On the day after the picnic,Allan Thorpe wrote the following letter to his friend and fellow artist John Fleming,who was spending the summer at Bethlehem DEARJACK --You wonder why I prefer to spend the summer at Granville,and refuse to join you at Bethlehem.Your surprise is natural.I admit that between Granville and Bethlehem there is no comparison.The latter is certainly far more attractive to an artist who has only his art in view.But,Jack,there is another reason.You were always my father confessor --at least you have been since the happy day when our friendship begin --and I am willing to confess to you that I have lost my heart.There is a charming school mistress in Granville,to whom I have transferred it wholly and unconditionally.
Not an ordinary school mistress,mind you;Miss Frost is not only charming in person,but thoroughly accomplished.I know you will be incredulous;but when I explain the mystery which environs her you will lose your skepticism.Let me tell you,then,in confidence,that last winter,at an artists'reception in New York,Iwas introduced to a girl whose name I knew as that of an acknowledged queen of society.A little conversation convinced me that she was more than that;that she had a genuine and discriminating love of art;that she despised the frivolous nothings which are dignified as conversations by the butterflies of fashion,and that she regarded life as something more than a succession of parties and receptions.I was strongly attracted;but I learned that she was the possessor of a large fortune,and this precluded the thought of any intimate friendship with her on the part of a penniless artist.
Well,Jack,on the second day after my arrival in Granville,I met this same girl again.Imagine my astonishment at discovering that she was teaching the grammar school in the village,on the splendid stipend of seven dollars a week.Of course she has lost her fortune --how,I have been unable to learn.She is reticent on this subject;but the loss does not seem to affect her spirits.She is devoting herself earnestly to the work she has chosen,and is succeeding admirably.I declare to you that I yield Miss Frost higher respect now that she is a plain country school teacher than when she was a social leader.That she should give up,uncomplainingly,the gay delights her fortune has procured for her and devote herself to a useful but contracted and perhaps monotonous routine of work,indicates;a nobility of nature of which previously I had no assurance.
You will ask to what all this tends.It means,Jack,that I have made up my mind to win her if possible.Between the struggling artist and the wealthy heiress there was a distance too great to be spanned even by love,but now that her estate is on a level with my own I need not hesitate.The same spirit that has enabled her to meet and conquer adversity will sustain her in the self denial and self sacrifice to which she may be called as the wife of a poor man.I have resolved to put my fortune to the test before the close of her school term calls her from Granville.I have some reason to believe that she esteems me,at least.If I am not too precipitate,I hope that esteem may pave the way for a deeper and warmer sentiment.I hope the time may come when I can ask you to congratulate me,as I am sure you will do most heartily,my dear Jack.Ever yours,ALLAN THORPE.
P.S.--
Lest you should waste your valuable time in exploring back numbers of the newspapers for some mention of Miss Frost in their society gossip,I may as well tell you that this is not her real name.In giving up her fashionable career she has,for a time at least,left behind the name which was associated with it,and taken a new one with the new vocation she has adopted.This might lead to embarrassment;but that will be obviated if she will only consent to accept my name,which has never had any fashionable associations.
P.S.--
There is another girl spending the summer here,a Miss Clementina Raymond,of Brooklyn,who assumes airs and graces,enough for two.Perhaps it is well that you are not here for you might be smitten,and she is after higher game.She has "set her cap"for Mr.Randolph Chester,a wealthy bachelor of fifty or more,also a summer resident;but I suspect that he prefers Miss Frost.I do not give myself any trouble on that score.Miss Frost may reject me,but she certainly will not accept Mr.Chester.
