LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1081, 14 December 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

ONE OF THE WORLD’S SACRIFICES. [ Argosy."] (Continued.) Ethel sighed. That his entire stay might be as long as that she knew ; but he would come homo between whiles. It was one of the most painful evenings Ethel had ever passed—perhaps more painful than any she ever would pass. Her father and mother were weeping and wailing at the possibility of losing her, and, as Mr Strong put it, how could the house go on without Ethel now? it chanced that at this time her brother was away ; ho had gone to spend a few days with some friends at a distance. Had he been at home ho might have taken up his sister’s cause, and results might have been different; she often thought so in after years. He was one year older than herself, and he loved her very dearly. Mr and Mrs Strong had married late in life ; he was turned sixty now—she fast approaching it. So Ethel’s fate was sealed. Her father finally declared that she should be left to her own free decision to go or stay. But how could she decide against them ? She believed that her duty lay in remaining in the old farm homestead, and she was too good a daughter to rebel against it. All night long, lying on the snowy bed in her pretty room, she did battle with her inclinations, and prayed to be helped to bear the travail and the sorrow. She did not forget her appointment for seven o’clock, and went out as the clock struck. Henry May was already at the lawn gate. Years after he remembered—he ever would remember—the picture she made, as she came slowly down the path, the morning sunlight kissing her nut-brown hair, the faint Hush on her young cheeks, while the birds were singing in the trees and the dew glistened on the grass. Extending his hand, he took hers within it in silence, and looked at her steadfastly and searchingly. ‘Well, Ethel?’ She burst into tears. She could not speak, * Is it to he yes, or no ?’ ‘ Oh, Henry, Henry !’ she sobbed : and too surely he then knew what the answer was to be. He dropped her hand. ‘ Do not blame me harshly,’ she sobbed, lifting her now pale face pleadingly to his. ‘lt is my duty to stay at home. I cannot act against that.’ His lips tightened visibly. ‘So you prefer duty to love, Ethel!’ ‘l—think—when the two clash, it is not duty that should give way. Do you ?’ ‘ Generally speaking—no. But, Ethel, I do not see this matter quite as you see it. When you became engaged to me your father and mother fully understood that I should probably want to take you away, and they made no demur to it.’

‘ But things have changed. They require me now.’ ‘ No, they do not. If it is for homo matters you mean, let them take some one in your place. And they have your brother. And Harriet Marshal would be unto them almost as a daughter.’ Painfully agitated, she was entwining her hands one within the other. ‘ I do think, Ethel, that you are in this instance taking an exaggerated view of your duty. Do you owe nothing to me ? Is it fair to have kept me waiting all these years, and to fail me now ?’ ‘I—I cannot help myself,’ she robbed. ‘ That is, you do not love me sufficiently well to make this effort for me,’ ‘Do not doubt my love,’ she returned, anguish bringing forth the avowal. * I shall > love and esteem you above all others while • my life shall last.’ ) ‘ But—you decide against me ? You send i me forth alone. ’ s ‘Yes. But oh, Henry, don’t you see that I have no alternative ? Believe me that I i have none. None.’ i He extended his hands to take both hers, i His face was a little agitated, but stern. i That she was using him harshly, ho fully be- ; lieved. We all see from our own point [of - view and not from another’s. : ‘ Good-bye, then. Andjmay God keep you, i Ethel, until we meet again !’ s He kissed the sweet face that was so full ■ of pain. It would be marked with many a ; line of sorrow before that time should come. r In that way they parted. Nothing was i said on either side as to whether the eugager ment between them sir uhl continue or not. J Ethel almost thought that his last words, i ‘ until we me )t again,’implied that it did. , And no arrangement was made with regard r to correspondence. As she went back to tho - house that bright June morning; her heart • felt well nigh breaking with its pain. 3 Mr May departed for Canada. He became absor bed in tlr? caves of his new undertaking; and the time went on. Ethel received a a letter from him. occasionally, written in a cordial, friendly spirit, but containing no - lover-like expressions. He told her all about bis new home, and his life there, and de- " soiibod the country graphically, and ia- "> quired after the old friends Ire had leak be--13 hind. Ethel wrote back to him in just the same friendly spirit; bqt sirs knew not whether he sitUl pcnaideijed she belonged to n him ’ 0 Troubles closed in around her as the years ft \vent on. Sickness came. Boger, the hope and pride of tho family was laid to rest be- ® side tho d&ad-and-gone Strongs in tbs shady '' an.d peaceful chrrrch yard. His mother foln lowed him in a few months ; and Ethel alone e remained to comfort the poor old father, rV whose later life had been so full of work, so l * hard and cheerless. 3 > i If Ethel’s heart ached, no one knew it. 18 If her woman’s tenderness craved a hus- , baud’s love, or the sweet caresses that might 8 have kept her young and buoyant, no one !r suspected it, There were moments of clee pressqoa when she felt inclined to say that 13 God had dealt hardly with her in many ways, yet her faith in Him never wavered. Neither did her feet over falter, as ,<fhs administered to the wants of tVi> srail old 1 father, who lived in the liyhs oij her smile. o Four years bad fey. One balmy “ evening Ethel in the <#ftady arbour, sewj. ing diligently. Hey father dozed in an armu chair at an open window within view : while I a thivyih. swinging on a bough above Ethel's brevva head, burst out into a gush of song ! that dlled the air with melody, ;1 ‘Ethel!’ Ethel looked up. Her old lover, bronzed o aud bearded, stood before her. She had o t heard footsteps, certainly, but supposed it pI to 1.0 onV <ue o* the men. Down fell hei works? : 1,3 rcro uv, lull bewildered agi a tation. 1 {To be continued.)