By the Light of the Soul

cially as applied to her father, had no more meaning for her than a term in a foreign tongue. She was very p

e niece. "Yes, courtin'," she said, harshly. "I've been suspectin' for some time, an' now I know. A man, when he's left a widower, d

It was a fact that she had thought of her father as being as much married a

d Aunt Maria, "and you may as well make up your mind t

gaspe

ife in her New England village, and her hundred dollars a year, which somehow did not seem as great a glory to her as it had formerly done. She went to the parlor windows and closed them with jerks, then she

as still in a sort of daze-

ll for the best." Aunt Maria's voice sounded as if she were trying to reconcile the love of God with the existence of hell

place, but her little-girl ideas of eligibility were at fault. She thought only of women of her mother's age and staidness, who wore bonnets. She could think of only two, one a widow, one a spinster. She shuddered at the idea of either. She felt that she would much rather have had her father marry Aunt Maria than either of those women. She did not altogether love Aunt Maria, but at least she was used to her. Suddenly it occurred to her that Aunt Mar

unt Maria call

id that her fa

a," she replied. Then sh

s the

om to her aunt's bed. "Oh, Aunt Ma

, in an embrace of genuine affection and pity. She, too, felt that here was a common cause, and not only that, but sh

e was a child of spiritual rather than physical affinities, and the contact of Aunt Maria'

edly, with a curious passion and ab

ria's hearing was slightly defective, espe

t Maria,

any open court to anybody, that I

wh

da Sl

ounger than m

like her all the better for that. You can thank your stars

er aunt Maria's shaking her violently and calling her by name, but she did not respond, although she heard her plainly. Then she felt a great jounce of the bed as her aunt sprang out. She continued to lie still and rigid. She somehow knew, however, that her aunt was lighting the lamp, then she felt, rather than saw,

d. He also laid hands on Maria, and,

is the matter?"

with a reproachful accent on the "I"; but Harry Edgham was too genuinely conc

her's darling," he whispered. Then he said over his shoulder to Aunt Maria, "I

n, and Maria's father made her swallow a few drops, which im

he rest of the night," said Harry to his sister

back to my own

er stay with you

ping, and he knew why, in the depths of his soul. He saw no good reason why he should feel so s

and he lifted up the slight little thing, carried he

the coverings over her with clumsy solicitude. Then he bent down and kissed h

Her face, from grief and consternation, ha

," sai

dgham s

pleasant interrogation, althou

a small one, which she

your lamp, M

on her swollen face, at once piteous and wrathful. "I

too fast!" replied Harry, and

by the thinness of the fabric-went to school, she knew, the very moment that Miss Ida Slome greeted her, that Aunt Maria had been right in her surmise. For the

tle thing," sa

ria was in most of her classes. She took her place, with her pretty smile as set as

a sudden, ain't you?" said

and went to

ge in Miss Slome's manner towards her. It was noticeable even in clas

rejoinder the night before. She begun to won

said, privately, to Maria

et little thing, and

she ever

ma'

ybe I was mistaken. The way your father s

rst time had been Wednesday, and Wednesday and Sunday, in all provincial localities, are the acknowledged courting nights. Of course it somet

went to bed every night before Harry came home, a

ost flesh, and his mother told Aunt Maria that she was really worrie

ove with the teacher, a woman almost if not quite old enough to be

ied so far into the wheels of life that it was too much for her. Her father, of late, had been kinder than ever to her; Maria had begun to wonder if she ought not to be glad if he were happy, and if she ought not to try to love Miss Slome. But this afternoon depression overcame her. She walked slowly between the fields, which were white and gold with queen's-lace and golden-rod. Her slender shoulders were bent a little.

" he

a little. She

" she

eanest in New Jersey, he is the meanest man in the whole

who did not understand; but she

so there!

g to marry

if he is," said Maria, forc

, if she'd only waited, and he h

of golden-rod and queen's-lace. Maria, watching, saw him throw himself down prone in the midst of the wild-flowers, and she understood that he was crying because the tea