Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1888 — THE LOVE TEST. [ARTICLE]

THE LOVE TEST.

"When you write wish me joy of my' engagement.” The young lawyer looked up from the book he was reading and shook his head gravely at his friend. "I can’t, Dick, because I think Helen Carleton a cold, heartless flirt, who h only after your money.” "Why, Herman Fenton, she would take me if I didn’t have a cent, and only cling more closely for my poverty,” cried the other with enthusiasm. "And would you like to make a test ol this?” "How?” "Every one knows that your fathei had something in the bank that failed. They didn’t know that it was only i small amount Why can’t you make Miss Carleton believe that it was all you haa?" "I’ll do it if only to prove how you have misjudged her,” said Dick, and so the two friends parted. "Isn’t it perfectly splendid, mamma?’' And Helen Carleton held up exultantly the white hand, from which a costly diamond flashed like a dew-drop in the sun. Mrs. Carleton surveyed it with a coolly critical look, and yet one that expressed full as much satisfaction. "He can well afford it.” “It has always been the first wish ol my heart,” continued Mrs. Carleton, re garding the lovely face opposite her with an air of mingled pride and complacency, "that you should make a brilliant marriage, and I must say that I am very well pleased with your choice.” ; "Yes, Richard is all right, so far as money and position are concerned, but he has some horrible old-fashioned notions about marriage; talks as if he expected me to settle down at home, and make his convenience and happiness the chief end and aim of my life. Did you ever hear ol anything so ridiculous?” "Men get very foolish notions into their heads sometimes. Richard will see the folly of this in due time; only be careful not to disenchant him too soon.” “I’ll take care of that.”

As Helen said this she opened a lettei that was just handed her, uttering a little shriek as she made herself mistress of its contents. “Goodness me I mamma, it’s from Richard, who says that he has lost every cent that his father left him by the failure of a bank! Isn’t it shocking?’’ "Very shocking for him," said Mrs. Carleton, after a careful reading of the letter alluded to, “but only think, my love, what a lucky escape for you! Supposing it had happened a few weeks hence? It makes me shudder to think oi it.” 1 ; '3 The wily woman surveyed her daughter narrowly as she said this, across smooth brow a shadow had fallen. “I rather liked Richard, mamma; blit I, suppose it is of no use to think of marry-!| ing how. I should make the poorest kind of spoor man’s wife." * ‘That you would. Nor have I spent all that I have on your education to be willing that you should be one. It is not to be thought of." “The poor, foolish fellow speaks as though he thought it would make no difference.” “You had better write at once and dis abuse his mind of that idea; it is so much easier saying such things by letter, you know." On a sheet of rose-colored, perfumed paper, and in the delicate chirography that her lover had admired so often, Helen traced the following lines: “Dear Mr. Bronson: I was very sorry to hear of your misfortunes—sorry for my sake as well as yours. “I showed your letter to mamma, and she is of the opinion that it would be the height of folly and imprudence for us to think of marrying now, with which I am forced, though very reluctantly, to agree. My tastes, my feelings, and habits entirely unfit me to be the wife of a man of limited means, who has his own fortune to make. To such I should only be a hindrance and a drag, as I' am sure you will have the good sense to perceive. ‘ ‘But I shall ever hold you in the highest esteem, and be, what 1 subscribe myself, your friend. Helen Cableton.’’ We will not attempt to describe Richard’s awful feelings as he read this heartless note. But in the years that followed, when seated by the wife whose worth became more apparent to him year by vear, and surrounded by the children by which their love had been crowned and perfected he looked backed upon it as the most fortunate event of his life. We will leave the reader to imagine Helen Carleton’s chagrin and mortification when she learned that the few hundreds Richard had in the broken bank were a trifle compared to the wealth that was still his. Still hunting for a rich husband, she stands a small chance of getting any. With the beauty fading that was her only charm, the men fight shy of her, it being the general opinion that she would not only “make the poorest kind of a wife fer a poor man," but for any one.