AFTER AWHILE.
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��herself and blushingly told her little story.
The lady heard her through, and then said, as she laid her hand caressingly on the golden head —
"Allie, my child, do you think you care for him?"
"Yes, auntie, I know I do, but he is so much older than I, and he cared for you, so many years ago, that, oh auntie, I wish I could have always staid a little girl, and he could be just the same kind friend he has always been to me and no more," she said sadly.
Long and lovingly did her aunt talk to her, and when at last she sought her couch, she sank 10 sleep to dream that Dr. Hugh had married her aunt Lizzie, and that she herself was a "little girl" again at play with her dolls and kittens.
The days passed on. Dr. Ellis called nearly every day, and Allie found herself very lonely if a day passed and he did not come, and when after a while a whole week passed without his calling, she owned to herself in the snug privacy of her own room that she was almost mis- erable.
However, when at length he made his appearace with a suitable apology, she grew very cheerful and went with him to the gate, and allowed him to kiss her hand and call her "dear Allie, ".when, af- ter an hour's stay, he left her to call on his numerous patients. It was very sick- ly just then, and he cautioned her gently to keep away from the village, where the typhus fever was raging so fearfully
She was making up her mind to say "yes," when he should come for his an- swer at the end of the month, and she was gradually becoming very happy in the knowledge that her old friend was to become her husband.
One day, she accidentally learned that a poor family in the village were suffer- ing for want of nourishment to re- store them to health and strength again, and so she stole away, when her aunt was busy in her own room, and with her basket laden with delicate food, suitable for the suli'erers, she hastened on her er- rand of mercy.
It was true that they were all getting better, but somehow she caught the in-
��fection, and when the day came that she was to have given her answer to the doc- tor, he was bending over her unconscious form, together with Lizzie and the dis- tracted father, who had arrived to find his daughter ill, "nigh unto death." The days passed slowly. At times it seemed to the anxious watchers that she had almost passed through the dark val- ley, but the best of care, and the many fervent prayers that were offered in her behalf, won her back to life once more, and on a lovely morning in October, we see her again resting in her favorite arm chair, in the cosy sitting room, looking like a ghost of her former sell, but watch- ing with a happy, contented face, the two gentlemen who are approaching the house with her father. One, the Doctor, the other, Walter Montague, who upon entering, came directly to her side and spoke so cheerfully and pleasantly to her, and who turned so eagerly to Aunt Lizzie when she entered the room look- ing so young and happy, in spite of the anxious, weary hours passed by the sick bed of her niece.
Perfect happiness, reader, — if there really be such a thing this side of Heaven — will do much toward bringing back to us our lost youth, and certainly Lizzie Merton looks ten years younger than when we last saw her. She had at last met the reward her many years of pa- tient waiting had merited.
I say patient waiting, for although she had never realized that she was watching and waiting for him, she did not seem at all surprised when Hugh Ellis had brought him to the house on the morning when they had become assured that Al- lie would live, and had taken her hand and placed it in Walter's, saying as he did so —
"I parted you two, years ago, though not intentionally. Thank God, I have lived to see the day, Lizzie, when I can give you back your lost lover, who has always been true to you, as you have been in your heart to him."
And now they were happy once more and were only awaiting the time when Allie's health would admit of the bustle nearly always attending weddings, to be made one for the remainder of their lives.
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