Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/84

76 wake up to find you in the same position you have been in for the last hour, at least. Do please wake up and tell me a story."

With a smile the lady turns to her niece and replies —

"What shall it be, Allie! I don't think I know any stories."

"Let it be a story of your younger days, auntie. Ah, I have it, tell me why you never married."

Into the blue eyes of the lady there came a sudden rush of tears; but Allie intent upon getting a hassock and placing it by her aunt's side, does not notice them until she has seated herself and rested her head on the lady's lap, when a single tear falling upon her face causes her to exclaim in astonishment —

"Why, Aunt Lizzie, what is it? I did not mean to hurt your feelings. I am so sorry," she said, caressing the little hand which she held in her own.

"Nay, Allie, you have not wounded my feelings, but I am feeling sad to-day and your words only brought back to my mind more forcibly the cause of my sadness. I have been thinking for several weeks of telling you the little story of my life, for I fear you need a little lecture on flirtation, and the simple reason why I never married will answer for a lecture, I think."

Alfie's face flushed slightly as she replied —

"I don't see the harm in flirting just a little, auntie. I enjoy the company of the young men, and I do not mean any harm. Of course, I must go to walks or rides as the case may be, but I do not see any harm in that. If I were always to remain at home I should not enjoy life at all. I am not so very bad, am I auntie?"

A loving smile chased away for a moment, the shadows resting on the lady's face as she answered fondly —

"No, Allie, dear, I do not think you mean any harm, but for all that much harm may be the result; but listen to my story and then you can judge whether it be right for you to flirt at all. As you well know, Allie, my father died when I was quite young, leaving mother and Austin — your father — and myself in comfortable circumstances. The large farm was all paid for, and money in the bank beside, so alalthough we missed him greatly and mourned for him sincerely, we were not wanting for any thing which money could purchase. Mother hired the work done, and we lived thus for several years, until my seventeenth year, when she sold the farm and bought this cottage.

I attended school and enjoyed life thoroughly, sometimes teaching in the summer season for the pleasure of it, for teaching seemed to be my particular forte, until my twenty-second year.

Your father, I have neglected to say, left home soon after our removal to this place, and after two or three years, during which time he attended school, he entered the store in which he afterwards became partner, after a time married and settled nicely in life.

I had always been called very good-looking, and received a great deal of attention, so much, in fact, that my silly head was completlely turned. I did not stop to think that my wealth had any thing to do with the homage I received, but supposed my good looks and agreeable manners, were the attractions. I was a decided flirt, Allie. I cared for none of the beaus that hovered around me, and I have since had cause to be very thankful that my wealth was the great attraction with most of them, for less harm was done than if it had been otherwise. At length. I reached my twenty-second year. The academy was built the following summer and made ready for the Fall term, which opened in September. In July preceding, I received an invitation from your father to visit him, and in company with himself and your mother, take a journey to Saratoga, returning by the way of the White Mountains. I accepted the invitation with much pleasure, and after a few weeks of enjoyment, reached home again in fine health and spirits. What was my surprise to learn that mother had taken the principal of Maplewood academy to board.

My uncle, Winslow Austin — mother's only brother — had been living with us a great portion of the time for three years, and it was principally on his account