Aikenside

ittle farther on the white sunbonnet which shaded the sweet, pale face, where the roses were just beginning to bloom again. The doctor was very happy that morning, and so, too, was Maddy, talking

eaning back in the buggy Maddy heaved a little sigh, not at thoughts of Guy Remingt

kin to jealousy as it was possible for him then to feel. But all unused as he was to the workings of love he did not at that moment dream of such an emotion in connection with Madeline Clyde. He on

nding horses' heads were visible, and the Aikenside carriage appeared in view. "There he is now,"

r, and guessed whom he had with him, Putting up her glass, for which she had no more need than Jessie, she scrutinized the little figure bundled up in shawls, while she sm

Maddy asked, turning to look after the c

Remington," the doctor replied. "She'l

She is handsome, beautiful, and so young, too. Wa

not noticed. Gold bracelets were not new t

l ever wear a br

ich the dark calico sleeve was closely buttoned, and thinking how much prettier and

ewelry. "I guess I would, though grandpa classes all such things with

that be?" the

me some. I know it is wrong, but I cannot help it. I've seen only a bit of pomp and vanity, but I must say that I like what I have seen, and I wish to see more. I

red, half sadly: "No, Maddy, I am not what you call a Chr

ssed all the sorrow she professed to feel.

ing his horse under the dim shadow of

only ten years older than yourself; and Agnes'

lts, so far from the pang caused by Maddy's thinking him so old, was born the first real consciousness he had ever had that the little girl beside him was very dear, an

e must be most glad he's dead. I would not mar

u very, very dearly?" the doctor asked

't. Grandma is five years younger than grandpa, mother was five years younger than father, Mrs. Green is five years younger than Mr. Green, and, oh! ever so many. You are warm, too; ain't you?" and she turned her innocent eyes full upon the doctor, who was wiping from his lips t

ine," the doctor said. "Agnes was poor, and este

en maybe Mr. Guy will some day marry

ave any thoughts of Guy Remington, who was quite as old as himself, besides being engaged, and with this comforting assu

o much older, and if you do you'll remember our talk this

ng no tremor whatever when at parting he took and held her hand, smoothing it gently, and telling her it was growing fat and plump again. He was a very nice doctor, much better than she had imagined, sh

a carriage?" grandma asked,

her husband-isn't it dreadful? I thought so; but the doctor didn't seem to," and in a perfectly artless manner Maddy repeated much of the conv

ent by, even looking at us through a glass, and lifting her spotted veil after she got by. She may have been as happy as a queen with her man, but as a general thing these unequal matches don't work, and had better not be thought on. S'posin' yo

f the one great living sorrow of her grandmother's life-the shattered intellect and isolation from the wo

bringing a pillow, and lying down upo

and she was only sixteen when they got engaged. Joseph's life was bound up in her; he worshiped the very air she breathed, and when she mittened him, it almost took his life. He was too old for her, she said, and then right on top of that we heard after a little that she married some big bug, I never knew who, plenty old enough to be her father. That settled it with Joseph; he went int

le Joseph as a warning to Maddy, who could scarcely be said to need it. Still it made an impression on her, and all that afternoon she was thinking of the unfortunate man, whom she had seen but once, and that in his prison home, where she had been wit

replied, and wondering if she were as beautiful as Jessie, or Jessie's mother, Maddy