Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/97

 LOUISA'S DELUSION.

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��LOUISA'S DELUSION.

��BY ELLEN M. MASON.

��" Please talk to me no more about it ; I have thought of it, dreamed of it, cried and prayed over it, till I am nearly wild — and I have made up my mind that I cannot and will not be married."

They had left the dusty highway on their way home from church, that pleas- ant June morning, antTwere coming down the cool wood road, ornamented with three parallel strips of green carpet, over which the maple limbs interlaced- An occasional breeze shook off millions of water drops, left by the afternoon shower, and they fell, tinkling musically through the leaves, down into the masses of trailing wintergreen and soft moss. The moist Spring odor of ferns was heavy in the air, and here and there the white starry sprays of wild cheriy blos- soms appeared through the green twi- light of the wood.

The youthful figures, moving slowly, arm in arm, clown the darkening vista, fitted harmoniously into the scene. They were a fine looking couple, though John Andrews, with his erect, sinewy frame, fresh, open countenance, and thick, curl- ing hair, was thought by most people at Andrews' Mills to be much the hand- somer of the two. But, though not beautiful, there was a fascination about the girl's thin, dark face. With much of beauty about the broad, low brow, the delicate cheeks and slender round throat, it was the ever-changing expression in the large eyes and about the sensitive, mobile lips, that was so much more at- tractive than mere bright coloring or pretty features. She was excited now; her face bright and eager, and voice trembling, while her companion's usual- ly calm face looked pale and troubled.

"Of course if you do not wish to be married, I shall not insist on it ; you say you want to put it off; but,Louisa,I have a foreboding that if we postpone it now,

��we never shall be married," said the young man.

•'If you really cared about ever being married, you would do as I wish, John, and not settle down so contentedly here."

"But, Louisa, I do not wish to go away. I like Andrews' Mills better than any oth- er place I have ever seen. I was all ready to commence building our house, and I thought we should soon be so happy in it. Louisa, why can't you be contented?"

"I'm sorry you care anything about me," the girl cried passionately. "I was happy thinking over our plans at first, but as the time draws near, I am miser- able; I dread the thought of being- bound, and worse than all of settling down here." They were leaving the wood now, and the young man stopped where the lane joined the white sandy road, and sitting down upon a fiat, mossy stone, drew his companion to a place beside him.

"Louisa, let us be fair and honest with each other ; you are as tired of me as you are of everything else at Andrews' Mills. If you go away for two or three years as you say you want to do, you will be less willing to live here then, than you are now. You say I ought to go away too ; but I do not wish to leave my home. I have done a good many foolish things for you, Louisa, but that would be the most foolish of all, and you would like me none the better for it. Tell the truth, dear, don't you want our marriage put off forever?"

"O, forgive me, John, but it is so, I do ; I like you very much and respect you more than any one else in the world, for I know you are right not to be pulled about by me, but I don't want to marry you, and I want you to take back your ring and all you have given me, but, O, please do not hate me, nor think I have

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