FIVE YEARS LATER


"Married, this morning, at St. Paul's Church, by the Rev. Dr. ----,
assisted by the rector, Guy Thornton, Esq., of Cuylerville, to Miss
Julia Hamilton, of this city."

Such was the notice which appeared in a daily Boston paper one lovely
morning in September five years after the last entry in Miss Thornton's
journal. Guy had reached the point at last when he could put Daisy from
his heart and take another in her place. He had never seen her or heard
directly from her since the night she brought him the marriage
settlement and tore it in pieces, thinking thus to give it to him beyond
a doubt. That this did not change the matter one whit he knew just as he
knew she could not give him the ten thousand dollars settled upon her
until she was of age. She was of age now, and had been for a year or
more, and, to say the truth, he had expected to hear from her when she
was twenty-one. To himself he had reasoned in this wise: Her father told
her that the tearing up that paper made no difference, that she was
powerless of herself to act until she was of age, so she will wait
quietly till then before making another effort. And in his heart Guy
thought how he would not take a penny from her, but would insist upon
her keeping it. Still he should respect her all the more for her sense
of justice and generosity, he thought, and when her twenty-first
birthday came and passed, and week after week went by, and brought no
sign from Daisy, there was a pang in his heart and a look of
disappointment on his face which did not pass away until October hung
her gorgeous colors upon the hills of Cuylerville, and Julia Hamilton
came to the Brown Cottage to spend a few weeks with his sister.