"How cool and sweet your room always smells, Mollie, but then how could it be otherwise? I never have time or patience to fuss as you do over a room, in fact, mother often scolds me for being downright untidy with mine, but I tell her life is too short to waste it in sweeping and dusting. Just look at this window seat, girls! Isn't it the prettiest, daintiest dream of a cozy corner you ever saw? We can't possibly find a cooler placelet's all sit down and have a quiet talk by ourselves." The voice was high and clear, and floated down from the open window above, to where a man lay stretched at full length on the lawn beneath, in the grateful shade of the trees, and the rose festooned porch. At the words he stirred in patiently, and, muttering something about "girls gabble," turned over, and tried to pick up the tangled thread of his thoughts where it had been broken. But owing to the continuous chatter going on over his head, he found this impossible, and was about to rise and move away, when a sentence or two, uttered in the same shrill high pitched tone caught his attention, and half unconscious of the breach of good breeding of which he was guilty, he lay still and listened. "Yes, I called on her yesterday," Lena Abbott was saying, "You know they have been married near ly six months and I thought it about time, but really, girls, I never was more surprised in my life. Just think of it! they are living in three small rooms, and more scantily furnished ones you never could imagine. Oh, of course, I don't mean that they are destitute, or anything like that, but, honestly, there isn't a single thing in the place more than bare necessity calls for. Why, would you believe it! She hasn't even a dresser in her bedroom,-just a paltry homemade affair that she and Walter contrived together! The kitchen floor was bare, and she was on her knees scrubbing it when I went in. Everything was neat as wax, of course, Rose would never have things any other way. But the most surprising part of it was the way she took it. She wasn't the least bit embarrassed, you know what a pretty way she always had, but invited me in just as calm and unruffled as if she were in their own elegant parlor at home. Why, in her place, I think I should have died of chagrin! She seemed perfectly happy and contented too, and was full of bright plans for the future when she and Walter should have saved enough to buy a little home of their own. Imagine Rose Wheeler having to economize and drudge ike that when she might have done so much better." "Well, I admire her pluck," broke in a soft pretty voice. "She is a brave, true girl and must have loved him very dearly else she would never have chosen him." "I ove!" scoffed Lena. "I daresay she did, but how foolishly sentimental to spoil all her prospects by marrying a poor man, when she tight have had Willis Whitaker, with his thousands. I have no patience with anything so silly! I felt like telling her so yesterday, but she looked so sweet and smiling, that somehow I hadn't the heart. Anyway, there isn't any need of beginning like that. Times. have changed since our grandmother's day, when they used to commence housekeeping with a dry goods box for a table, and one wooden stool between them. There is too much money nowadays to warrant anything of the kind. Really, I think any girl who permits herself to be placed in Rose Wheeler's position deserves to be pitied. Raised in luxury and ease, she has never known what it is to have her slightest wish remain nugratified. Petted, and idolized always, her life has been a beautiful, delightful dream which she has thrown what? away, for The doubtful pleasure of sharing a man's poverty, of toiling and slaving with him through long years of petty scheming, grinding want, and privation, that in the end they may-perhaps -have a place of their own in which to die. Ugh! What a hidUgh! What a hideous nightmare such an existence would be to me, and I should end by hating him, and despising myself for having muddled things so. No, thanks, I will have none such in mine. The man whom I shall marry must come to me with full hands, able to give me all the good things of the world, else I shall remain an old maid to the end of my days." "Poor Billy Ashley!" interposed a laughing voice, which the listener readily recognized as that of his sister Mollie. "Why not tell him this at once, Lena, and spare him further trouble of lavishing all his earnings upon you as he has been doing for the last year or two. Theatre and concert tickets every week, with supper afterwards at the most select cafe in town, and balls and parties, and candies and ice cream, and all kinds of other extravagancies thrown in, wont help Billy's twenty dollars a week very far on the road towards the fortune you're dreaming about, Lena, my dear." "Well, I can't help that," retorted the other somewhat sharply. "That is his affair, not mine. As long as he chooses to throw his money away in my direction, I should be very foolish, I think, to interfere. But, I'll never marry him, nor any other man, unless I am sure he can make life for me just as smooth, and easy and pleasant as it has always been. I am sure no self-respecting girl could ask less than that." At this juncture Mark Stanford rose to his feet and walked slowly away down the rose bordered path. The air was fragrant with the scent of flowers, and high in the branches of the trees overhead, a wild canary warbled as if trying to burst its little throat, but the young man saw nor heard nothing, for his heart was heavy and troubled. "What a shallow, selfish girl Lena Abbott is," he thought, "and how I pity the fellow, whoever he may be, who is so unfortunate as to win her for his wife. But no matter what she is, she has drawn for me a very good picture of what poverty means-must mean to most women. A thing to goad, and sting and torture! And if it appeals in this way to a girl of Lena Abbott's temperament what would it prove to be to one so refined and sensitive as Virginia Daines? And an hour or two ago I contemplated offering her this very thing-was mad enough to think she might, for love of me, be willing to give up her beautiful, care-free life here at home, and go with me away out there among the hills to-the best I could offer her- a miserable existence of toil and hardship My beautiful, tenderly reared Virginia! How could I expect such a thing of her? Lena said she would. grow to hate the man and herself, and perhaps after awhile, if things went wrong, Virginia might-but no,—she would never learn to hate me, but in time maybe, I should see her grow tired and worn and regretful-no! I'll not ask it of her, it wouldn't be fair.” For a long time he stood looking, with eyes that saw not over the orchards and fields beyond, then said moodily to himself: "There is no other course left for me to take, I shall have to release her from her engagement to me,I'll write today-and then go off by myself and fight it out. Mark Stanford and Virginia Daines had been betrothed for over a year, and a gloriously happy year it had been for them both. Virginia was the child of well to do parents, and with a snug competence of his own earning in the bank, Mark congratulated himself on being able to provide a home for the girl he loved suitable to her position in society. From the first the course of their love seemed to run delightfully smooth, and, as parents and friends alike were well pleased with the match, preparations were being made for their marriage in the early autumn. All this had been a week ago but the past few days had brought financial disaster to the young man, and sweeping away the earnings of years, had plunged him into the depths of doubt and despair. That same afternoon he wrote to Virginia, telling her of his misfortune, and releasing her from her promise to become his wife, giving as a reason, that, as he was now a poor man, and it would doubtless be years, if ever, before he could again offer her a home such as she had been used to, or any of the things that made life worth living to a woman, she would see, of course, that it was best for them to give each other up at once. To another the letter must have seemed cold and unfeeling, but the girl who knew, and loved him, read between the lines and understood. In answer she telephoned, "Come down. tonight, I want to have a talk with you." At the words, his spirits rose considerbly. What if matters were not so desperate after all; and there might still be something better in store for them than this final separation, that to him seemed the end of all things. He knew Virginia loved him dearly, had she not shyly whispered the sweet assurance many times to him during the past year?-what if-how his heart bounded at the thought!-she should refuse to accept her freedom, should insist on sharing his lot, poverty notwithstanding. But again his spirits sank. Ought he, who sought her happiness above all else in the world, to allow her to make such a sacrifice? It was with emotions like these contending alternately in his breast that Mark presented himself in the Daines' drawing-room that evening. Seated, awaiting her coming at one end of the long room, its exquisite furnishings, its luxurious richness, the dainty blending of color and effect everywhere, all evidences of wealth and refined taste, whispered to him of Virginia, and again he wondered how he dared dream of the possibility of her leaving all this for the little he could offer her. Because every clamoring need of his heart and life cried out for the love of this girl was no reason why she should give herself to him, to her own future undoing. After all it was not his happiness that was to be considered; yet as his dreams rose to confront him he bowed his head on his hands, misery again overwhelming him. Behind him the silken portieres parted, and a girl's white clad figure of very erect carriage, proud eyes, and a mouth that could smile sweetly, or close resolutely, glided in. The thick carpet gave forth no sound so he did not hear her as she entered and stood just inside the door. For an instant she looked at him, and seeing his drooping, dejected attitude a soft light, of almost infinite pity and tenderness overspread her features. The next moment he felt her presence, and springing to his feet came forward with eager, outstretched hands to greet her. "Virginia!" he said, and one needed but the word uttered as he spoke it to understand the deep, abiding love which filled his whole being for the girl before him. "I am very glad to see you, Mr. Stanford," she replied very politely, giving him the mere tips of her slim fingers. "I hope I have not kept you waiting very long.' Mr. Stanford! Bending quickly forward, his troubled eyes searched her face, and, chilled by the expression which he thought he saw there, he turned, and scarcely knowing what he did, resumed his seat. And she, looking as dainty, and cool, and sweet as the bunch of roses fastened in the front of her dress, wheeled a chair around and sat down at a friendly distance from him. "I wanted to tell you how sorry I am over your loss," she said, sweetly, breaking a rather embarrassing pause. "I only heard of it this morning. Have you learned all of the details? Is everything entirely gone, and is it true that the bank can do nothing at all for its creditors? "Yes, quite true," he replied in answer to her last question. "They have been on the verge of failure for months, they tell me, and are irretrievably ruined." "I hear there are many poor, aged people who have lost all their little savings in the crash; I feel so sorry for them" she went on softly, "What shall you do?" she asked, meeting his gaze with calmly i terested eyes. For a moment he could not answer, so bitter was the feeling of disappointment which swept over him. Could it be that this proud, cool young woman was the tenderhearted, sympathetic Virginia he had known? And the broken engagement was apparently troubling her not at all; perhaps even now she was congratulating herself on her lucky escape from a marriage with a poor man. "Oh I shall do well enough," he said as soon as he could control his voice. voice. "I am thinking of going north. Away up there among the mountains, in the loneliest spot you ever saw, there is a big tract of land belonging to me that, until lately, I had nearly forgotten. It is wild and unbroken, and miles from anywhere, but just the place for an enterprise I have in mind. With mon |