An Only Offer

"Aunt Phoebe, were you ever pretty?"

"When I was sixteen I was considered so. I was very like you then,
Julia. I am forty-three now, remember."

"Did you ever have an offer--an offer of marriage, I mean, aunt?"

"No. Well, that is not true; I did have one offer."

"And you refused it?"

"No."

"Then he died, or went away?"

"No."

"Or deserted you?"

"No."

"Then you deceived him, I suppose?"

"I did not."

"What ever happened, then? Was he poor, or crippled or something
dreadful"

"He was rich and handsome."

"Suppose you tell me about him."

"I never talk about him to any one."

"Did it happen at the old place?"

"Yes, Julia. I never left Ryelands until I was thirty. This happened
when I was sixteen."

"Was he a farmer's son in the neighborhood?"

"He was a fine city gentleman."

"Oh, aunt, how interesting! Put down your embroidery and tell me about
it; you cannot see to work longer."

Perhaps after so many years of silence a sudden longing for sympathy and
confidence seized the elder lady, for she let her work fall from her
hands, and smiling sadly, said:

"Twenty-seven years ago I was standing one afternoon by the gate at
Ryelands. All the work had been finished early, and my mother and two
elder sisters had gone to the village to see a friend. I had watched
them a little way down the hillside, and was turning to go into the
house, when I saw a stranger on horseback coming up the road. He stopped
and spoke to mother, and this aroused my curiosity; so I lingered at the
gate. He stopped when he reached it, fastened his horse, and asked, 'Is
Mr. Wakefield in?'

"I said, 'father was in the barn, and I could fetch him,' which I
immediately did.

"He was a dark, unpleasant-looking man, and had a masterful way with
him, even to father, that I disliked; but after a short, business-like
talk, apparently satisfactory to both, he went away without entering the
house. Father put his hands in his pockets and watched him out of sight;
then, looking at me, he said, 'Put the spare rooms in order, Phoebe.'

"'They are in order, father; but is that man to occupy them?'

"'Yes, he and his patient, a young gentleman of fine family, who is in
bad health.'

"'Do you know the young gentleman, father?'

"'I know it is young Alfred Compton--that is enough for me.'

"'And the dark man who has just left? I don't like his