Jessie Graham

here Walter's mother died, and which Jessie now called hers. She was weaker than usual, and the hectic spot upon her cheek was larger and brighter, w

ast, "isn't the omnibus

h I did not tell him in my last how weak you are, as you kn

heek was almost a blood-red hue when she heard the

alone,-all the evening alone;-will you? It's right," she continued, as she

k of her child. She did not know the whole. She could not guess how thoroughly selfish was the man who was deliberately breaking her daughter's heart, or sh

and Jessie, I suppose, and the f

while he poured again into Ellen's ear the story of his love, telling her how inexpressibly dear she was to him, and that but for circumstances which he could not control, he would prove his assertion true by making her at once his wife. Then the long eyelashes dro

be your wife; and if I did it don't matter now, for I am goi

the unnatural luster of her eye,-and felt that she told him truly. And thinking that

you. If I should take you to Florida as

now that he had asked her this, all the energies of life were roused within her,

" and raising herself up, she wound her arms arou

k of some excuse,-some good reason for retracting the proposition which had been received so differently from what

do what my heart dictates, but I am not. Listen, Nellie, and then you shall decide. Perhaps

this falsehood, but not one-half as m

d faintly; "Jessi

hose they love," said William, and fixing

ie love yo

we have been so much together as we have this winter, Jessie had learned to love me very much, and that my marrying another now would break her heart, what would you have me do? I know you must think it wrong in me to talk of love to you, knowing what I did, but struggle as I would, I could no

ave pained her more. Folding her hands together, she lay so still that it seemed almost like the stillness of death, and Wil

s of her hands and about her mouth, for it was like tearing out her very life, deciding to gi

kind to them all. Jessie would make William a far more suitable wife than she could. His proud relatives would scoff at her, and perhaps if she should live and marry him

s get well if th

not too far advanced," was the answer,

there were no Jessie, and would it not be better to give him up at once? Yes, it would, she said, and just as William began a second time to

ould not marry Jessie, that she alone should be his wife; and when she answered that it must not be, that at the longest she could live but a short time, he felt in his villainous, selfish heart that he was glad sh

lf tempted to undeceive her, to tell her it was all false, that story of himself and Jessie,-but gold was dearer to him than aught else on earth, and so he did not do it.

ssie, who might not like to have the matter talked about, as it is not p

e deacon by this time had declared "there was no sense in them two staying in the

m that he felt a pang lest he might have lost a little of her love, which, in spite of his selfishness, was very dear to him. After he was gone, Ellen told her mother of their mutual love, which never could be consummated, because she must die; but she said nothing of Jessie, and the deluded woman

he good

e night a lady stood at the farm-house do

d, "but a mother has a right to visit her daught

who before had scarcely noticed him, but they could not understand it until they saw the lady in their midst, affable and friendly to them all, but especially to poor sick Nellie, to whom she attached herself at once. Very rapidly each grew to liking the other. Mrs. Bellenger, because the gentle invalid bore her daughter's na

o confide in you," she said, "an

toward him, and when the latter said, "He spoke of taking me to Florida," she thought at once that her money should pay the bills, and that she t

ie, whose claim was better than mine," and the

g, and Jessie has been so kind to me that I want to give h

ere no Jessie Graham. His parents are not like you; they mi

rt,-could he have known how easily Ellen's wasted hand could unlock her coffers and give him

n ere long, returned to the city, where rumor was already busy with the marriage which the