Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 15, Number 50, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 6 June 1885 — Page 6

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TANITY HARDWARE.

By ALAN MUIR.

INTRODU CTORY.

I have lived in the village of Hampton as child, boy and man for nearly 70 years. If you we to start from Exeter and travel northward say a matter of 50 miles, and were then to look around, you would see a circle of pleasant hills, afar the spires and the smoke of a city, and at hand a large well-to-do village. That village is Hampton, my native place. Supposing the month July, and the time 10 o'clock of a sunshiny morning, you might also see a shabby genteel old fellow, with white hair, a stoop, good strong shoulders, fhre feet eight inches from the beginning to the end of him, leaning on a sixpenny oak stick, and altogether giving you the impression of a man eking out a not uncomfortable existence on something like a pound a week. You might be interested enough to ask some passer-by who the old gentleman might be, shuffling along for his morning air and sunshine. The answer would be, "Dr. Book." The shabby genteel old fellow would bo myself.

I kept a small chemist's shop in Hampton for many years, and the inhabitants called me "doctor." Doctor is that doctor does, and I have cured half the village, first and last but I tell you plainly that I never wrote M. R. C. S. or F. C. P. or any such rubbish

after my

plain John Book. Ah, dear friends,

it might surprise you,were I to tell all that has happened in Hampton during my time, our population, you observe, being a matter of two thousand, more or less. There ha? been a deal of wickedness—many an aching heart, many a scalding tear, many a cruel deed—few and simple folk though we seem. But why should I recall anything of the sort,^ when all my present concern is to describe the way the story here following came to be written? Our squire's daughter, as pleasant spoken a young lady as you could meet, writes novels, so lam told and one day, knowing her well, I ventured to say to her: "You don't spend much of the year in Hampton, mi us!1" "No Hampton is dull, doctor. Besides"this she said with a laugh and a bit of a blush—"you see, 1 like to see life. There is life in London, iu Paris, in Madrid, but not in Hampton." 4-• "Noll" 1 said. W "Not a bit," she replied. "AU is quiet and regular here, and people sleep and wake as quietly as a butterfly opening and closing its wings as it basks in the sunshine."

Now, well I knew what the young lady meant by "life," and why she wanted to bee "life." "See here, miss," sidd I, pointing arrow to the churchyard "there is a matter of two or three acres of green grass there, thin as a carpet. If you could just roll that green coverlet axide, and read the hearts that are going back to dust there so quietly, you would find enough lite, as you call it, to keep a Mr. Shakespeare busy for a score of years." "Ah, doctor," she said, pleasantly "but vou and I don't menu the same thin^ when ve talk about life." "Perhaps not, miss," said I.

For all that, when I told her had written sort of novel put of my own observation, how pleased she was, and how kind of her to r*«d it, striking out one word, writing in tjnother, sometimes making a sentence or two «ut of hor own head. How gay my dull old parlor looked, with that young lady sitting at the table, quill in hand, touching her lip with the feather while she thought things viverl 1 "Now, that's pretty 1" she exclaim^ one •morning, as she had put in a line of her owu. "Is it not-pretty, doctor!" "Well, miss," answered, "theiVs som«^ tulitg pretty about—somewhere."

And so the novel was made ready for nrint. Fancy old Dr. Book in print—old Dr. Uook, with corrections and addition* by a beautiful young lady who talks Frem-h and Italian. and was not born ten- year* after he Lad marked his first gray hair!

So here is the whole story, from first to •st. by Dr. Book, revised and correrted by Miss Millicent Rervey. Whatever in the writing is plain, straightforward, unadorned, tiseml for the purpose, just like a gray homet.j tun stH-k that keeps a man's leg wa in, by r. Book whatever is dainty, pretty, catching, elegant, like a silk stocking 00 a pretty K-ot, by Miss Millicent Hervey. If there's s,uy vulgarity, you observe, that'* in *. AU the fireaide language and wayside language iy Dr. Book the dictionary department unthe sole management of Miss Millicent Hervey. But while I ramble on like this the fctot waits.

PAKT THE rTKST.

CHAPTER I.

IS wmcn vrs CAR TO OCU vovttu, SQCRAMKr

tmese**--'

WR'

VAN ITT.

BSTLINQ half-way down tki slope of OM of mr low UBl

1 ant or aaany year*. I oft— U»1—it Ww rnmwym tfca* .. ft* fee

oft— U«IWI —w is mmm p— tiaM. 1 nnndersd tf ih#ho»e!ay«*p»y«»*"f as to his My, that Jl into 4eoay. Irtdaeay waa tfci wm* tasafef infiflmli ft Wy

about, would shy a stone and smash a win* dow or half a douan would play Aunt Sally frjth the red chimney pot, or rush and scuffle about in the little garden. And in t-he growing weather the weeds came up around the door, and the moss would quietly steal into crevices of walls and roof. And in the winterrain would beat in the windows aforesaid, or the snow would melt on the roof and drip through, carrying the ceiling down and leaving the skeleton of the house with no flesh on its bones. 80 garden and house, windows and ceilings were all going to the bad together, and at last we called the place Tumbledown Farm and we used to say that even the rats knew bettet than to live in Tumhledown Farm.

One day, however, my boy, who was up to his eyes in gossip, came rushing in, basket in hand, and called out, "The farm's taken 1" "Tumbledown Farm?" I said. "Never!" "I've seen the

people,"

cries he "an old

fellow in a nightcap and speotacles—hooray! «nH a young lady in—. Oh, my!" "No more than two in family, Bob!" I asked. "Only two," he replied. "And to see Mm! Hooray! And to see her! Oh, my! "Heard the name, Bob!" "Hardware." "And have you heard anything else, Bob?" "Nothing else, sir.'* 1 "Bob," said I, "whtft btisinesSi* this of yours? Attend to your duties and deliver your medicines. Can I ever teach you to think about your work and leave other people alone? Bob," I said, "you will never rise. But if your profession was anything sinful, you would take to it, and work your way up." (For, you see, the boy was an orphan so I used to talk to him like a father, and hear him his catechism on Sunday afternoon besides.)

Mysterious tenants these new coiners turned out. As for the old man, he scarcely ever went outside his little garden, and all we knew about him amounted to this: he was tall, decrepit, with a long white beard and heavy spectacles, and seemed in wretched health. But his daughter came into the village almost every day, and soon became a well known character.

She was a striking young woman. From what I afterward learned her age can hardly have been more than twenty-two, but she looked six years older. Her figure was that of one in the fullness of womanhood, her bust the most shapely I ever saw, and her neck and head wonderfully graceful. Sne was mindful of the beauty of her figure, and wore her shawl cleverly so as to sec herself off and she knew that she had a pretty pair of feet, and Jet other people know it, too. Her step was quictc, and her carriage lively and alert. She had the whitest skin possible, a handsome face, boldly cut, and two dark eyes easier noticed than forgotten. No doubt you will say this catalogue would set up half a dozen women in the beauty business, and if I were painting a heroine I might be satisfied with something less but I soberly assure you that time after time, when she went by my store, I have said to myself, "I have seen a handsome duchess, and a score of handsome dairy maids but, duchess or dairy maid, your like I never saw. And how is it, miss or ma'am," I would think, "that, living in that shabby home, you can afford to wear boots as spruce and new as if those feet ol yours were shoemaker's patterns set out in a shop window?"

Remember, I admired this young woman's appearance, and that was all. Something in her manner gave me a turn against her. There was wickedness in her eyes—1 express myself awkwardly, but my way of putting it is this: her eyes seemed such that, when you looked into them, your own were fastened for a moment, and in withdrawing your glance you seemed to draw the wicked eyes after you. Not that she tried any arts on me, gray-beard as I was but I could see how she laid herself out to fascinate others, and succeeded. Upon consideration, I put her down for an actress. Evidently she had been at some work that had made her easy and familiar, and had rubbed the blushes off her cheeks. Perhaps she never crossed the line that divided propriety from impropriety, but she was pretty well used to skating close to the thin ice, if I may so speak.

Our rector, who made a point of calling on every new parishioner, poor or rich, very soon found his way to Tumbledown Farm. Rector, a gentleman born, never asked impertinent questions, but had such a knack of extracting information that, without any appearance of curiosity, he would find out all about a man—from his own lips, too. In this case, however, he came home as wise as be went, and no wiser. It had slipped out— through the postmaster, I believe—that the new comer's name was Hardware and when, by way of commencing a conversation about them, I asked the rector one morning who they were, all he could tell me was the name, which 1 knew already. I said all but he bad one bit of new*. "The young woinau is his daughter, 1 supposer' I said. "She is he calls her Vauity."replied the rector. '1 2* "What?" cried

*i & Kfi

"Vanity." 5 "Strangest name for a Christian I ever heard," I remarked. "Miss Vanity Hardware—sounds odd enough. "Well, Vanity is that Vanity does."

Somehow I am fond of that phrase, and often use it The rector looked a little sharp at me: he always frowned at the smallest beginnings of what in his sermons he used to call evil speaking. aud I instantly saw I must hold my tongue. But that name, "Vanity Hardware," kept ringing in my ears, and made ine more curious thau ever to know something of the young woman who bore it "Bide your time, John Book," said I to myMslf. "Everything will come to light if you waft long enough." And I was right.

Once or twice Mr. Hardware was seen in tbe village. He waa very infirm, ana used to drive down in Jupp's fly, which was as much an institution in our village as tho parish church, both structures being about the same age. Hardware was tall, and looked venerable. He wore a brown cap with lappets over the ears and along bine cloak with rap* fastened at the neck by a little brass chain and catch—the oddest I ever saw. Hfa

inir

you could scarcely see, but his beard waa ,-ng and white and his shoes wore targe, .. itJh knobs on the toee, which caught my eye irom my window I watched him lumberng out of the carriage "Bunions," said

H« aouki hardly rise from his seat, falling twice, and helped out at last by hit 'augbter and the catmma. "Lumbago," slid I again. "y

Then be waa seised by a coughing lit that nearly shook him to pieces, "Asthma." cried I the third time. "1 should say your physic, inside ana oat, would cost you five shillings a waeit—«p}&«tag rou were good for that much mooey."

Almost immediately altar the father and daughter, crm—d mr the street and eptered my afcop, be supporting himself oa her arm, and leaning heavily on his itWdc beside. He tall into a chair with a great sigh of raiiaC, aad Mis* Vanity earns to the coaster and made «wa or three pardhasss. the eM saaa ag aad ••ssbHug to himself all the 1 woeiared if his ashed eras all right ha hedy, that was the sooet striking

•A-

B0 & ffw WHMBhL hi hat labar aad itme,*

TERRS! HAUTE SATUftiM-Y WSyTliSfO- MAIL.

thinks "May the Lsrd take ine before my joints are stiff!" In my little garden there was a blossomy, sweet-smelling rose, which grew dose beside a gnarled, withered elder-bush. Do you know, Miaa Vanity, dressy and handsome and young, standing beside this grumbling Antiquity, made me think of the rose and the elder!

Now begins the story proper. Just as I was thinking of the roae and the elder, a young fellow, whom I dearly loved, named Willie Snow, stepped into my shop. He wanted sixpennyworth of spirits of wine in haste so, with me of his

easy,

pleasant nods,

he asked Mis Vanity to allow him to be served before her, upon which she drew aside. While I was measuring out the spirit they thought old gray-bair saw nothing but "Oho, my lass or my lady 1" thinks I for I marked her watching him while he stood leaning carelessly against the counter, as taking a young fellow as one would meet in a day's walk. There came over her face the look I spoke of before, as if she would mare him, or try to snare him, when she got a chance. She got the chance soon for as Willie put the vial in his pocket, he turned to thank her. She smiled, showing a set of fine white teeth, and. having fixed her dark eyes upon him just for an instant, withdrew her gaze in affected confusion. How those tell-tale eyes sunk down beneath their long dark lashes with an air of tender modesty that might melt any man's heart! "Well done, Miss'Vanity!" thinks "Next to being bashful, the prettiest thing in a pretty woman is to seem so.".

But Willie, being not half my hge, could not be expected to take the thing in this cool way. Alight flashed in his soft gray eyes, surprise and pleasure mixing their rays, and the color deepened on his cheek. He hesitated. "Good—good—morning," said he, with stammering lip£ "Thank you!"

Vanity raised her downcast eyes, and when their looks met her face kindled into a smile, the sweetest in the worlds, "You are very welcome^' %,•

Only four words, mark you. But how charming she looked1 A thousand soft and winning beams played over her face, her voice had a melancholy ring, and her eyes drooped to the ground again. Actress—ao tress, from her pretty cheek to her heart's core!

Willie seemed struck and dazed he passed out silently and she turned to me again. No more lifting and dropping of the eyes, I promise you. Sixty years of age, and an old coat sprinkled with snuff, guard one against these tricks. And when I, in my stupid way, counted thirteenpence-halfpenny and sixpence and one-and-ninepenco to be three-and-livepence halfpenny "Three-aud-/ottrpence-halfpenny," cried she, with a sharp shake of the head and eyes as cold as steel. "I beg your pardon," said Then to myself I went on: "Love or money, it's all the same to you, my lady—sharp's the word!"

The old man hobbled out to the cab again, dragging at his daughter's arm. I must say she seemed kind to him. He managed to get

I must say she seemed kind to him. seated, and the carriage door was fastened up with a bit of string1. The handle had dropped off a year before, and had never been replaced, inconsequence, Juppexplained to his customers, of the iron trade in the north being choked with foreign orders. So crazy old carriage and crazy old gentleman went off together, creaking and groaning, jolting and ejaculating. And I here declare to you that though I disliked that young woman and despised her fcrtful ways, yet when she was gone out of tbe shop I suddenly discovered that a certain thing in my breast, which I had believed to be dead as a cinder twenty years ago, was hot and lively, just like a young coal new,kindled..

CHAPTER n.

PORTRAIT O* A VIRTUOUS AND MODEST YOUNO MAN. Willie Snow, taking him all around, was one of the finest young men I ever knew. When he was only 15 his father, a bank clerk, died suddenly, leaving behind him a widow, one son, and TO pounds a year. Mrs. Snow lived decently on her income and gave her son a good education and in due time be got a situation at an iron worker's in the city, where he rapidly rose in the esteem of his employers, being clever with bead and band, and well conducted. Willie-had been a good son, and when, a year before this time, hfe mother died of pleurisy, be showed remarkable sorrow, and, indeed, did not pick up bis spirits for many months. He was now in an excellent position. Every one wljo knew the concern in which he was employed declared that Willie Snow must be a junior partner before long—the business could not get on without him. In addition to all this, he was goodlooking. Handsome is scarcely the word to use for, applied to a man, it denotes a style rather more masculine than his. Without tieing the least womanish, there was an indescribable delicacy in Willie's face which prepared yon for an address the most engaging in the world. His eyes ware dear gray his hair dark, and thrown across his toft temple iu becoming irregularity be WMS tall, but not too tall and a particular melancholy in his expression nuade his Kind, frank smile very pleasant to see. You may laugh at old Dr. Book banging over his portrait, but 1 leved tbe lad—every one loved the led.

The girl* especially. A more heart bi raking fellow you could not find in all the west of England and he broke hearts, for ooe reason, Just because he never tried. His "bow d*you do" was always cheerful and, perbape without Intending it, when be saluted young women he let an unusual nJtmm slant out in the odd sidelong look it was his habit to give. However that may have been, he wea the girls' affections everywhere and if 1 war* te count up the one sided k»v* affairs in which he wea the hero-be who never troubled his head about love—I ah««ld nut find the fingers of two pairs of hands *ufHcfe»t for thepwpoaa. WUUe had IMHI favorite ol mine ascbth! and boy and now, though he had reached the age when young maeareapt te target teariy friends, he kept up an unbroken InMasacy wtth tea, and I kaew all tkebaad out* el his Ufa

Have I saM he did not trouble Ms head •bout leva* I ewgfct to naUTy that rtatomest far Jmt now he waa m. the »jfet of

MB^engagea, ana a very pruaenc cnoice ns was about to make. There was a young woman, an orphan like himself, and goodlooking, giving (it is tree) a promise of turning out rather bony when the plumpness of youth wore off. Her manners were pleasant, though people said that the less she knew of you the more she seemed to like you, and that her ways with near friends and relations were ungracious. But she was a thrifty managing girl, and had a small fortune of her own, which already, by her prudence and good sense, had begun to roll over and increase like a great snowball, as is money's way when one knows how to deal with it. This Miss Nancy Steele, of her own free will, fell desperately in love with Willie, and let him know it—cleverly, for she was, clever in all things. I was not quite sure that he loved her back again. And whether he felt flattered at the conquest, or was too good-natured to repel such an advance, or whether motives of prudence weighed with the lad, I need not inquire. The upshot was that affairs between the two were plainly nearing that point where the measure of the young woman's finger is taken. Nancy showed her feelings of triumph by tightening her lips into a smile that told of a strong will rejoicing in its own success the other girls began to flag, seeing that the race was already won and Willie went his common round, easy, good-natured, and as faking as ever. Only the final word had not been spoken. The fish had nibbled, was hooked, and Miss Nancy was just gathering her wrist to swish him on to the land. At that point their love story halts for the present.

The evening of the day upon which Willie met Miss Vanity Hardware in my shop he looked in to see me. Something was on that young man's mind that he was afraid to mention, and he kept talking about a score of matters in which he was not the least Interested. But &e felt interested in something, and deeply, too, for his cheek showed an unusual flush, and he was restless, sitting down, rising up, opening and shutting books, but never looking himself for a moment. At last the secret came out. "Singular old man 1 saw in your shop this morning." "You thought so?" I replied, resolved to give him no help. "That young woman is his daughter, I suppose?" "So I understand."

Nothing more for a moment or two. "Ho is the most singular looking person I oversaw," scud Willie, appearing prodigiously interested in the old man. 'Quite a curiosity." "You thought so?" I remarked again. "A total stranger in Hampton, of course?" Willie went on. "He did not say ho had ever been here before."

The boy looked nonplussed, but soon took courage. "What is his name?" he asked. "Hardware." "What an extraordinary name 1 And whore does he live?" "In the old farm up hill." "Well," said Willie, rising to leave, "ho is a remarkable looking man, and I confess I felt curious to know something about him.'f "Quite right, Will," replied "Better be curious about old men than about young women. You saw nothing striking in the daughter?" did you.

He took me to be serious, speaking as I did in my dry way. "Pretty sort of girl,'' he said, with makebelieve indifference. "A very tolerable girl indeed." "I call her a woman—full grown," said I, emphatically. "Knows more than nine men out of ten, I'll be bound."

But Willie did not seem to hear me he left the shop without another word. From this time forward, whenever he came to see me, his talk was about the Hardwares, and nothing else, except when he branched off on the neighboring subject, Nancy Steele. Willie told me, in one form or another, a considerable portion of the story I am going to repeat to you and all I have tc do is to keep the events and conversations in their proper order, which (as I am writing second hand, and not from my own observation) is uot so oasv as it may seem to those who have never tried to reproduce a long narrative which they heard from another, and that years ago.

A few days after, as Willie was going home to his dinner, he met Miss Vanity walking at her usual active pace, and looking as bandsome as ever, and (ought I to say it?) as braxen. The pair might have changed sexes for a moment the young man blushed like a girl fallen in love for the first time the young woman preserved her easy, rakish air, like a mini pretty well used to love and its etceteras. Willie would have given a ten-pound note for any decent pretext under which be might have spoken to her. As a matter of fact, he stole only one sly glance in passing. Poor boy! he was dressing her in all the tenderness and modesty of his own passion, blind to what every one else could see. I dare my if he had gone straight up to ber and patted her on the cheek she would have laughed and thought him a pleasant young fellow.

It was by no means easy to climb the fence of mystery that shut the Hardwares from public view. You, perhaps, are used to a large town, and know nothing of life in a country village but I assure you where two thousand people live in a neighborhood, everybody knowing everything about everybody else, if all of a sudden two strangers of striking appearance come there and make their abode in an out-of-the-way house, and go on from week to week paying their bills and living respectably, but never giving the smallest account of themsalvee—under circumstances like these, elderly ladies of inquisitive disposition, whose chief amusement iu life is to watch their neighbors through tbe parlor blind, are apt to get as excited as gamblers when play is deep.

One of these excellent ladies, named Mta Axford, was especially anxious to discover everything about the Hardwares. Though nearly 80 years of age she was still sharp and .active, with a palate for spiced gossip.

Morning by morning she went the round of the village, hearing all site could, telling all sba could with uplifted bands and eyes that now and then offered to leap from their sockets. She carried an old red satchel hung over her arm by a steel chain—scandal satchel I called it and wherever she and ber bag went, names and fames were in danger. Miss Axford, as I have said, ran eraay about the Hardware*. Onco every week she wuuki ,«U In upon me. ••Have you heard anything yet, Dr. Wookr "Abrmt what, rnh'smf I would say, knowtog quite well all the time. "About those people in tbe farm on tbe Mil." "Not a word, ma'am, no more than if they wwe ghosta." "I expect you to be able to teO me new*," she would my sharply. She had a hold on ma, bar quarter's account running from three pounds to three pounds ten, for she doctored tbe poor—or thought she did, rather. Generally her mediciam were thrown oat nt tbe b*dc window worn as aba herssK went oat at the front door. ••When I hear anything, ma'am," ray r+ piy wouM be, "you shall know it at onea."

Bat one day aha looked in, fluttering with

"I have heard ran cried. "What amy It b\m

am at last," aha

one leanea across tna counter ana satn, n* an eager whisper: "Two dozen bottles of gin went up there last week—cordial ginl" "Bless me!" said I, which is a remark I often make, because it commits you to nothing. "Cordial gin Is the strongest of all, I believe," she went on. "Bless me!" said I again, for reason as before. "He Is an old sot—a brute beast!" cried Miss Axford as she left me, saticfied for the time with her discovery.

Strange old lady 1 But I have not Inserted her bit of news merely to fill up the page. That would be bad story-telling. No, long enough after, on one awful day, I remembered Miss Axford and her discovery about tlu quarts of cordial gin.

CHAPTER lit

rf. A LOVER'S FANTASIES. Meanwhile Willia Sno^r worked as hard as any of us to get at the secret- Had I not been so fond of the lad I should have laughed many a time to see how in every conversar tion he wound round day all kinds of turns and twists to the one topic. He had a thousand devices for bringing in the name of Vanity Hardware. As follows: "Fine evening, doctor." "Beautiful." "Grand sunset! Did you notice the light on tho hills?' "No I was mixing black draught." "Wonderfully clear it was. One could almost see tbe daisies in the grass a mile off and the windows of the old farm shone and glittered in the sunset." "Shone and glittered, did they?" "Yes and I thought I could see that old solitary sitting in his garden." |l-. "Enjoying the sunset, I suppose."' "I suppose so. By the way, doctor, now that we have mentioned their names, hare you seen the young lady lately?"

Many a time he led me a dance like that and when once he managed to edge Miss Vanity into tho talk, ho took good care not to change the subject. Still, he found out nothing and, to Miss Axford herself, the father and daughter were not more a mystery than to Willie Snow.

His evening walk, however, was always up-hill now. I daro say the sharp eyes of Variity Hardware soon noticed him strolling past the farm evening after evening, and casting wishful looks in at the windows. Very soon she began to reward his pains by a glimpse of her pretty person. She would be opening a window, tying up a straggling flower in the neglected garden, leaning artlessly against the gate and her eyes would meet his. And perhaps when he turned his head to steal another look at her, she would let herself bo oaught in the act of gazing after him Then Willie would go home contented, for his love was so great that a morsel of favor from her was a feast to him. After a time she grew more marked in her signs of kindness. She met him occasionally on the unfrequented road and how those dark, staring eyes set his honest young heart beating none but himself knew.

Beautiful she was as beautiful as Satan himself could wish a wicked woman to be. Every time Willie saw her, his own mind he decked her in some new womanly charm —she was .shy, modest, loving, refined. He tricked her out in all the hues of love's rainbow. 0 days of youth, happy days of first love, when inexperience provides the colors wnH the hand of new-found passion paints the picture! I once sat before the easel myself as fond as ever Willie was but frailty and death long ago rubbed out the picture I drew, aud all of my warm madness is past years ago, except it be certain memories which help me to write this story with a more intelligent pen. Now, who would fancy that old Doctor Book could write like tbatl Ah, friends all, as we meet in tbe street or chat over the news, we are apt to say of each other, "I know him very well but there are secrets in the life you know best wbicl would astonish you, believe me. We shabbj old fellows have our secrets like our bettors Everybody knows that the king does not teL the queen everything and I can assure yot we tradespeople sometimes have old remembrances which, for good or evil, we think it just as well to keep private.

Where have I got to?—Vanity, I was on the point of saying, led Willie on. On a particular evening in June, Willie pursued his upward way, coming to a turn of the road where on either side ran tall hedges, pink aud white with flowers, that made the sunset air sweet, like honey from their thousand breathing blossoms. Who should he gee here but Miss Hardware. Of course she did not know he was near, innocent girl! She was trying might and main to catch at a spray of wild rose that hung temptingly out on high just beyond her reach. What an opening for Willie! Yet, easy as it was, so did he reverence his ideal of this woman that he thought it presumptuous to offer her help. But he plucked up courage. "Can I—can I—do that for youP'

She turned round, her face bright with surprise and pleasure. 'Thank you. I do so wLih for that particular rose."

If the spray had been twenty-flve feet above his head, mark you, Willie would have secured it. In a moment he held tho rose out to her, nently trimmed by his -ready

IB5

mmiml he held the rote out to h*r. pork* knife. She took it gracefully, and seemed quite ready for a conversation but poor Will felt he had done wonders already. '•Good evening," said be, passing on. "Good by," said she gayly. "Ixxks pretty, does it notf*

Looping the spray round her rwtlf hat with skillful fingers, die stood before him, one arm raised over ber bead statue-like, while lure and laughter played trier her face. "Beautffbl, Isn't itf "Wonderfully beautiful," replied WiDia, in a low earnest vokse, and with such a sigh!

H»eu be walked on. Intoxicated. Golden waa the June that year. Long, sanllt dajr* passed Into warm, eloedless evenings aad breathfcm, brilliant, starry nights. Wmie became man regular than ever In his np-hiil wnlka Xor did Vanity give him any rsbuff. Bomsfcsw she managed to meet him OMMta«tly atoMpartfoukr spot where toll trees shnnsd the road, aad fmm w!' distort Ian da rape ewdd he aeen la

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roee-blossom interview she dropped him easy, familiar nod, which he returned in shape of a respectful salute, hat in air aud best Sunday manners. So that evening passed.

Again they met, and she stopped to speak with him, saying a few light nothings while he was all diffidence and "yes" and "no." She shot a smile and went on, laughing in her sleeve, no doubt, at his sheepishness. And yet his look—his clear, honorable eyesought to have touched her somewhere but I suppose it was not in her to know that deep, pare love—love that was like a senaitiv plant—made this brave, manly fellow shy as* a girl when she was near. Frivolous and Frenchified as she was, Vanity could not read his behavior aright yet possibly h? character was printing itself on her mind a the time, especially as the hour of intef pretation drew nearer. Anyhow, she amused herself with him and amusement must havr been rare thing in hfer dreary life.at Tun bledown Farm.

So Vanity and Willie met frequently: talking about weather, scenery, news, ai^ trifle, while his heart was full of passion she all glance and smile, letting off flights of a^, rowy pleasantries barbed with mock tender ne*s, little suggestive sayings, laughs tippet with a sigh—all meant to insinuate "I at dying for you!" but quite capable, you o'. serve, of being explained as meaning nobhin at alL And so in these bits of talk snatch© in that sunset lane, Vanity caused Willie 1 fall more desperately in love with her evei day though as yet he had not dared

breathe to her a word about his feelings. one way she set bounds to his passion: & freedom, her frivolity—which a harsh tongu might call looseness—troubled him, aud mad him thoughtful at times. He would ha liked a little more reserve, a touch of maide modesty which he missed. But he was love, and of course explained her faults perfections in plain clothes.

What was Miss Nancy Steele doing all th time? Biting her finger-nails, I suspect tightening her lips, tossing her haughty head clinching her fist, but not giving up tb game for lost, not if her name was Nanc Steele. That Willie was cooling toward she could not but discover no barometer sensitive to changes of atmosphere as a man's instinct to changes in the man si loves. But Nancy was a long-headed gii and knew that there may be many turns 1 the lane before the last turn of all. Othe girls would have flown into a passion, qua reled with their lover, and wound up tho fair with tears, reproaches and a split N Nancy 1 She may have fumed and sobbe but this was in secret and as to quarreliii she would pick her time for that like a wi: woman. However, she got scent of Willie' evening walks, and thought she might take walk herself now and then.

By this artful conduct on the part of Ml Nancy Willio was put in a fix. When the met she smiled and chatted as usual, nev reproving his coldness even by a glance. Sfc her cleverness! By her cool, judicious condu instead of loosening hold on Willie sho rath made her grasp firmer. Had she broken ice the young man in his straightforward would have acknowledged the change in feelings, and Nancy must have set him fr from an obligation which, so far, was mi only, not legal. But by giving him the move, so to speak, she embarrassed him yond measure. She still smiled and tlrr sunshine over her face whenever they txf and high-minded, tender-hearted Willie'it soned with himself that ho was in hor bound to signify that he loved somebt else.

I have always been of opinion that, fr motherless girl of 30, Nancy showed rema able discretion and, remember, it was for the boy's good for any sensible fat", would have been pleased to see his son Nancy husband. Who could say that of dr flashy Vanity Hardware? And.which of tl rivals won—the dark-eyed beauty on thehil side, or the shrewd, managing lass belo Can you guess? I guessed at the time—ai was wrong. "Doctor," said Willie to me one evenin. "I feel like a schemer. I have been rathe sweet upon Nancy Steele for a long time. What roust I do?" "Marry ber," I replied. "Take her to hav® aud to hold from this day forward." "But I don't love her," he answered, "a I do love Miss Hardware—passionately." "Then let Miss Nancy know," I said grav ly. "Honor bright, Will." "I will let ber know," cried Willie, "t very night." "Steady, my lad. steady," said I "you have not asked the other girl yet! Perhap she won't say yes, for all your coaxing, may bave another string to her bow, or hall a dozen other strings. For the matter ol that," said I, growing angry, "she may hav as many strings as David's harp, and playing a different tune on every strin Walt and see, Will wait and see. Stea^t does it!"

For, you observe, I wished him not break with Nancy while any hope of th» being married remained. He was such 1 excellent young fellow, and I felt so fond him that all my desire was to see him oth fortably settled in life. There were t) makings of a respectable man in Willie, steady husband and a good father. Now, ask you, should such a lad marry a prej| whirligig?,,., fc Continued.] '6

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