Dr. Heidenhoff's Process

ing flirtation between his sweetheart and the handsome drug-clerk he had all this time no suspicion whatever. Spending his days from dawn to sunset in the shop among men, he was not

er wilfulness to be sure that any attempted interference by him would only make matters worse. Moreover, now th

was a measure of success quite enough to intoxicate so ardent and humble a lover as he. And, indeed, what lover might not have taken courage at remembering the sweet pity that shone in her eyes at the revelation of his love-lorn state? The fruition of his hopes, to which he had only dared look forward as possibly awaiting him somewhere in the dim future, was, maybe, almost at hand. Circumstances combined to prolong these rose-tinted dreams. A

about it. It did seem very long ago to her, but to him it was very fresh. This cool ignoring of all that had happened that day in modifying their relations at one blow knocked the bottom out of all his thinking for the past week, and left him, as it were, all in the air. While he felt that the moment was not

quite extensive alteration

ow, if any one. You pass his ho

I know," he said

't he?' And naturally I presumed

as if patiently and rather wearily explaining a misunderstanding. As she pla

as the matter with you if you were a man?"

you prefer gentlemen's society, you'd better seek it, inste

ouldn't say anythin

e admitted, with a faint smile. Her look was

deline? Tell me, for God's sake!" he cri

eally wish you wouldn't use profane language,"

ll? It's only

sure. Would you like me

I didn't m

d to rest back on the top of her chair, as if it were too

t not to have kept

" she observe

feel better i

stant, but withdrew it without returning his pressure, and

d, in fact, thought of scarcely anything else during his call. It was that which made her so hard with him, that lent such acid to her tone and

im. How could I think I would ever

ked. She admitted that she had been on the point of going across the street to make a call which had been too long delayed, but wouldn't he come in. No, he would not detain her; he would call again. But he lingered a moment on the steps while, standing on the threshold, she played with a

re I go," and she looked at him with a charmingly frank air of asking for sympathy, at the same ti

hen," he said, somewhat

not help the thought, and yet what could be more frank and sunshin

ra and he were at c

ot out. Do you know?" he sai

N

ndly with her as you used

d very handsome, with a flush in either cheek, and walking with her was the new drug-clerk. She seemed a little confused at meeting Henry, and fo

ienation. Mechanically he walked on and on, too stunned to think as

rn back, hear?" said

a lonely country road. They turned, and she said, softly, in

ou. She set her cap at him from the first. Don't take

never foreign, else he could not have had that intuitive sense of intimateness with her which makes each new trait which she reveals, while a sweet surprise, yet seem in a deeper sense familiar, as if answering to some pre-existing ideal pattern in his own heart, as if it were something that could not have been different. In after years he may grow rich in land and gold, but he never again will have such sense of absolute right and eternally foreordained ownership in any thing as h

sk of an additional snub or two counted for nothing to deter him. The very next day he left the shop in the afternoon and called on her. Her rather constrained and guarded manner was as if she thought he had come to call her to account, and was prepared for him. He, on the contrary, tried to look as aff

s not very well this afternoon, and I feel that I ought not to leave her." Sm

deed. Is your moth

presume she will be q

if she is better? The river road which you

good, but I think riding is rather l

at he had been duly persistent. There was an awkward silence of a few moments, and he was just a

hink I hear my mother ca

sat down with an absent and preoccupied e

he mere purpose of escorting her home. Henry doggedly resolved that she should choose between them then and there, before all the people. The closing hymn was sung, and the buzz of the departing congregation sounded in his ears as if it were fa

ble about closing the melodeon. She opened and closed it again. At length, finding no further excuse for delaying, she came slowly down the aisle, looking a little pale herself. Several of the village young folks who understo

if he might take her home. Bowing to him with a gracious smile of decli

night, beyond the illumination of the po

pected he would pull out a revolver and sho

you are glad, I dar

and I suppose he's as sorry as he can be. I can't imagine any man in

ittle, colder than the words, and h

done?" she asked, in a tone of anxious deprecation which no

eassurance. "It is I that am ill-tempered. I couldn't help thinking from the way this Burr pursue

ngaged. I couldn't bear him. I

any confessions to me. I have no right to call yo

s if the words had hurt her like a knife. "He liked me, but I didn't like

to tenderness. There was an impassioned reconciliation, to which poor Henry was the sacrifice. Now that he threatened to cost her the smiles of the man she loved, her pity for him was changed into resentment. She said to herself that it was mean and cruel in him to keep pursuing her. It never occurred

face. At first she seemed rather unpleasantly startled, and made as if she would pass him without giving him an oppor

alone, after this? Your a

ence, and stood motionless for a long time. That was all that was wanting to make his loss complete-an angry

's th