Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 28, Number 33, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 August 1879 — Page 7

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, .... .... : , . j . v - 't 'While straying once o'er verdant mead, ! ' 'Mid springtime bloom and scented air. Too late I saw my careless tread - . . ( . Had rudely crushed a li( fair. t softly raised the drooping head, Gazed in the mangled, weeping face " That still Cr lightful odor shed, - -Though tone were life and beauty's trace. Mow ma4y flowers in life's deep vale , Must share that lily's hapless fate Bweet forms that virtue's breath exhale -, When crushed by woe and lealous hate! ( And virtue is no empty name ;' ' -' ' " ' It lives makes beautiful our sod : Then soars, unchanged by grief or blame, Back, to its native home to God. Kind sister, loving wife, sweet bride . Whose hearts ingratitude has riven. Tour strength is duty's noble pride; Ye toil, and strive, and hope in Heaven! , ricardaTT

(Mary A. E. Wager-Fisher, ia Appleton'a Journal.

Some days following the installation of the three friends in their country cottage, where they lived more out than in-door, Ricarda, who had been wanting to discuss her future to be and to do with her father and Dick, had the way for so doing paved by the latter in an account he had been giving them, during their out-door breakfasting, of the work being done among the working classes by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. ' ' "She is not, personally, a very attractive woman, I believe," observed James. "On the contrary, quite fine-looking now," replied Lane. "I nave been told that she

was ugly in her youth, but she seems to have been growing in'grace ever since." "That comes from having a career from having good work to do," exclaimed Ricarda. "I believe mental activity is as essential to

the highest type of physical beauty as are

pure water and fresh air. indeed, l nave a theorv that, if the activity be of the right sort,

it can develop beauty out of ugliness; for which T could cite more illustrations than

that of the financial queen of the world

"What would be the result, think you, if I were to be papa's professional partner, arid

"become a Great Chemist spelled with capital letters or a a successor of Faraday?" T think." laughed her father, "the result

might be the transformation of a woman

into a magnetic needle." "Or a pillar of salt," added Dick.

"But, seriously," interposed Ricarda, "grant e an honest opinion. I well . remember a talk we had before I went to college, when Uncle Dick told me I would there learn what, as a young lady, it was to be and to do, .and papa said it was to love her father.

to be his help, consolation, joy. Since then I have discussed a hundred times in mv own mind in what wav or ways she

could best be and do that, or, if there was but one way, what was it, what is it? I am young

and strong; I have had advantages to prenare me for work as men have;. I remember

too much of Uncle Dick's theorizing con

rornin" women not to be. in a sense, his dis

ciple; to feel an impulse pushing me toward his goal. I realize, too, that to be a woman like Professor Mitchell is to write one's name in the stars: and to be a domestic deity like

my 500 good sisters is to write it in the heart of "a man, which, according to sacred authori-

-Is deceitful above all things," concluded

Dick, with gravity, which elicited a merry

round of laughter. - . -

"And desperately wicked," added Ricarda, with mock solemnity.

"Has that been your experience in finding

it so. mv child?" asked her father.

"Oh, no; no, papa," she quickly replied. -"I find men everybody very good and kind, judring from what St. Paul gives as a standard:" ' ' v. . . "Are vou an admirer of St. Paul?" asked

Lane, secretly wishing to lead the conversation into a different channel. ,

"Yes and no. He uttered many strong and

true thoughts, and was aflame with zeal for what he held to be the truth. . But he seems

never to have risen above bigotry and nar

rowness m regard to women, which might readilv enough be excusable on various

grounds, save that he was so much indebted to

them. Indeed, from some source, it has been

made to appear that he was financially kept afloat for a long time by the merchant Lydia,

who was in a small way a sort of Kadijah to

-this Mohammed ,of Chistianity. I ou see, Uncle Dick," she continued, half mirthfully,

"it is but another illustration of your old time

assertion, that, if a woman exerts herself in

anybody's behalf, it is for a man."

"To help man seex te her destiny," observed her father. ? "And by no means an objectionable des

tiny, papa. He needs the help badly enough,

.she exclaimed, laughingly. "The only crit

icism I have to oner in regard to it is that he wants her to give it to him in his way, in

stead ef being pleased to hare her give it to him in her own way. And this brings me again to the question of my destiny of what

. mv future is to be. Don't both speak at

once," she gayly concluded, as a pause intervened. -.

"Are you really in earnest, Ricarda," asked

her father, "about having a career .. "I am in earnest as to what I shall do with

my head, my beart,my hands, and my time.. If

1 were a man instead ot a woman, i coma be no more so. I've a horror of rusting out, and a

.still worse one of wearing myself out in fash

ionable frivolity. 1 don t know that I have

any special talent for special work. I do

know that I am in the world, that I am selfish enough to wish to make the very moat of my life, and that I have a right to the

honest counsel and advice of my two best

friends in the matter. I am open to convic

tion from Europe and America, she archly

-concluded. ,.

"You see Dick, smiled James, after a

pause, "the fruit of your heresies. Here

have a young lady on our hands who, having been fed on the progressive ideas of the nineteenth century, now asks what shall be

done with her."

"While you were in college," spoke Dick,

looking dreamingly in the distonce, "and this Question of what your 'duty might be

came into your mind, how did you dispose of

, it?" . ... .... . . , - "I didn't dispose of it at all. I simply

aid to nivsetf, 'This is a matter I can , not decide. 1 will let time and circumstances determine it for me.' " v-..-. "Very well, let them still be the arbiters of your destiny. You can afford to wait for a signal of some sort, or, as a theological student would say, for a "call from the Lord ' " "Is that the way young men do' after leaving college, Uncle Dick? Sit down and : -wait, like Slicawber, for something to turn np? Expecting some fine evening to see written in great letters in the sky their ' name and destined occupation?" "Yes, some do . about that. But what a voung man does need be no guide for you. If a woman have finer instincts, she should wait with firmer faith for intuitive guidance, "and depend less upon the bias of ambition and preference." - - "That's a pretty fallacy," she laughed in reiilv. "I wish you and papa decided as

arbitrarily about my future as you did in the

past about what I should eat, what I should read, and wherwithal I should be clothed.

It would save me a great deal of trouble.

After alL" and her voice had a shade of sadness in it "after all, I begin to Jearn that is

the deep "and vital thihgslof Hfe ' eyjeyy human soul most decide for itself. - '.'J .

"True, my child," chimed in her father,

rising; "but, for the nonce, let us all be as butterflies for the rest of the day, and take

no thought for the morrow. There is a wood

a half mile away, and I propose that we go and investigate it. Ask Margredel to put us up a luncheon, and we will camp out, as in years gone by, when Ricarda was in short dresses." .......

The daughter hastened to execute her

father's wish, and then sped to her room to array herself for the expedition. At the end

of a quarter of an hour she reappeared im the

farden in a short walking-dress, a widerimmed straw hat,' thick boots, and gloves.

"Here s the short dress still, she exclaim

ed. "Let us play that all these years have been an illusory bugbear, that I am little Sister Ricarda, that Uncle Dick is teaching

me botanv. and papa stuffing my brains with

chalk formations and the chemistry of nature. But who's to be the Atlas of the lunchbasket?". ' ... .- ,.- '.

As Margredel approached with the

luncheon, Dick speedily appropriated it, and the trio sallied forth, Ricarda and her father

walking hand in hand, small school-boy and school-girl fashion. , - .

The day in the woods was but one out of

many passed in like recreation walking, riding, sitting in the garden, and on rainy ones the father and Lane making business visits to the city, while Ricarda busied her

self with reading, correspondence, and household affairs. -. (

Upon returning from one of these rainy-

day excursions, "and the. three friends being convened about the dinner-table. Lane an

nounced with unusual vivacity that he had an idea, ;

"And what Is it?" asked Ricarda. "An

idea in the heat of August is an anomaly."

You remember, Ricarda, he went on,

hurriedly, "asking me, the morning we

were discussing your future, it young men did so and so after leaving college? Well, I was i Wall street to-dav, when a quartet

of young fellows just out of college came to

tne bank lor letters of credit. lney were going abroad for a year's travel before begining the study of a profession. 'That's

just the thing for Ricarda to do,' I thought,

and 1 ve come home a powerful committee

of ways and means, whereby you shall both

return with me, the last of next:m . to

England,"

And you would have Ricarda do as

young men do, after all?" smiled her father,

" 1 es, in this respect, it is tne only tning

with all my thinking that I see clearly she

should do. I feel as decided about it as I did that she should go to college. And I

feel equally sure that at the end of a year she will see her path of duty and work marked out as clearly as we see the milky way on a clear night. And Dick went rapturously

on enumerating the various reasons why a trip of that kind would be the very bestttiing for both father and daughter. Ricarda listened silentlv until well on toward the close

of the dinner, when Lane asked her what she thought of the idea.

"I like it," she replied, emphatically.

"But papa may not find it practicable."

However, after the lapse ot some days, it

was found to be a feasible plan,

and thenceforward their occupations

were shaped in reference to it.

During these weeks of reunion, the feelings that had been born in the mind of Lane upon his first meeting with Ricarda had grown and strengthened with each succeeding day, until he now felt himself wound up in them as in

a web. No other woman had ever affected him as did she, and when he endeavored to analyze his feelings, and in turn tried to convince himself that the reason why she was such a source of exquisite and tender delight

to him was because she had been like his

child, his little sister, from her babyhood

like a plant that one has lovingly cared for, watching with interest its every budding shoot, enjoying the rain and the sun doubly

for its sake, feeling with pleasure all the soft and balmy influences that conduce to its growth, and then, at the last, enjoying all the past again a hundred-fold over in the beauty of its blossoming. Was it not in a like way he enjoyed Ricarda? Was she not simply the completed picture that had been but an outlined sketch when he went away? the full

splendor of toe aurora, whose radiance had but just begun to shimmer about her head in those seasons agone, when he had bid her good-bye? Was it not for such reasons as

these, he argued, tout he had come to ask

hunseli a score ot times a any, W hat was

life, his future, to be to him henceforth without her?" But, despising shame in himself

as thoroughly as he did in others, he had the

courage to say no. His feelings were not the

outgrowth of such conditions. Had he met this girl for the first time in his life, he felt sure that she would have enthralled and de

lighted him in the same way. And if he only had met her for the first time! Ah! then had he been tree to translate his thoughts into their true language, and to go to her in all reverence and noble faith, saying, "1 love thee, and have need of thee;" for, with Plato, he believed that "we love by necessary law" that which has a natural infinity to us; so that the real genuine lover may be certain of a return of affection from the beloved? But now, with the history and associations of the past before him, blocking his way like a sacred shield, what could he do but keep silence, and let all the violence of the situation turn back like a flood upon his own heart? Then, too, like an array of merry, mocking imps, arose one by one his thousand and one talks with James,and could he in the face of these ask his friend to give him his child, the only help, joy, consolation, love, that life held for him; to be him

self, after all, the man in ambush to impropriate this perfect woman, if such appropriation were possible? While he could not bring himself to say yes to these questions, he was equally powerless to say no. . He would wait, and meantime, above all other hopes, the one to have his' friend and Ricarda return with him to. England dominated all else. . He felt that his salvation lay in it. , One day, as he was thinking of what was now at all moments uppermost, the thought arose in his mind, defining itself with statuesque clearness: "Would what you can give Ricarda compensate her for what you would demand of her? Would not the answer to

your wishes on her part involve self-sacrifice on hers?" Even with his keen sense of justice, this' phase of the matter had not before pre

sented itself to him, and tbat it bad not now

seemed to him to denote some obliquity or

obscuration of his moral, sense. "On, conceited, selfish mortal that lam!" he mentally

ejaculated. , "To follow the impulse of my feelings would be to act as if I were worthy of immediate translation to Heaven, or, what

would be better, to have Heaven in human form divine inclosing all Heaven's sweetness and grace for my earthly portion." Then, again, and for the most part he felt that even for Ricarda herself no shelter could be so secure, no haven so free from storms and billows, as the encompassing precinct of his

love. "And why do I think that?" he would ask, "Have not men from all time thought aad felt the same thing, and from all time, and through all time, made the reality oftentimes so bitterly different? Am I better, stronger and juster, than my fellows? Would my love possess the generosity to be content in having Ricarda give me help as she says in her way, whatever that way might be, instead of desiring to circumscribe it, to bend it to suit my way? In other words, will. I think

more of contributing to her happiness," her aims in life, her ambitions and desires, than in having her as some devoted reflection consecrate all herself to me and mine!" . . He distinctly remembered what James had often said, "Wait until you have learned the lesson of love, when all things will look differently to you.'' This experience had now come to him, was coming to him 'more and more every hour. , He recognized the difference without being able to explain to his own satisfaction why, with the incoming of love, which should endow every emotion and impulse with increased magnanimity, there should be awakened a corresponding jealousy and selfishness, a desire for close and unique possession. . r - With Ricarda, the delight of having Uncle Dick at home again knew no abatement; although what she - at first termed delight gradually changed to another feeling, which she knew not so well how to define. But, as women arrive at conclusions more quickly than men, because hampered with less innate stubborn self-righteousness, currency known as logic, she very soon acknowledge! to herself - that this strange, new interest and sympathy which her life-long friend aroused in her was love itself, or the mysterious power that was perparing her heart for its assumption. With this concession or recognition once yielded to, she fully believed that she had only herself to think of, entertaining for no moment the possible

thought that a feeling akin to her own had or could take lodgment in the heart of Richard

Lane. - - ''- '

"At the very best," she argued, "he would

be disappointed and ashamed of me, if he

knew or even suspected that I loved him

otherwise than as Uncle Dick. He would

think, if he did not say it, 'I hoped better

things from vou. Ricarda.' " So she quickly

and firmly resolved that his expectation of

better things should not fail of realization be

cause of lack of effort and will on her part.

Anchored to this resolve, she turned for sup

port to the thought of her life-work, keeping its purpose constantly in her mind, and, to

strengthen and aid it, resolved to secure the

help of her father and friend in its undertak ing and achievement.

The arrangement to go abroad was full of

satisfaction to her.

"So long as I can be with Uncle Dick, I

shall feel my wings plumed for any height.

He stimulates me to my best, and if 1 am ever to touch the bottom of my life at any

one point, and rise to its extreme zenith at

the other, he is the one to help me to do it.'

The difference of a score or more of years between the ages of Lane and Ricarda seemed

in no wise to affect the equality of their

companionship. Lanes habits of lite, re

moved from all tendency to dissipation, had robbed him of none of the elasticity and

vigor of youth. No great sorrow had come upon him, as upon Mygiitt James, leaving him discrowned and bereft. But, most of alL

his affections had not been dissipated in unholy or frivolous channels, nor his heart withered by selfishness, leaving him as so

many unwedded men are left at two and 40,

but as sign-boards for the label, "God failed

on this animal."

"So long as I live." he had once said to

James, "I shall never be able to get away

from m vself. and this is reason enough why I

should keep myself as righteous and decent

as possible, in aoingtnis ne naa consciously, arid niavbe necessarily, incased himself in an

armor of reserve that led him to appear unsocial and distant to most persons, even brusque and opinionated; but with fcis friends,'

and especially with James, he poured out his feelings with the fullest freedom, and which

, , . , , . i . . : ..1 e

naa lea mm at one uuie to comj-rare nnusii

to a champagne-bottle, and his chum to a tire bouchon. "You uncork me, Jim," he laughed.

"and I bubble over until there is nothing left in my mind but dregs of humiliation at my

loouacity.

He felt the samo disposition to "talk him

self out" to Ricarda that he did to her father;

and now for the first time in his life he had

touched upon an experience about which he could talk with neither. ' This effort on the part of both to conceal

mutual feelings, each for the other, and at

the same time to conduct themselves toward

each other with their accustomed freedom and confidence, would have required more tact than either possessed, if each had not felt that the other was entirely unaffected by

unusual feelings. If Lane thought he detected a constraint in Ricarda's manner, he

attributed it to but a reflection of his own

conduct, and if she felt a change in him, she as readilv attributed it to her own fancies.

Of the three, the father alone perceived the

possible result of the relations between Ri

carda and his friend; and he felt, upon the whole, that, if his child could love bim, happiness could find no better security in human keeping than in the heart and hand of Richard Lane. But he also kept his thoughts to

himself; and so the weeks passed away with

out any special event, until the middle of

September had come. i

VI.

The day dawned cloudy and sultry, and, after the mid-day luncheon, Lane proposed

that they go for "a breath of air," to the top

of one of the hills that formed a range of

miniature mountains, nearly an hour's walk

distant to the northwest from the cottage.

This hill was the highest of the peaks, but, from the ease of its ascent and the wideveiw it afforded of the country for miles around.

had at one time been a favorite resort for a party of tourists who had spent a summer in the locality, and had erected on its summit a rude pavilion, which, having at the time been

thatched like the cottage of a x rencn peas

ant,- was now thickly overgrown with vines,

furnishing at once a picturesque monument in the midst of a few sturdy old trees, as well

as shelter from rain.

"I think, Dick," replied James, "that your

proposition is a remedy worse than the ill. I should lose what breath I have in climbing to that atmospheric Fisgah. Moreover, I think it will rain; the air is surcharged with electricity." , "Oh, then, let's go!" cried Ricarda. "There's no equal place within our reach for watching an electrical storm. ' If the rain descends, we'll hie to tho pavilion. . We have only to go armed cap a pie; in a 'Boston uniform.' Then, too, the mountain pinks must be making their final display for the season." -i "Ricarda is always ripe for adventure," replied the father, his eyes resting ' admiringly upon her. . "If she had been a man" .

. "Sbe would then have been nothing extraordinary," she laughing interrupted; "for men 'with pistol cocked and saber grt' roam the world around, and nobody minds it; but, if a woman is not frightened at a mouse, she is a prodigy of heroism, and a savante if she knows how to speil. But you and Mr. Richard Lane" (making a courtesy-to the latter) "spoiled me for tho typcial girl years ago, when you taught me to climb rocks and hills like a chamois, nd to love wild storms like an Alpine hunter. Come, papa and Uncle Dick.' . But papa begged to be excused, and Lane and Ricarda set off without him. "You are the only woman In the world who knows how to walk," remarked Lane, as they were rapidly approaching the hilL

: "You have walked with them all?" she

asked in mock astonishment.

""No, not quit"," laughed Lane; "but those I have- walked with kept me at a mincing, higgity-pgg y Pa(:. that made me feel like stretching out my arms,. inflating my lungs,

I don't think it looks well to see a man a

pace or two ahead of the woman with whom he is walking, who is generally his wife; yet

I confess to a feeling witn-him, for i couia

name no mora insufferable impatience than to be compelled to keep step for a lifetime with the majority of American and French

women. The .English walk mucn better, have more of the spring, equipoise and lightness that belong to natural healthful motion. And I tell you, Ricarda, nothing more inspires a man with the helpfulness of the

woman at his side, ana witn a sense oi ner

uplifting equality if I may so express it

than a Arm, light, well-reacning. step, mat accompanies his own like a higher octave in music It seems like an index to her - whole character; so when I walk with other women

I feel restricted and hampered. ' hen I walk with j'ou, I feel a sense of freedom and a lightness of motion even greater than when

1 walk alone.

"Thank you I That is the first compliment

you ever paid me, uncle uick. i tnmk somethiug must bo going to happen," and she glanced archly around.

"Something is going to happen! he ex

claimed, seizing her arm, and turning her about, "Look, how rapidly the storm is coming uj on usl That is an unusual phe

nomenon to see such a pnospnonc-iike ngnt haloing the hilltops, with darkness rising

from the valleys. As they hastened up to the pavilion, the low rumbling of thunder, that for some time they had heard in the

distance, came nearer and nearer, while an occasional gleam of lightning lit up the lowlying horizon like a fitful smile of Nature at the manifestation of her own power.

There! nous nous sommes sauves! ex

claimed Ricarda, as they finally reached shelter. Taking off her hat, she hung it on a projecting stick in the pavilion; then with

a quick motion pushed her waving hair back from her forehead, and turning to the wide doorway, stood with flushed cheeks and clasp

ed hands, rapturously gazing at the awe-

inspiring scene around her.

"Ibis was worth coming tor, U nele Hick,

she said at length. - "I do not know I may be all mistaken but I never see a manifestation of electricity in nature without think

ing that, in the realm of this strange and wonderful force, the greatest and most im

portant discoveries are within the coming half century to be made. Even with the

modicum of this power that men already control, how superhuman are their achieve

ments! If the gods are ever again jealous of the power of mortals it will be because of their ability to seize and utilize this sublime, mysterious presence that lurks all about us like a spark of heavenly fire. I can never

think of r ranklin, and r araday, and Jlorse, and their discoveries, without fairly holding

my breath. If I go into the laboratory with papa, I feel sure that my attention will all be absorbed in electricity. At Vassar, my mania for making electrical experiments was such as to win me the sobriquet of 'Electrical Eel'; and I have been" so fascinated with the science as sometimes to regard it as an augury of my fitness in its pursuance as a

study. Only to think, u ncie hick, if l should succeed in solving as vet unsolved electrical problems as in mathematics did

Marie-Gaetane-Agnesi !"

"That would be electrifying, to say the

least," smiled Lane, when a sudden and start

ling clap of thunder seemed to shake the ground under their feet, driving the color from Ricarda's cheeks and further talk out of her mind.

"That was very near us," said Lane, as he

observed the pallor of her face, which was

most iinusual in Ricarda. - He feared the

hurried ascent had been too great a tax upon her. ."The lightning must have struck not

far away, and you know," he added, with excessive exactness, as if to reassure her,

"that it never strikes twice in the same place."

Jiut a moment later, and it seemed to be

striking all about the hill-top; while the increasing darkness, forming a background like night, gave an awful intensity to the

fiery swiftness of the forks of lightning tnat flashed with zigzag outlines in the gloom,

like old bemitic characters the yet unread

hieroglyphics of the skies the language of electricity.- "This is too grand and awful

for mortal endurance, whispered Ricarda.

Then followed a lull in the thunder, and

the rain, which had been falling in large and

labored drops, suddenly came down in torrents, followed by a blinding flash, and a crash of splitting timbers that was qujckly

overpowered by terrifying bursts or thunder, and . a blocking up of the door-way of the pavilion by a riven limb of oak. . ; ' Unconsciously to himself, in unquestioning obedience to an all-powerful instinct of his nature, which ruled his action, as the hand is moved by the will. Lane had put his arm about Ricarda, holding her close to his side, as if to shield her from the lightning-st-okes, or some indefinable harm of the storm. Both had been too greatly affected by its intensity and terrific grandeur to realize the quick, strong and passionated enfolding of the one by the other. The moment had come to Lane when love had won the mastery over intention, and, borne out to the extreme limit

of his being by the overwhelming ' emotions of the past moments, had leaped into sudden freedom of expression, and now . seemed to confront him with a victorious sense of acquired liberty.': "... The pallor in Ricarda's face was still unabated, and, although she had borne the terror of the tempest bravely and unflinchingly, without uttering a cry, or making a movement of alarm, she was now unablo to suppress a tremor that made weakness of her strength, and which at the same time revealed to her the support she was receiving from Lane. As a recognition of this passed through her mind, she said, as if in apology for herself:. . ' .

"You never thought I was so weak. Uncle

Dick?" while a faint smile gleamed on her colorless lips. . . . .. ., ,

"What 1 have thought, Ricarda and

his voice had a strange, new sound in it,

which causad her to turn her head, and look

into bis face "what I have thought is of the past, Ricarda. I am weak, too; weaker than you think, and since these awful moments that I have just experienced my heart refuses

longer the violence of silence. 1 can not let you pass from my arms without telling you tbat I love you not as your 'Uncle Dick,' your life-long comrade and friend, but more, a thousand times more, as a man loves the

one woman in all the world whom he would

ll wife." -' f

' Lane's face was now paler than Ricarda's,

for a quick blush overspread hers, and she

made an attempt to free herself from his arm. - ' " " ' ' --v You are too. weak yet to stand alone, Ricarda," be said, "and there are no seats here. - But, from an innate sense of delicacy that had ever been one of the peculiar charms of his manliness,' he quickly broke into short lengths the boughs of the fallen limb before the door, shook the leaves free from the rain, piled them into a heap, and, after begging the loan of her cloak as upholstering for the rustic seat, proffered it to her with a playful attempt at his old-time gallantry. ' She gladly availed herself of it, and, sitting down, leaned her head, turned half in shadow, wearily against the side of the pavilion, and with closed eyes, and her hands clasped in her lap, spoke no word of reply to the avowal ' her friend had made. ! ; ; -

After asssunng himself of her comfort.

al if to free myself from some invisible fetter. Lane retreated a step or two, and stood, silent

and pale, with folded arms. - At length he looked out on the wreck caused by the storm. The oak-tree that the lightning had struck was cleft in twain at it roots, and its rugged, sturdy trunk shivered in countless threads. Something of the hush and desolation without was like the feeling of loss in his heart, as though the storm had swept away the final illusion of his life, but which left him with a feeling of freedom, like one who has parted with a burden- . Suddenly he heard her speak his name. . " 1 --.: . "Richard!" His heart leaped into his throat at the word, and he saw Ricarda's hand uplifted toward bim. -

"I think I am strong enough to ttand now," she - said, and he helped her to rise. She placed her hand on his shoulder, as if hot quite' sure of her strength, and, looking into his eyes with something of her old-time gleam of mirth, softened by what might readily be concentrated into tears, said: "Do yon think it would be very weak and silly in me to be appropriated by a man since I love him? "Can this be true, Ricarda?" he asked, his voice husky with emotion. . "I know you expected something better of me" (with arch reproachfulnes), "but it is true, nevertheless;' and a smile illumined her face. Lane folded her to his heart, and when again they looked in each other's eyes their love shown through tears. -

An hour later, as they were walking home- , ,-r. , , . it

wara, ana xucaraa was leaning on nis arm, instead of tripping lightly along unaided, as was her wont. Lane said, as if in remembrance of their talk in- ascending the hill: "That I am to have you to walk with me always, Ricarda, is to feel like having received an endowment of wings." "Like Mercury," she laughed. "That must be the latest achievement of electricity." As they n eared the cottage, Ricarda said: " I wonder what dear papa will say? We must never be separated from him." "I have thoughtof all these things, Ricarda; thought of them more times than vou could well believe. I think the papa will perhaps have much to say, but Ihope lie will notbedispleased. At all events, I think, with you, that we three should not be parted while we live." i ' t During the remainder of the walk Lane was busy thinking how - he should make known tne great event of the afternoon to James, which half seemed to him, at moments like a dream, so Strang and so beyond all

common earthly experiences it was, at least

to him. . The sky had partially cleared, and the sun, that had already gone down, had left a flame of color along the sky. - Ricarda's futher had for the last hour been sitting on the porch of 'the cottage, enjoying the revivified air, the freshened beauty of the landscape, and anxiously watching for the return of his daughter and Dick. Vhen he saw then slowly approaching. Ricarda leaning on her companion's arm, he felt an intuitive apprehension that something of unusual import had occurred, and he hastened to meet them. W hen they had come near enough for him to see that his daughter's face was pale: .

"You came very opportunely, papa, she

said, slipping her disengaged hand through his arm. "The storm was terrific on the summit an oak-tree near us was shattered by the lightning and I was shocked so tbat I lost my strength, and Uncle Dick has been obliged to half carry me home. But I am quite well again, papa." After a moment's pause, she quickly added, as if she had forgotten: "But he is to be 'Uncle Dick no more. I call him 'Richard' now." They had reached the porch, where Ricarda sank into a chair.' James looked from her pale buthappy face into that of his friend, as if seeking a solution to her conclud -. ing remark. ' ' ' "It means Jim," said Lane, extending his hand and frankly meeting his friend's eyes, "that old things have passed away and all things have become new; Ricarda has promised to become my wife, and we three, God

and you helping, will never more in life be separated." :-.. i ''.I James mechanically took the proffered

hand, but, soon relinquishing it, sat down by

Ricarda, taking her hand in one of his, while with the other he stroked her hair in caressing tenderness. Tears filled her eyes, and, rising, she tenderly embraced and kissed him, and then went to her room for dry raiment. . ., : - - James sat for some time in silence, looking as if at the western sky, and then , with a sly gleam of humor in bis eyes turned to Lane with ' . .s ? ' " . '' "What do you., want-of a wife, Dick? What has become of the man who if he loved a woman could not have the heart to ask her to marry him? O, Dick, to think that vou, too, along with ." Bridget " - and Patrick and the rest of the ' vulgar crowd, should do so common a thing as to marry! -1 expected something finer, higher, more , platonic : from, you and your

disciple. - ' i . ;.

. "Go on, Jim! exclaimed JJick, blushing and laughing, "you have only begun to enumerate things. They, rise before me with the distinctness of crimes in the mind of a drowning man, and are enough in numbers to make a rosary that would girdle the cottage." :. "Very well," laughed James in return, "the enumeration s needless, and you may give answer collectively." . , "That's quickly done," ejaculated Lane, folding his arms and leaning against a pillar of the porch. "The answer is, that I have learned the lesson years ago the one that love teaches.". - Lane's reply, although given with no intention of modifying the humor of his friend, quickly sobered him, recalling as it did his own love-life, so sweet, so precious, and so sadly brief. He sat, looking again on the western sky as if he saw in its fading hues the panorama of those broken-hearted days. Then ho heard Ricarda's step on the stairs, and rising he gave his hand to Lane, saying with tremulous voice: "God bless you Dick! May you know all the joy that was mine, and taste none of its sorrow." Turning, he embraced Ricarda, and the three went to dinner. - After what had been' won, Lane found himself confronted, in arranging for ' the future, with difference of opinions and inter

ests that greatly taxed his knowledge and patience. In all probability his business would require him to live abroad, mostly in London, while for James to cross the Atlantic for a permanent abode was like severing him from his own professional connections at a time of life when men claim that they thereafter no longer make friends. .And, above all, Ricarda, who felt an unwonted tenderness toward her father, opposed Rich

ard's wish for their immediate marriage. She thought it best to postpone it until the end of the year so that she could adhere to the original, plan of "doing Europe with papa." "I can not explain to you why, Richard," she said, in answer to his pleading, "but I feel that it will be a matter of regret to me in the future if I do not give papa all of this year. He seems to me less strong than usual; the journeying may do him good, and he deserves from me a thousand-fold more than I can ever give him. You can join us

for a few days at a time throughout the year, and, you know, after that, Richard, that all my life is to be spent with you, and you may fl nil 5t nnite enough." She eavlv concluded.

So it was inally arranged,to Richard's dis-

comflture, that the marriage should take place in London after the continental tour, and Jamee was to remain with' there- at least a year thereafter, he could spend that length of time to advantage in seeing what was being done in physical science in London. Further in the future than that they now felt it not worth while to make definite arrangements. '- . - - , ..;:.; - t . .i . When the year's sight-seeing with her father was over, and the two were back in London, Ricarda, who had been listening with amusement to Richard's account of the vexations to which foreigners was subjected in arranging the details of a legal marriage in France and England (their own to be solemnized at the American Legation on the following day), somewhat surprised the two men by turning the conversation upon the subject of her career. 1 "Through college, the continent crossedand through the matrimonial gate," which she archly emphasized, "it is then time, is it not, Richard, to begin one's work in earnest? You see, the question is still the same, papa, to be a young lady is to be what to do what? Here in England, where women think and do so mnch, I should not like to feel like a drone in the hive." --. "Marriage itself is a career, Ricarda," remarked her father.

"1 rue, papa; for man also, as for woman. Have you not told me that once upon a time Richard said that for a wife to poise her whole existence on love was to place herself at a disadvantage with her husband? It may be thnf t T ahraiM liAVA nn Unr, onhom in

which to grow, and no more active work to do, in being a helpmeet in its best sense to my lord, than to dote on him in his presence and pine for him in his absence, that I should right speedily become a Jerusalem cherrytree in a geranium-pot.7 At this recall of one of his long-ago speeches Richard laughed long and heartily. "What a man sows that shall he reap," senten tiously observed James. . "And none ever more gladly than I in this," replied Lane, with fervor. "Whatever pursuit Ricarda may choose for mental growth, culture, and her own happiness, shall have my hearty approval. In the summer-time we shall have our botanizing the flora of these British Isles will afford new fields of delightful discoveries, and I think we may all brighten up our knowledge of natural history with happy results. During the winter there is never lack of intellectual entertainment in

London. Moreover, Jim" for, although Mygatt James was shortly to become his father-in-law, the old name had too many and ' too deeply rooted associations to be exchanged for a more dignified title "moreover, I have carried into effect a notion of mine that I think will make London seem more like home to you, for I believe that home is as much where one's work is as whre one's heart is. But more of this to-morrow, Ricarda," added Lane, while a light passed over his face, and, turning to her chair, he laid his arm about her neck. "You may see it in . something that will recall a certain memorable day when you first called me 'Richard,', and which, after all, my wife, was our real wedding-day." - Ricarda smiledquestioningly up in his face, but received only the glad light of his countenance in reply. After the marriage-service was over, and . the three friends had become domiciled in the new home which Richard had prepared

while Ricarda and her father were on the continent, he led them into a - room which to both father and daughter was a surprise and delight. It was a light and beautiful apartment, adorned with engraved and sculptured portraits of scientific men and women of Far.1 it -..I : t : -vv-i . . .

BUB V, X' IBUAUU, UOI UlCUIg, IT 1R3BUWU6, . of Henry, Morse, Mitchell, Herschel while adjoining was a library of epecific scientific -works of admirable selection. On long tables ; and on shelves inclosed in glass were all the ' needed instruments and mechanisms required . in a chemist's laboratory. 'And this beautiful workshop for papal' exclaimed Ricarda, happy tears of gratitude filling her eyes as she turned them . toward her husband. " 'This was too much, Dick," said James ' with emotion; for this thoughtfulness on the part of Lane touched him deeply. - - "Too much !" exclaimed Richard Jaughing-

ly putting his arm about Ricarda, and looking in her face with an expression that needed no translation. "No, Jim, nothing ot this sort could be too much. I had a scientific friend make the selection of instruments, and . as to the cost tor I know vou are thinking

- t o of the outlay oi pioney it is only the count--ing out of a set of diamonds as my wedding, gift . to . Ricarda. So, you see, it comes from her, after alL I felt sure that, between the two, there would be no hesitan- ' cy of choice on her part." The expressions of delight on the face of Ricarda, and that fell from her lips as she and her father examined one thing after another in the laboratory, had in them all the abandon of her childhood. . To watch her lovely face, the grace of her beautiful form, the movements of her deft and exquisite hands as she glided amid the dainty machines, repaid her husband a thousand times over for the trouble and care the room had .

involved. With her quick discernment she saw that especial attention had been bestowed upon the selection, variety, and beauty of the electrical instruments, and with ready intuition she divined the reason. It was' evident that tho laboratory had been - fitted up as much for her as for his old friend.;

She appreciated the delicacy of the action on the paqk of her husband, who in affording a source of great pleasure to her father gave her also the opportunity of pursuing a study for which she had expressed marked inclination, if she should care so to do. "I think there is room for a career here, Ricarda,". remarked her father, facetiously, as they finished their tour of inspection. : "So there is!" she exclaimed, joyously. "And here, too," as she put her hand through Dick's arm, and stood at his side. "Being 'appropriated' is not, after all, to lose one's self, but to find one's self. This is a realization of the dreams of the new era, when marriage rutins help, growth, and grace to woman as well as to man, when love sanctifies work and makes it joy, and . work strengthens and enriches love." ' "But all men are not Richards," said her father. . - ' - - "Nor all women Ricardas," added her husband. " " '.' " r " .' ' "Ah, if they only were!" she laughed. ' "Then had the millennium dawned," said James in the same spirit, . ' "Mine has dawned already," said Richard,' as, drawing Ricnrda closer to him, he kissed her. , ;. .. ' t .",., ... THE END. . ... . - ' If your baby ia restless while teething, get Dr. Bull's Baby 8yrup; a dose of it wilt relieve the little sufferer at once. Only 25 cents a bottle

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