Romance Of A Postage-stamp

I breathed more freely after it wai over. It was a temptation resiated, bu I f elt better after having donó it. As ] was assorting the letters, preparatory t( putting them in the mail-bag for Nev York, one letter lurned up and sent L eakras shock through me thp„c set mj haart throbbing and my brain swimt ming with a sudden dizainess. 3 might have expected 'co have seen it, but not the less did it affect me when ] did see it- " Joseph Morris, India doek New York." That was the address, and I knew that it was his. I had u deai little note in that same handwriting next to my heart then - a few graceful words thanking me for a book I had sent her- a little note that I had read over countless times, and kissed as often, wondering would it displease her to know how fondly I cherished it. I thrust the hateful letter out of my sight, and, leaning my head on the table, lived over again the hopes, the fears, the wretchedness of the last twenty-four hours. The day before, while distributing the mail matter, I carne across a letter addreased to myself, and on opening it I laarned that, through the generosity of a distant relative, whose name I bore, I had been left in California an inheritance of $20,000. What a change a few strokes of a pen had made - transforming Karl Bergmann, Postmaster of a secluded Connecticut village, into Karl Bergmann, the possessor of a competence, well invested, yielding a certain income ! And how before my good f ort une I had thought of Annie Merrill as separated away from me by my poor circumstances, my salary barely supporting my mother and myself, and how could I ask any woman to share my poverty ! Now that the burden of poverty was most unexpectedly lif ted from me, I feit at liberty to teil her the hopes I never dared to]entertain till now. What would her answer be? That I would learn that very night. In the same mail with my letter was one addressed to her, postmarked New York. Her correI spondence all passed through mv hands, but I had never seen that writing before. That was no weak, wavering, feminine style. It was large, clear, decisive, the writing of a self-possessed man. Who could the writerbe ? Annie's unole, Dr. Merrill, had male correspondente in New York. But this letter was the first that had come to her since she came orphaned from the great city a year before, and had been received into her uncle's heart and home. But other thoughts put the question of the letter out of my mind. I sent, by a messenger, a few hurried liaes to my mother, to prepare her for our good fortune, and then counted the hours that would pass before I could offer my inheritance to Annie, encumbered with its possessor. When I reached home I found her there before me. My mother, who had taken her into her favor from the first, her sweetness and orphaned situation proving a passport to her heart, had sent for Annie to communicate the good news to her. She was strangely quiet, I thought, and there was a troubled look in her blue eyes I never saw there before. In fact, after a while, a subdued feelirg stole over us all. Annie's disquiet seemed to impart itself to us. I was thinking how I could venture to teil her all my hopes, and my mother, guessing what my thoughts were, left us together most of the evening, but my heart failed me. It was only when I was walking home with Annie to Dr. Merrill's tLat I found courage to speak. She led me on by saying tbat I must not think, from her silence, that she did not rejoice in the happy change in my prospecta, but no one could be more sincere in their congratulations than herself. I answered that my good fortune would be valueless to me unless I could share it witii the girl I loved. "The girl you love?"she repeated, questioningly. I feit her hand tremble on my arm. "The girl I love," I answered, in tones that she might have interpreted but failed to do so. "She ought to be a happy woman," she continued. " May I ask if I knów her?" "If you know her?" I eried. "If you know her ! O, who could it bc but you ?" "Me?" She drew her hand quickly away from my arm, and stood quite still before me. "Mc! O, did you sayme?" And then I eaw the mooDlight falling on her face, and it was not the faco of agirlshining with happy confusión when fihe hears the story of his love from the man whom she prefers. It was pale and shocked, and then ehe bid it from me in her hands and burst into tears. 1 needed no other answer. I knew my suit was hopeless. " Don't cry, dear 1" said I. " I never thought to wound you." " I thought you knew," she went on, sobbingly. "I thought my unele might have told you. I am going to marry Mr. Norrie. 1 got a letter from him to-day. 01 can yoa forpive me?" She stretched out her little hands ïmploringly. I took them in mine, and I kissed them- they were sacred to me : they belonged to another, and I kissed them while my heart was breaking. "Forgive you ! my darling?" I said. " I would forgive you if you killed me, I üiink. Don't grieve, Annie ; I will try to bearit." We parted at her uncle's without another word, and I went home to the motherly heart that I knew would snffer with me, but whose tender sympathy wonld uphold me in this hour of bitter hiaL The next day I sent off my resignation to Washington, for my mother and I agreed to leave the village where we had passed so many quiet years. It was in the afternoon of the same day thafc the letter of which I had spoken, that I now fenew was for my rival, attracted mv attentiou. I took it up reluctantly- I telt that I would as readilyhave touohed a poisonous snake- and was just about to put the postmark on it when I saw thr,t the stamp upon it, instead of being a. postal one, was a revenne stamp, and that the letter, instead of speeding off on wings of love to New York, must be consigned to the Dead Letter Office, ia Washington. With a thrill of savage delight I flung it into the box ated to the recept ion of such casta ways, aad went on with my evening's work. With that work I went on mechanically, but my thonghts were not agreeably employed. That then was the answer to the missive she had received. But it sbould be long before he would get it - get it too late perhaps for an explanation; for misunderstandings between lovers had often arisen from a slighter cause than the non-arrival of an expected letter. I pictured him waiting and longing for the letter that would not come; and she, poor girl, how hertender heart would be tortured by his imagined neglect when no answer would be forthcoming ! She, I knew, would suffer in flilence, and I fondly hoped that he would do the same. So I locked the mail-bag and waited for the messanger to carry it to the station. The expresa would pass in an hour and a half. And then a struggle began in my heart. The mis-stamped letter seemed to look reproachfully at me from the box into which I had thrown it, and seemed to whisper to me that one little act of mine could send it unimpeded on its mission. No one, I believe, unlesshewas in my situation, actuated by the same despairmg, selfishly hopeful feelings that were overmastering me, could understand what a base impulse I conquered when at last, af ter an iiour's temptation, I took .nat letter from its resting place, substituted a postage stamp for the revenue one, opened the mail-bag and let it jo. Then after it was done some hot ;ears gushed to my eyes. It was my last hope, and I could not help indulging some weakness over its grave. The next mail from New York arrived hree days after. I had the poor satisaction of seeing the resulta of my good action in a letter in the handwriting of my rival, addressed to Annie, make its unwished-for appearance, and shortly after Dr. Merrill took it away with bim as he called for his mail. Loungers ame in and out of the office, finding me ittle disposed for conversation. Nothing 'et was known in the village of my ac[uisition, so I was spared the pain of listening to congratulations that I was in ao mood to hear. When I went home hat evening I was surprised k find my motner absent, and stiH more surpnsed wlien, on opening a note she had lef t f or me, I learned she was with Annie at Dr. Merrill's, and that I was to foliow her there. Hopeless as I feit, the prospect of seeing Annie again premised me only a painful pleasure, but still the thought of being near her had a sweet and sad fascination that I eould not resist. When I reached the doctor's, I found himself and my mother seated in his office, so intent on the moves of a knight's gambit that a mere nod on my entrance ehowed their consciousness of my arrival. Annie was not there; Ifound her in the parlor, standing upon the hearthrug, the glow of the fireïight shining upon her golden hair, and a glow of eager, happy expectation in her look that was new to her sweet face. ' 'I am glad to see you, " she said, giying me her hand. "Ihave been impatient tor your coming - and I will teil you why. There is a questionl want you to answer. It perplexes me, and somehow I think I caa look toyou for its solution. You remember a letter I received in the early part of the week ?" She heeitated and cast down her eyes. "I have too good a reasonever to forget it," I answered bitterly. I saw her face flush. She went on. "I answered that letter next day. It was of vital iniportance to me that it should go then, as there would be no other mail for several days. I was troubled when I wrote it, and stamped it at my uncle's desk while the messenger was waiting to take it to the office. I found, too late, that I had mis-stamped it. I have been utterly wretched for the past few days on account of that mistake. I knew too well what the fate of my letter would be. Judge then how relieved I feit when my uncle brought me this " - taking from the piece the letter that had come that morning. "If it escaped your keen observation, how did my letter pass the eyes of the New York officials undetected ? This is my question." Her eyes searched my face; I took her hands in my own. "Annie," said I, " I believe I could make no one understand what it cost my jealous heart to rectify that mistake, but I did it. I knew it must be in answer to that letter that you spoke of a few nights ago. It ought to prove to you how unselfishly I love you, my darling, when I re-stamped it and sent it on its way to him. I never thought you would find it out. I did it to spare you a moment's uneasiness. If the man you love cares for you as much as I do, he will make your life a nappy one." "How can I repay your generosity?" she eaid, in a voice tremulous with feeling. " You could not have acted better if you had had a peep at the contents of that letter. But your reward may be claimed when you read this." She handed me the letter and glided out of the room. I took it over to the shaded lamp and read the following : 1)ear Annie : When, beside your father's dyiDg bed, we eiitered into an engagement of marriage, I feit, au ho did, that the iaterests of the flrm of which he and I were partners would be best sustained by oor nnion. I wrote to you, notifying ycu of my readiness to fnlfiil my part of the agreemeut, and requested you to be ready to return with me on Saturday as my wife. You say to me that I must not come. There ia but one explanation to this refusal, and that is that you havo seen some one who pleaees you better than your humblo servant. It is but natural, child ; I cannot blame you. The young should mate with the young, and I am too mueh your senior to expect to awake in your youthful hoart feelings that have long been lifeless in my own. I release yon from a promise that I am now aware waB made by you under the pressure of the sad cireumstanees. But this f act can nover affect the fatherly regard I have ever eutertained for the only child of my dear old friend. I read no further. Here was my reward. And how nearly I had lost it by the desire of gratifying an ungenerous impulse I Annie has since assured me tliat, liad Joseph Morris arrived on the day designated, so great was her awe of her father's old partner that she never would have had the courage to contend against her destiny. Indeed, the oircumstance of having made the error she did, in mis-stamping the letter, seemed to her troubled mind significant of a deep meaning, and that even beyond the grave her father sought to control her actions. Annie did not return to the parlor. I found her seated in the doctor's oifice, apparently interested in the game which just at the moment of my entrance he brought to a victorious conclusión. "Check " "Mate,"I cried, finishing the word for him, and, catching Annie in my arms, heedless of the astonishment of the elderly pair, I demanded my reward. Well, Joseph Morris, gray-haired, commonplace and undemonstrative, came to Greenwell to other nuptials than his own. He gave away my dear one with the best of grace, and after the marriage .congratulated me on my admission into the flrm. My ignorance of his meaning was so apparent that with a grim smile he enlightened me. With my bride I acquired a half interest in an Ëast India firm in New York and Calcutta. If Annie had chosen to appeal as an erphan, dependent on the bounty of her uncle, she had the after satisfaction of knowing that the love she had won was offered to herself alone, and not to the golden store that attracts so many suitors. " Mydearest," I sometimes say to her, " who would think that in a great measure we o we our happiness to a little postage stamp 1"