His Heart's Queen

se very sad and almost stunned by the bl

nd give him as good an education as possible, for he was a lad possessing more than ordinary capabilities and attainments. By the time, however, that he graduated from the high school in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, where they

he resolved to take up the carpenter's trade, much about which he already knew, for d

onstruction of buildings would be of inestimable benefit in the future, for he

, and the man readily agreed to engage him, provided he would be willing to go to Cincinnati, where he had

the thought of leaving his mother, and at that ti

ade himself so valuable to his employer that the man had increased his wages, and

Wallace to send for his mother and to p

y, while he also attended an evening school for drawing, wh

t the opening of our story, six years after leaving his native city, Boston, we find him and his mother s

pted, and fairly well paid for, while he had applied for, and hoped to obtain, a lucra

the company that controlled the incline-plane railway had agreed to meet all the expenses of his illness, and pay him

ut, to the study of his beloved art. His right hand, being only slightly injured he could use qui

d him. He had never thought that she could die at least for long y

en Mrs. Richardson suddenly broke off in the middle of a sentence, leaned back in h

physician declared that life was entirely extinct and then the heavil

f the funeral, when he went alone into their pretty parlor

im as he had said, and in the sudden reaction and surprise

his return from the grave of his mother, he had an

nd of the beautiful heiress, for he could offer her nothing but his true hear

ve, but he had seen it in her shy, sweet glance of surprise and joy at his confession; he had felt it in the clinging clasp of her trembling fingers, th

rling," or only glad because her presence

ating those three words over and over unt

he must not accept the pr

ised myself; I have gone too far to retract, and she would dee

at course to pursue, and finally he

sorrow for my presumption and ask her forgiveness; then I must t

kfast, which a kind and sympathizing neighbor sent in to him

young girl received

so unguardedly as I did yesterday, when we stood alone by my mother's casket. Pray forgive me, for, while I am bound to confess that the words were forced from me by a true, strong love, which will always live in my heart-a love such as a man experiences but once in his life for a woman whom he would win for his wife, if he could do so honorably-I know that, situated as I am, with a lif

erely

e Richa

ts of this letter, and burst into a floo

od just how

as an invalid in his home; how, with his proud, manly sense of honor, he had determined never to reveal his secret, from a fear that h

h; that a grand future lay before him-grand because he would climb to the top-most round in th

ey was of little value compared with a nature so ric

e precious letter that told of his love for her. "I am no

lution, and, for a moment, a sense of maidenly reserve and timidity opp

money enough for us both, for the present, and by and by I know he will have an abundance. I suppose Belle and Wilhelm will object and sc

still glittering on her lashes and a crimson flush on her

riting thus, when your communication does not really call for a reply, but I know my happiness, and, I believe, yours also, depends upon perfect truthfulness and candor. Your

, much less of domestic misery, if people would be honest with each other and true to themselves. How many lives are ruined by the worship of mammon-by the bondage of position! Perhaps I might be accused of 'presumption'-of offending against all laws of so-called etiquette

t Hunt

w herself to read ove

bating whether to tear it into pieces and thus cast her happiness forever from her with the fragments, or to send it and trust to Wallace'

e she posted it with her own hands, after which she sped back to her

hat it was past recall. She grew nervous and self-abusive, declared t

nsexing herself and almost proposing to him? Would he, with his exaggerated ideas of honor

the following afternoon, when she expected a letter f

nd from the all-important theme, by going over her music lesson for to-morrow. It was useless, howev

te that words had no meaning for her, and she finally grew so

e point of going up stairs to bed, when a sudden ring at the d

t went to answer the summons, and then he

ed in the library doorway, bea

let," she said, as she pass

nd brow, as she read the name of Wallace Richardson, writt