Indiana State Sentinel, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 September 1889 — Page 3

THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL. .WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 4. 1889.

THE PROFESSOR? PROBLEM BeliCraria. I. "I am quite unab'.e to understand it," Paid the professor, eighinj. If the professor found himself at fault, most of his friends would have concluded that the subject must have been one remarkably difficult of comprehension, for he had spent some of the best years of his life over problems so exceedingly knotty that they were wont to speak of him as "a wonderfully clever man; ail the learned 'ologies, you know, my tk-ar; don't ask me to explain," with that absence of definition which adds so much to fame. And yet, after all, it wa3 nothing so very remarkable or extraordinary over which he was puzzling himself. The freak of man and the caprice of woman would have summed it all up; but the only 'ology it had to do with happened to be the one the professor knew nothing about. "A etrange thing an unaccountable thing!" he repeated emphatically. "That, because poor Fhillimore fancied me, he should leave rue the care of a child! Dear, dear me, if he had only devoted only a little more time to the Greek particles ! It was a sad mistake. Eight years! Has the child really lived with us eight years? I suppose it must be so; and, as I&chel eays, she is a woman now, and she has found' for some time, I fear, the hou.e too dull for her. I have not found it dull," mused the professor, a tinre of sadness in his tone. "The years have been happy the happiest and pleasantest I have known since little Hetty came. I an; sore I never " knew how much a younjr cirl has it in her power to brighten the pface she lives in. How cheerful it has been to hear her steps about the pbce. How we should miss her 'Kachel and I it fche were to leave. But I have been neplectinsr her. I have forgotten that 6he needs something brighter than the monotonous tenor of her life here, o, she is not happy; now that I come to think of it, I have "not heard her sineinz fr.r some time." He 'fell into thought "I am to blame," he said at last, aloud ; "the house is dull for her, and I am dull, and Rachel is dull. I ou?ht to have thought of it before. I am not fitted, heaven knows, to have the charge of a young creature like that. I a:a afraid Phillimore made a sad mistake, so far as her happiness was concerned, when he left her to us. I wonder what are a your.;: girl's anticipations what surroundings she requires? It must be dull I can see that now to be so constantly with Rachel. I have even found Parhel a little monotonous myself. Yet, after all. I understand so little of womankind," ejaculated the professor, sadly. "The philosophers, he uttered musingly, at last, '"they had something to say about women. I believe." He stretched out his hand, and partly

tilted the back of a book, then let it reassume its position, and scanned his crowded shelves further. "Great thinkers have not disdain ed the subject. I am 6orry little Hettie has given up her sineing. Well, well," he added, as he took down a ponderous tome, "we will hope for better things. I am anxious to do my duty bv the child." An hour had slipped away, and the professor, deep in thought, had laid down his book for a time, and was jrazing, a certain . vague sadness perceptible in his countenance, at the fair spring sky seen throneh the fast-shut window. He was so absorbed that he did not hear a lieht step pass the door, nor did he even notice it when the step hesitated. The door was trently opened, and the subject of his thoughts glanced in. If he had observed it, he would not have imagined for a moment that the action denoted any particularinterest in himself. It was her' way a pretty, engajrins? way little Hetty had from" a child that saucy, depreciatory glance at the philosophers on their shelves. The philosopher in his chair had grown wont to look for it when she passed. "Little Hettie" was a woman, a youn? woman certainly, and a very pretty and bright-eyed one"; but the fact that she had quite grown up would Ion? have been apparent to any eyes but Sir. Rochester's. She had a charming, rounded hgure; the prettiest little lovelock, chestnut and curling, framed the piquancy of her face; her eyes alone were childish. Innocent, foft-fringed, brown eves they were, as clear as a moorland pool, yet willful enough at times when Hetty chose, and, na a child, she had chosen tolerably often. And there was quite a womanly air of decision about her. She considered she had arrived at years of discretion, and knew her own mind. For the matter of that, she had known her own mind for a long time, and she felt it to be a thousand pities the prowssor did not know his. Hetty closed the door with a sigh, and went slowly upstairs to her own room, sitting down, when she had reached it, not far from the glass. She had been accustomed to admire, beinj? young and pretty, her own pleasing reflection; but it had in some way lost its charm for her lately. She had begun to object to her hair, which wa3 curiy and would not keep smooth, al.?o to the youthful curve ol her cheeks, with other small details. "It will always be the same," asserted Hetty at last aloud, for there was no one by :o hear her, and she shook her head scornfully, contemningly, at her pretty image . in the mirror. "I know what he thinks. Because he is sixteen or seventeen years older than I am, and because he has thought and thought till he is getting bald, and his nice chestnut hair is gTOwins a little gray, and because he loves those miserable philosophers musty, detestable, stony-hearted old things! that nothing young, or bright, or cheerful can ever have anything to do with him. Why can't he see that he is o:".'y thirty-eight after all? He's not bent into yet, in spite of hi3 books. The looking-glass might tell him a little; and he has the nicest dark eyes I ever saw, and he is a mulf! He is miserable if 1 go away for a day Miss Rachel always says so and he follows me about the room with his eyes; and he loves rr.e I know he, loves me if he is as blind as a bat! "And I am a woman grown," murmured little Hettie softly, "and I have 6een other people nowjarid I know, what I have known for ever eo long, that there is norody nobody like him. And he will never.'never find it out. I shall actually have to propose to him myself!" It was striking twelve downstairs; the j.rofesror pushed his book away, and gavo a long and heavy sigh. "It appears evident," he said musingly, a tinsre of sadness in his tone, "that woman from time immemorial has always found her proper sphere and her greatest happiness in the rapacities of wife and mother. I must find a home for little Hetty. It is right that I should do my duty by the child." II "Frederick Wilberforce," said the professor, musingly ; "would he do for Hetty ? Ho is a little old a pood six years her senior, I dare say; but it is just possible that she might not object to that disparity. He is a pleasant young fellow, and is, or. the whole, I think, the roost desirable of the young men of ouracouaintance. I hope he will make the child happy," added her guardian, with lips a little compressed. "I should like to make some inquiries about hira if I knew how to set to work. "Charles Warrington; really, now I come to think of it, we know a good many yooxg men, The child need not be with

out choice. In fact, it is rather a wonder, though I know so little of the ways of women that it has never occurred to her to think of these things for herself. He takes some interest in science. Hetty may not like him so well on that account. Poor young thing!" said her guardian rather" sadl3 "I am afraid she has had more than enough of that kind of thing here. No, young Warrington is steady and intelligent, but he is not so likely to be the subject of a girl's fancy as the other. He i3 a little too quiet, I take it, ami would serve to remind her of us, and I have already been careless enough of the poor child's happiness." He rose from the table and closed a book lying open before him, and for a moment "Mr. Rochester looked ten years older, lined, and careworn, and pale. And then, with an irrepressible sigh, ho went slowly out of the room. It was an April morning, sweet and fresh. The sunshine eave even his dull dining-room some brightness. It made quite a radiance around Hetty, who was sitting in the window seat gazing absently out, some work untouched in her lap, and, as the professor entered, he was struck by a certain wistfuluess in the girl's face. It was all true. Rachel, with a woman's better knowledge of woman, had reached the truth of the case. Little Hetty was a child no longer. She had turned into a woman, and he, wrapped up in musty books, had been idly content to let her brighten his life and his sister's. He had not done his duty by the child. What would poor Phillimore say if he could come back again. But he would repair his fault "Looking out at the sunshine, Hetty," he said, taking a chair near her. The light dazzled him a little; his eyes wero not so young as hers, and he had tried them considerably of late years. But Hetty it would have taken a strong light", he thought, as he looked at her, to dazzle thoe brightchildish eyes, clear and undinimed. "Yes," said Hetty simply. A tinge of melancholy in her voice reached the professor's ear. suddenly grown keen. He moved his chair a little, so that the light did not shine so strongly in his face, and looked at her wistfully. What a pretty creature she was; how fresh and eneaging! like a rose dropped bv some careless hand in a dusty and dim library. He wondered vaguely if all young girls had such child-like ways about them, such adorably pretty upward glances. Yes. he should miss her terribly, the house would be another place without her. "I have been thinking, Hetty," the professor began and paused, embarrassed, at a los for words. "Yes; that is what you generally are occupied in doing." said Miss Hetty de

murely. There was the least little eparkle of mUchiet in her eyes. "Well, perhaps so; too much, I am atraid," returned the professor, a tritle surprised. "I have forgotten a good many things, wrapped up in my books my duty among others, and my duty to you, Hetty, in particular. Kachel tells me you are two-and-twenty. "Twenty-two last month." "Twenty-two! And you were a child only yesterday! Surely it was but the other day that you were running about the house in short frocks! It seems impossible!" ejaculated the poor professor sadly. "What seems impossible ? That I should ever grow up?" "It nas seemed impossible to me. I am afraid, while you have been growing up all the time. It was only that my eyes were dull, my dear; you are not really a child now." "No," Hetty rejoined, gravely and quietly; it smote her guardian with a pang. How much, indeed, must he have neglected her when a young girl could speak so seriously almost sadl Well, he would not be neglectful any more. "You are outgrowing us, my dear," he said gently, taking her hand in his in a fatherly, if somewhat wistful, manner. "You need something brighter and younger in your life. There is only ön thing I have no cause to reproach myself with; I have never refused invitations for you, and you have had a good many opportunities of seeing young people of your own age. What you need is to live among them, to have companionship. I want to see vou happy, Hetty." "Thank you," 6he rejoined. The professor, listening anxiously, felt a curious contraction of the heart. It was all true, then ; she accepted his statements as fact; she had long ago recognized it in her own mind as such. 41 1 have been thinking a great deal of you, my dear, since Kachel pointed this out to me; and, as 1 feel myself to be very ignorant, I have beeu reading as well as thinking. Shall I tell you the result of my studies?" Hetty's pretty lips were curved. "Oh, certainly," she returned curtly, with a very slight pretense at interest. "It appears to be universally agreed that, in all ages of the world, Hetty, woman linds her proper sphere, the round of duty most congenial to her, the happiest, fullest life," said the professor, simplv, dropping for the moment the more bookish phrases, "in the home in married life, my dear." He had uttered it now; he had suggested the parting with her that would leave the house empty, l es, quite empty; never to be young and bright, and sunshiny any more. He had begun to be well aware, by this time, that all the sunshine would go with her. But he had done his duty; and it might be that she did not care so much for the life he had alluded to as others of her sex. "What doyou think about it, my child ?" he asked, for Hetty had not yet responded ; and a alight giddiness had come over the professor, as he told himself, ho was not used to changes. "I think," said Hetty, with a sudden lovely, overwhelming flush of color, and after one sunny, willful glance at him with downcast eyes, "that your philosophers, for once, are rieht." There was a 6hort silence. "I am sorry, my dear," said the professor, patiently, breaking it at last, "that this kind of thing never occurred tome before; I did not know you were not happy here." "I am bappv ! I have always been happy here!" cried tletty, indignantly, and tears, half of remorse, half of vexation, stood in her brown eyes. "It was only that you said that you thought that home "lifo was a pleasant thing in the abstract." "I hope you may find it a pleasant and a happy thing, but not in the abstract," returned her guardian, with a smile that was rather wistful. "You have made the house very happy, and I shall miss you wofully. Kachel will miss you." . "It is all verv much iu the abgtract at present, I think," Hetty rejoined, her red lips taking a scornful curve again. "Still, I am glad you would miss me." "My child," said Mr. Rochester simply he put out his band as he spoke, and took hers in a close, protecting clap "it would not bo kind to you to tell you how much I shall miss you." "Then I will never leave." said Hetty quietly. The archness had left her face, a little sigh escaped her. "On the contrary, I hope and trust you may; life holds something brighter far for you than this," returned the professor, and he released the little hand he held. "It was very kind of you to leave your books for the express purpose of making depressing remarks, Mr. Rochester," saia Hetty, with sudden, inexplicable coldness. What an engaging child she was. and how well her willful vays became her! A child I no, a womau! He must not forget that fact again. "I had not thought of depressing, you,

heaven knows ! I came to talk over a few persons with you. Rachel tells me that she believes that almost all the young men of our acquaintance entertain more or less admiration for you. I was not aware of it, I am sure" his ward winced at this ptatement, in its simplicity "though at the same time I find nothing to wonder at in it. Can you not choose one of them? I should rejoice to see you happy." "You have come to recommend some one? It is very kind," said Hetty, scornfully. "Some thought of this kind was in my mind; I have been reviewing our friends. I am anxious, my dear, that your choice should fall on eome one in every way worthy of you, that I may feel I have done my duty both by your poor father and yourself. I think," continued the professor, with an effort now, "that Frederick Wi Iber force is perhaps worthy of thought." "And why Fred Wilberforce ?" Hetty asked disdainfully, with almost schoolgirl pertness. "Iiis tastes and habits seem quiet, his family is good. I don't know that you would have much wealth, but I should like you to consider character, my child, before money. He is a few years older than you I have considered that you may net like that but if you could overlook the disparity for the sake of other things, I should like to see you in a home of your own." "Thank you; you are very kind. It is quite beside the subject tö mention, I suppose, that I detest Fred Wilberforce?" said Hetty, curtly. "Detest him! "Really, I was not aware. My dear child, fay no more about it I am sorry, in that case, I ever mentioned the. young man's name. He is a good deal older than you, certainly. Let us consider Charles Warrington instead; in fact, I should have put him first if it had not been for his scientific tastes; I thought that you had really had so much of that kind of thing here that it must prejudice you against him. He is a very good son, I believe; a little quiet, but your own age, and I have never heard anything but good of him, Hetty. Do you think you could like Charles Warrington? ou would not be living far from us, then ; I am selfish, you see. It would be a delightful thine: to us both to have you run in and out when you could." "If there is any one I could dislike more than Fred Wilberforce it is Charles Warrington," returned Hetty. "I'm glad you like him. What you see in him I fail to understand." The professor's countenance became perplexed. "I seem verv unfortunate in my choice of suggestion' he said mildly. "Perhaps William Hooper or Thomas Hastings; you might like one of those better?" "Thank you; I'm going into the garden. Don't trouble youself about any more suggestions this morninjr, Mr. Rochester," returned Hetty coldly, rising as she spoke. A wave of ripe rose-red color swept suddenly into her cheeks; her eyes met the professor's for one moment, childish, willful, womanly. "I detest young men," she said. "If I ever marry any one, he hall be rasher old." 'Rather old,' " said the professor, left alone, gazing absently at his own reilection in the ugly square mirror above the dining-room mantel-piece. "What, a singular fancy! Then Frederick Wilberforce would not have been so objectionable after all, if she had but liked him in other respects. 'Rather old.' Ah, me, I am rather old, and the child will not repose full confidence in me on that account, no

doubt. I have been 'rather old for many a long dav." III. "Three weeks, and I have never alluded to the subject since! I have been lacking in moral courage," Raid the professor musingly, a3 he waited for admittance on his doorstep. "There has been no chance in the child ; she still has that quiet, subdued air about her. It has occurred to me that it is quite fossible that she may be hesitating to eave us, for our sake even deem it ungrateful. If Rachel should leave us alone to-night, I shall try to revive the subject. It is the right thing to do." The dining-room was only tenanted by one; Hetty was alone. A cheerful fire burning on the hearth, and she sat dreaming before it, her hands clasped idly in her lap; and, in some way or other, every careless attitude of Hetty's was graceful. The firelit picture for the lamp had not been brought in stirred the professor's fmlse with a sharp, bitter-sweet cense of onging and loneliness. Hetty lifted her head suddenly at the quiet opening of the door, and he could almost have fancied he saw tears shining on her curling lashes. A fancy, no doubt, but that Hetty had been very quiet and grave lately remained a certainty to his new keenness of vision. He advanced into the range of firelight, and as was his wont, after exchanging greetings, looked in the usual corner for his slippers Miss Rachel's rules were too well known in the household to be infringed. "Your slippers," said Hetty, with unusual meekness of tone. "They're here, Mr. Rochester, in the fender." "Oh, indeed! How could they have fallen in there?" returned the professor in mild surprise, as he Btooped to pick them up. "They didn't fall. I put them there. I I thought you might like to have them warmed," Hetty returned, in unusually confused and apologetic tones. "Oh, indeed! Your intention was very kind, my dear," said the professor absentmindedly; "but you neecl not have taken so much trouMe ; the evening was not a cold one." There were no tears glistening on Hetty's eye-lashes now; a curve of righteous feminine scorn was visible, instead, on her red lips. Yes, he might wait many and many a day; never ehould he, by any chance, after that utterly obtuse remark, find his slippers comfortably ensconced in the fender again. She knew he was a miserable man; he dreaded the thought of parting with her; well he deserved to be miserable. He was certainly a trifle lacking in moral courage ; for perceiving that I le tty showed no disposition to have tho lamp brought in, and the glimmering firelight hid her face and his own alternately, and also observing that, by sitting in the armchair to the right of the hearth, he could escape observation altogether, ho concluded that no time could be more admirj able for introdncing the subject he felt euch dilTiculty in entering upon for urging the child to leave the home-nest empty. The professor sighed. Hetty's hardening littlo heart relented at the sound. "Is anything the matter?" she asked, a little coldiy, it might bo, but it served for an introduction. "I sighed, Hetty, to remember that the time has come for you to leave us. You can forgive me for that, my dear," returned her guardian, gently. "Do vou mean what you said about Fred Wilberforce and Charles Warrington?" asked Hetty, as the firelight sank a little. "Yes," returned the professor, gravely ; "you detest them, you said. It was Eomewhat of a shock to me, as I had not been aware ot it. I am afraid I did not go the right.way to work with my suggestions, but, indeed, I was thinking only of your welfare. I cannot let the subject drop, my dear." interposed her guardian firmly, the firelight suddenly blazing up and showing an expression of protest on the girl's countenance. "I will not mention anyone byname; but I want to urge upon you that you must not sacrifice your young life to us. It is right that you

should have your freedom, feel at perfect liberty to make your choice and leave us ; we both acquiesce in it Rachel and I. And it has occurred to me as just possible that you might have some fancy of your own in the matter. I am almost ashamed to ask you such a question but you are a growing woman now; have you ever formed any idea of the sort of person you could be happy with ?" "Yes," said Hetty. She was looking down at a little sapphire ring that adorned one of her fingers, and she did not raise her eyes. "I have thought about it." "Oh, indeed! really," ejaculated the Erofessor, somewhat staggered. He passed is hand across his brow. "And what is belike, Hetty?" he asked, in tones that had an unmistakable tinge of melancholy in them. "I should like him to be rather old; I think I told you so before," said Hetty, with a little tremor in her voice. It was really very considerate of the fire; it glimmered redly, but it kept its flashes to itself. "And I should not even mind if ho liked things that I hated ; he might even have

stupid, obtuse ways at times men so often are Btupid ami obtuse. But I should like him to have very nice dark eyes, and to be able to respect him." "Very nice dark eyes! I know so few answering to that description," said the rrofessor, who, hopelessly perplexed by letty's first sentences, seemed to see some dawning clearness in her last words, and revived to review them conscientiously. "Must his eyes be so particularly fine, my child? "Could you not place character above looks?" "Oh, certainly. I am not at all particular as to looks," remarked Hetty, crimsoning. "I ehould like to have a nice, kind, quiet way with him; the very reverse of Fred Wi'.berforce's." "I am afraid," said the professor very gently, and sighing as he spoke he had been'careiully considering and reconsidering Hetty's remarks for the space of full five minutes that I know no one at all who answers to your description." "Perhaps I could tell you a little more of my fancies," sai i the girl, suddenly raising her eyes. Mr. Rochester did not see how tightly her hands were clasped together ; he only saw that charming, willful ghnco again." "I should not care a bit if he was wrapped up in musty, tiresome, disagreeable things; he must bo very oh, very fond of Greek." What a heartless thing the firelight had turned into! How it flickered and brightened, and obdurately persisted in revealing the hot color Hetty lonsred to hide with both her hands. And Mr. Rochester's eyes were fixed npon her. What were his thoughts? "Greek!" he said, after tho space of about a minute. "You have occasioned me more surprise than I can tell you, my dear." Well, it had been unconventional, unmaidenly indelicate, perhaps; but ho never would have known his own heart without it and if the fire-light would only hide her cheeks! "I have often wished," continued tho profe.or, "that 1 could have devoted more time to that language. I5ut I littlo dreamt, my child, you shared my feeling regarding It. I should have hardly looked for it in one so young; but it occupied many years of your father's attention, I remember, and I can understand it a little in that way. I must find your Greek scholar for you, Hetty it seems a strange thing, too. I never credited you, my dear, with tastes like these. "He is a promising young fellow," 6aid the professor, almost to himself, and not, as you say, too young. He must be quite thirty or "thereäbonts.J, I am thinking of Martin Archer, Hetty; you don't know him at present, my dear I meet him often at college but he answers, in a great many respects to your description. I often wish, when talking with him, that I had my youth back again. And so you will be leaving us; it is only a question of time; I shall see that low chair of vours empty. And perhaps it may bo Martin Archer.' "No, never!" said Hetty. The firelight, flickering up, revealed her face, and, to tho professor'e amazement, he saw it crimsoned and scornful. I hate Mr. Archer! I detest him! I know perfectly well he is a conceited prig; I am sure, quite sure of it! And the only thing I ask, .Mr. Rochester," she continued, rising suddenly and bursting into tears, "is that you will never, never, as long as I live, let me hear his detestable name again!" "I am utterly at fault," said the pro fessor, at last; "the child places no con fidence in me whatever. She grows more lovable than ever more engaging. How we shall ever endure the house without her I dare not think. But I am utterly at fault. I am afraid there must be truth in what has certainly been affirmed by thinkers of all " ages woman is an IV. The autumn was waning; the coral berries were ripening in the hedges, and soon, the professor Eaid to himself, looking with vague melancholy toward his study-window, the gray m'ornings, tho long evenings, the chill of winter would be creeping on, and tho fire would be alight again on the hearth. Would Hetty sit beside it, or would it be left to Rachel and himself alone? He saw the two fig ures, his bent and stooping, ns ho always pictured it, with a head prematurely trray, and his sister sitting opposite, clicking her needles, and sometimes interpolating a conjecture about the "child;" the child who had come into his life, and bright ened eight years of it, and had vanished with the roses and the summer, to some brighter, happier home of her own. He rose from his chair, pushipg a littlo way from him, as he did so, tho manuscript that had been lying before him. With a slow contraction of the heart, he heard Hetty's voice. She was replying to something said by his sister; Miss Rachel seemed to be going out He waited till the steps had descended the stairs and the front door had closed; men, lie couia hardly have told with what intention, walked to the sitting-room door. Hetty was knitting; Miss Rachel had been teaching her, and the work appeared to accord with the new gravity that seeiueu tu uo iuiwiuk um he had known into a woman. There wa3 even a cold quietness about her this evening as she raised her eyes and met her guardian's. "Hetty, my child," said the professor, obeying" a sudden impulse, going over to her" and laying one hand gently on her shoulder, "forgive me if I am insistent. I want yo'i to tell me if you have forgotten a question I asked you some months ago; ami I never to eee you happy in a brighter, fuller life than this? For I have not forgotten iL" "I have not forgotten," 6aid Hetty, calmly ; "but I have nothing more to tell you, Mr. Rochester." "Rachel told me yesterday I cannot say, of course, if she is right or not that she believes you have been refusing a very desirable offer. Is it true that Gerald Eccleston has gone away from home entirely on your account?" "I have no objection to tell you ; it is quite true," Hetty answered, a little curtly. Her lips tightened. "It would have been an excellent match for you, from a worldly point of view, of course. And did you refuse him because he was not fond of Greek? Or is it that you do not think it right- to leave us? I hope you hi(ve not been thinking of ns at all in the matter," eaid the professor, gravely. "He is very nice," said Hetty, slowly, "and very good-looking, and everybody

tells me that he is extremely rich, and his own family all speak well of him." "And notwithstanding all these things," asked her guardian with an oppressed sense of bewilderment, "you could not fancy him?" "So, I could not fancy him," she answered a little coldly. "I am afraid that singular ideal lover of yours stands in the way. I fear you may wait a great many years, and never find him after all. Is there anything else you could tell me about this fancy of yours, my child? I might find some one, even now, likely to distinguish himself in Greek study; I will not forget that you dislike Martin Archer." "I have nothing more to add ; I have told you ail I can tell you, Mr. Rochester," said Hetty quietly. What use to say any-' thing further to one so obtuse, so ignorant of his own heart? She took up the knitting lying in her lap. "Nothing?" urged the professor anxiously. "You cannot think of anything more? I should so like to see you happy."

"Nothing," repeated Hetty coldly, and even a little bitterly ; and so, having ended ii , uio maiier, sne raiseu ner eyes ior a moment and saw her guardian's face. hat was written there? A swift wave of pity, as well as of love, swept over her; the tears came into her eyes as she met that gaze of inexpressible tenderness and melancholy and longing. She clasped her hands tightly together in her lap, and had no power any longer to be cold. "I think," she said, not daring to look up, the color flooding her cheeks, her hands trembling, "that I should like him bald-headed." " There was no response. Hetty clasped her hands over her eyes. 'Oh, Mr. Rochester," she murmured, the old childlike Hettv that he remembered, "have I said any thine dreadful?" "No, my dear, not anything dreadful !" said the professor mildly; "only something very singular." V. "As I have eaid to you over and over again, I am unable to account for it, Rachel, but these were her words. It has occurred to me at last that a woman might understand a woman. You will respect the child's confidence, I know, even as I respect it," said the professor, anxiously; "you will never let her know unless 6ho herself should mention the subject to you that we have had this conversation. "I am not much of a talker," said Miss Rachel, dryly. She had been knitting socks, but her busy hands were idle for once; the knitting had dropped into her lap. Her face wore an expression of mingled amazement and dawning satisfaction; even a trine of humor a thing there was but small 6tock in Miss Rachel's composition might have been detected by anyone of particularly observant eyes. The professor's were not of that quality. "Do you really mean to tell me, John, that she said she should prefer him 'rather old?'" she asked, after a long and reflective study of the fire. "fdie didi" returned her brother emphatically. "I am utterly unable to understand it; I do not profess to account for it in any way." "Never mind if you can account for it or not; I want to know onco more what she said. And you tell me that she declared, really declared," reiterated Miss Rachel, looking sharply ud into the professsor's mels holy and perplexed countenance, "she - ould like nim particularly fond of Greek i ' "She told me so with the utmost decisiona strange, an inexplicable, an unaccountable thing." "Unaccountable, no. Strange, perhaps a little," rejoined Miss Rachel, dryly. "And there was something more; I want to hear it all over once again." The professor's eyes met hers, reflective, sad, utterly devoid of all consciousness of the meaning of her increasingly inquisitorial gaze. "She said," he answered mildly. "the most singular thing of all; 6he wouid like him bald-headed." Miss Kachel smiled a smile, by this time, of broad and perfect satisfaction. She paused a moment or two and let her gaze rest on her brother's thinning hair; on his tall figure, a trifle stooped; his grave, depressed countenance; and then she observed, quietly and calmly, eo calmly that it enhanced the effect of the thunderbolt when it came: "Why don't you ask her yourself, John." The room went round. At least, in the professor's opinion it did so. The chairs, the table, Miss Rachel's angular form seated opposite to him, all mingled in one inextricable confusion, and the most singular part of it was that, when he at last regained his senses, his sister appeared to wear an expression of calm satisfaction. "You said, Rachel ? I think I must have mistaken your words," submitted the professor. "I said," repeated Miss Rachel distinctly, "why don't vou ask her yourself? You are 'rather old or rather, she thinks you so, at her age; and if you are not exactly bald-headed now, you soon vill be if you spend so much time over these books. The child means you." "Absurd! "absurd! You are utterly mistaken, Rachel ; it is preposterous, outrageous!" ejaculated the professor almost wildly, "and she also said, 'distinguished in Greek. " "Well, what else would she say? She meant everything of your sort, of course. I'm sure I thought you were distinguished in Greek, and in Latin and Hebrew and Sanscrit, and everything else." "No, Rachel," said her brother, "I am not distinguished in it; I would I were. And the whole thing is utterly ridiculous; so ridiculous, it makes me shrink to think what she would say if she could overhear us. How could she even dream of such a lover as I should be a young creature like that!" "Johnt" said the little old maid, rising and placing her hand on his arm an unwonted act with her and the unwonted tears were in her eyes now, "I am ten years older than you, and I know a little of women, and I know that Hetty Philli more wouia never oe wiiituuy unmaidenly. The child has found out that you love her, and that you will never discover it for yourself, as you never would. Why," said Miss Rachel, with a little touch of feminine scorn, "you hardly know it now! Do you love her, John?" ' "Yes," said the professor suddenly, and with an inexpressible melancholy. "You have shown me my heart, Rachel!" "Then," said his sister pleadingly, "for your own sake, John, for my sake, will vou give her the opportunity of saying 'Yen' or 'No' to you?" "It would bo preposterous! I should blush even to mention such a thing to her. To couple her name with mine I" said the professor bitterlv. "It would be an insult to the child!" "Then for Hetty's sake?" urged Miss Rachel, with such warmth as her brother had never known in her. "Suppose, just think for a moment, John, if there were the slightest foundation of reality in my supposition! Just to make perfectly sure it is not so, to give the child her opportunity to say 'No' even!" His lips became compressed. He passed his hand wearily across his forehead. "Well! if you are going to make yourself unhappy about your fancy, Rachel," he rejoined, as one who finds a subject too painful to discuss. "But it is utterly preposterousthe wildest, strangest notion that ever entered a woman's head." The twilight was deepening. Hetty was alone. Miss Rachel had gone out on some errand, and the door bad iust closed after her. It was crowing dark so rapidly in the crofessor'6 study that the philosophers on the shelves were gradually becoming wrapped in obscurity. And it was just as

well, some one with his hand on the door thought bitterly, as he looked their way; they had no cure for heartache. The closing of the autumn evening seemed to have brought an added melancholy with it; even the fire, burning brightly in the dining-room, where Hetty sat, gazing into the red heart of the flame, had lost its accustomed cheeriness, and, as Mr. Rochester paused at the threshold a moment, it wavered, and seemed to say, warningly: "Better not presume." The professor had been heavy-hearted enough before, and full enough of forebodines, but he had made up his mind, and. having done so, had a masculine tenacity of purpose, and he had given his word to Miss Rachel. The philosophers themselves, in massed phalanx, would not have deterred him now. "The child" was alone; the sooner it was over tho better. The sooner he met her incredulous gaze, and heard her astonished words, and the sad, heart-breaking little comedy was played out to the lat scene the bent, middle-aged man talking of love to this little "queen rose" in the "rose-bud garden of girls so much the better. When a man has a surgical operation to undergo he does not often ask the doctor to 6tay his hand. The professor gave a long-drawn, tremulous sigh. Hetty heard it and looked up. She must surely have recognized eome 6ubtle change in his face and man

ner, for the color began to forsake her cheeks, and they had been tinted with the prettiest wild-roso flush only a moment before. "I have something to say to you, Hetty," said the professor most emphatically. It was better to begin at once, to spare himself nothing; the 6ooner it was over the better. "I wonder if you can ever forgive me, and indeed, my dear, I would not have done it if I could have helped it. I took vour confidence to Rachel." Hetty's face was ruddy enouchnow; the rose-color was leaping into it. Her temples, her nock, the very tips of her ears were scarlet, but she said nothing. "I told her the various innocent confessions you had made to me, my child, and she said she said" Mr. Rochester had become suddenly incoherent of speech "that reallv, my dear, I am ashamed to tell you. I blush to repeat it! It was tho most amazing, the most preposterous thing; you will you will actually laugh, Hetty." "Shad I?" returned Hetty, demurely. She had recovered her self-possession in a moment it was an a.-tonishing thing. Indeed, the Hetty of old child-like days had never looked quite so willful, so arch, so provoking, so adorably bewildering, as Hetty now. "It was so absurd." said tho poor professor, looking apologetically at the clork. "It was the wildest notion, the one least likely to have any foundation in reality, that I have ever heard. My only hope is that vou will banish it from vour mind, my child, when once I have told vou about it and kept my word to Rachel. Don't think of it again. Kegard it as of absolutely no consequence." "I will try to, Mr. Rochester, if you'll tell me what it was," rejoined Hetty,"looking very hard at the fire. A score of little dimples were peeping out in cheek and chin, but the professor never looked her way to see them. "You will not be surprised at my want of courage when I tell you what it is. You will wonder if my looks have turned my head. I shall not blame you, my dear ; it will be the most natural thought with you. I have been mad and foolish enough to love you, Hetty, but never mad enough to dream, for a moment, that you could even think of me. I told Rachel your confidence," said the professor, with sudden desperation, "that you fancied a lover rather old, who was distinguished in Greek study, who was bald-headed. And she returned," he added (Misa Rachel's utterance must have been a singularly incoherent one, if it in anywise resembled her brother's now), " 'Whv don't you ask her yourself, John?"' There was a dead silence. It was broken at last by the falling of coal out of tho grate, and the professor started at the sound of it, as if he were a criminal dreading arrest. He stooped and hastily picked up the poker, apparently under the impression that it was a pen. "Pray banish it from your mind," he said, agitatedly. "Don't think of it; it's not of the slightest consequence. It is, as vou say, the most absurd thing you ever heard in your life. I merely mentioned it." Hetty had raised her head. She suddenly turned, and the firelight shone upon her face, upon a smile and upon a tear. "Why didn't you 'merely mention' it before, John?" she said softly, stretching out her. hands. "And so," said the professor, in the tone of an astronomer or geologist who has just discovered an amazing scientific fact, "you loved me all the time!" "And any one but yourself would have found it out long ago," Hetty supplemented, giving a button on Mr. Rochester's coat a disdainful but tender twist. "It is astounding!" ejaculated the professor gravely. "It i astoündine. I don't profess to understand it; I leave the explanation to yon," returned Hetty, demurely. "Inexplicable, indeed!" repeated the professor once more, and, as with inexpressible tenderness he drew closer to him the little figure already nestling so near, his countenance became still more reflective. "There is only one explanation," he said, musingly. "Heaven knows, my child, what you could have seen in me. But you are a woman, Hetty, and there appears to bo a universal consensus of opinion of thinkers on the subject in all aces woman is an enigma." "And man." said Hetty, in a supplementary tone, "is sometimes occasionally, you know a donkey." Statistic of Iirathlng. In each reipiratiod an adult inhales one pint of air. A man respires sixteen to twenty times a minute, or I'O.OuO times a day; a child twentyfive to thirty-five times a roiuute. While standing, the adult respiration is twenty-two; while lying, thirteen. The superficial surface of the lungs, L e., of iheir aveolar spaces, is 200 square yards. The amount of air inspired in twenty-four hours is 10,000 liters (about 10,000 quarts.) The amount of oxygen absorbed ia twentyfour hours is 500 liters (7-H grammes), and the amount of carbonic-acid gas expired in the same time, 400 liters (911.5grammes.) Two-thirds of the oxygen absorbed in twentyfour hours is absorbed during the night hours from 6 p. m. to ö a. m. Three-fifths of the total carbonio acid is thrown off in the day time. The pulmonary surface irivesoff 150 grammes of water daily in the state of vapor. An adult must have at least 3tA) liters of air an hour. The heart sends throueh the lun?s 800 liters of blood hourly, and 20,000 liters, or 5,0i0 gallons, daily. The duration of inspiration is five-twelfths, of expiration seven-twelfths, of the whole respiratory act; but during sleep inspiration occup;es ten-twelfths of the respiratory period. Th Autocrat's Sarcasm. Book Chat. Oliver Wendell Holmes, being bored by a dull public lecturer, asked: "What are you about at this time?" Tho answer was: "Lecturing as usual. I hold forth this evening at Koxbnry." The profesor, clap pin ir his hands, exclaimed: "I am glad of it; I never did like those Itoibury people." To Stop th Sale of Liquor. (Time. Temperance Lecturer "Friends, how can we ton the sale of liquor?" I auiiican tin rear ox cau "gitb awsy."

R. R.

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Co.: I bare been using; your med'cines for the lat twenty years, and ta ' all cases of Chills and Fever I hve never lailel to cure. I never use anrtking but BKADT RELIEP n4 MLLS. THOS. J. JOSES. FrrnxAXD, Iowa. Dear Sir: We are using; yoor medicines ior Typhoid and Malarial Fevers wah t b greatest benefit. What R. B. H. and Hadway's PU1) have done no one can tell. Jo UN SCHUXTZ. VALUABLE TESTIMONY! Cisoto LAsnrso, N. T., June 2J, 1RS8. Meesn. Rad way & Co. Oent leisen: Last season I employed about 1Ö0 men, and during the season tbey bought of me sixteen dozen bottles of Uadway's Heady Relief, a large number of boxe of Piits and some Resolvent. They one the Keady Relief in their drinking water, 11 to is drops in a sMfc" of water, to prevent crtnmaal keep oil lever and atrue; they also use it (externally) lor braises, ore hatuK rheumatic pa.n sore throat,, etc. If by any chance we run out o: your medicines, we have no peace until our stock is replaced- I, mvself, take R. R. 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Radway & Co, No. 23 Warren-. W, New York. To tinm Ftiblid. Be s-ire and ak for Radwar'a and sea that tlMaajM EjtrjWA.Y" U on what jxra Vuy.

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