled
of amber clouds reclined against tho bosom
of the west, and a light breeze swept down
from Mount Belknap, ruffling the water
into tiny ripples, and stirring weirdly in
the forest branches.
Argeline sat down on a great rock, and
gazed out listlessly over tho blue sheet of
water. Edith untied a little boat that float
ed near, aud stepped into it. She bent hot
head, letting hor heavy curls trail along in
the water, qs the little craft with almost
imperceptible motion receded from tho
shore. ' ,
Argeline looked up with something like
alarm in her face.
" Como back, quick, Edith !" she cried
" use the oars you will upset that frail
shell if you go further out where there is a
current" ...
The beautiful child arose quickly to seixo
the oars the boat careened in another in
stant she was in the water, and before she
could utter a singlo cry, it had closed over
her. Argclino sprang forward she would
have lost her own life in the vain attempt
at recovering Edith but a strong hand
forced her back.
" Remain whero you are," said Engene
Ashcroft, "I will attend to Edith."
She closed her eyes, and sat down.
Strangely enough, after she had heard his
voice, she felt no more fear. A moment
afterwards, she had Edith in her arms,
pale, cold and wet as she was. ; Ashcroft
stood by, silently regarding them'. He held
out his hand to Argeline.
" Will you touch my hand now, Miss
Vernon?"
The fingers she extended were locked np
in his firm clasp. He held her thus all the
way to the house. Edith went in, and left
them together at the door. Their eyes
met. Something Argeline saw in his that
made tho crimson come to her'very tem
ples. She tore her hand away, and left
him without a word. ''
The first week In November, there canio
a tcrrlblo rain-storm. Dwellers In sea.
coast towns can hardly form any idea of
what a "freshet" is like in one of tho
mountain valloys. The little streams
swelled to mighty rivers, and weut tumb
ling, snow-white into tho lake low lands
were inundated roads submerged and
bridges swept away.
Just below Ashoroft Hall, the road cross
ed a violent little stream known as Thun
der Run, on a bridge more than twenty
feet from its bed; but in times of great
rains, this brook frequently rose to an un
precedented height sometimes taking off
the very planking itself.
Towards sunset, the rain having ceased,
Argeline threw on her shawl, and went out
through' the wet grass to seethe water
foam over the rocks. It was quite, along
walk to the bridge, and she followed the
course of the stream, thus increasing the
distance by, at least, one-half, It began
to grow dark, early night was coming on.
She quickened her stops, and reached the -bridge.
The water roared madly through
the narrow gorgo, overflowing the banks in
some places, and, casting the spray, cold
and drenching,' over the figure of Argeline.
She weut nearer good heaven ! the cover
ing of the bridge was gone ! only the two
"stringers" remained ! . i
: The water had fallen a little, evidently;
it was not entirely up to the timbers, now;
but some time during the afternoon it bad
been above them. She stood a moment,
looking at the ruin, then turned to go home
but lightning-like a thought flashed through
her briln that rooted ber to the spot, - She
had heard Edith say that Mr, Ashoroft had
ridden . horse-back to Frinton, and would
return that very night, sometlmo before
nine o'clock) He must be near there then,
CONCLUDED ON SECOND PAOB.