LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 101, 26 September 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

LOVE OR MONEY.

[From Bon Bells .] Concluded.

A farmer going homeward early, carried him in his cart, and he was cared for as well as he might be ; but a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder are no light matters, and Dolly hardly knew what to do or where to turn. She was only sure of one thing, her love for her Richard, which grew greater with every trial. For the sake of this, she put her pride down, and leaving the servant with her husband one day, trudged over to her uncle’s house. As she drew near, she reflected on the fact that she was actually in need of charity. It was a bitter thought. She paused within sight of the house, hardly daring to go on ; and as she did so, she saw that all the blinds were down. Some one was dead. Faint with terror, Dolly hurried on. _ In the hall, her sisters who had seen her coming, hastened to meet her. Uncle Gillet was dead. He had expired suddenly at the dinner-table, and the ladies were overcome with grief and excitement. But they put their arms about Dolly, and promised her to do all they could. ‘ Just now it isn’t much,’ said Georgina. * But we shall be rich women, and will help you constantly.’ 1 1 knew poor Dr Rush conldn’t get on,’ said Milly, ‘ Poor dear man. He shall see that we can be friends ; and if you like, we’ll take two of the children.’

‘Never that,’ said poor Dolly. ‘Thank you ; but they are our jewels.’ Georgina sighed. ‘ Uncle meant kindly,’ she said. But it is hard. We’re lonely sometimes, Dolly; Milly only meant that.’ Then Dolly’s heart melted. ‘ They shall come to see you often,’ she said.

And she went into the dead man’s chamber and wept over the quiet figure lying there ; and went home again with her dole of wine and jelly, and a few sovereigns. ‘ We’ll be able to do so much more,’ said Milly, ‘ when the will has been read.’ ‘ You’ve paid dearly for yielding to me, Dolly,’ said the suffering man, as she ministered to him. ‘ Don’t you wish you were still Miss Gillet and an heiress f

But Dolly said ‘ No ’ from her heart. Neither did she feel anything but tender sorrow for the prejudiced old man, whom she had been very fond of. ‘ I chose,’ she said to herself, ‘ and I chose well.’ She went to the funeral, Georgina sending her black dress. And as she sat in the parlour afterwards, awaiting the reading of the will, her thoughts wandered back into the past; and the monotonous rendering of the saids and foresaids made no impression upon her, until her own name caught her ear. Then she looked up. Millicent and Georgina were both staring hard at her. ‘ What is it V she asked, timidly. ‘ I did not hear.’ Millicent had covered her face with her handkerchief, and was crying. Georgina had flushed red as a peony. ‘ It means that we’ve been slaves all these years for nothing,’ she said. ‘You are the heiress. What have you been thinking of, that you have not heard V What Georgina said was true. Eccentric to the last, Uncle Gillet had left all his fortune to the niece who had married, because, as he stated, she had proved to him that there

was such a thing as love in the world ; and had left to his single nieces, who had crushed their hearts for money’s sake, a hundred pounds a-year, lest some fortune-hunter should marry them for their money. Yes, Dolly was the heiress ; and Dr Rush might take his own time in getting well, and have no anxiety about money ; and for this reason Dolly was glad ; but she said to her sisters that what was hers was theirs, and soothed them with tender, loving kindness for tbeir great disappointment. Georgina lives with her still, but Millicent does not. Rufus King heard of what had happened, and came back to Atwater; He had a bald head, and her pink cheeks were gone ; but they both remembered the apple orchard, and so there was another wedding. And somebody told me, the other day, that Oliver Robb, having lost his first wife, had been heard to say that Georgina Gillet was the finest-looking lady in Atwater, if she was forty. So who knows what may happen next 7