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TRUE HEARTS
By Elizabeth Lillian Higgins.
"It is needless to say that I am dis
appointed bitterly 'disappointed and
grieved," spoke Almond Weare to his
nephew, Walter Ridley, but there was
more of severity in his tones than
true pathos.
"I am sorry, uncle," was the earn-
"Oh, Doctor Ridley, There's Been an
Accident!"
est response, "but I must follow my
duty as I see it."
"You see it through wrong classes.
I"N then." declared Mr. Weare. stormilv.
K "You are throwing away the chance
of a lifetime. Hester Beale is ready
to fall into your arms wealth, social
standing, family influence. I learn
that it is in the power of her uncle,
as the head of the great Timoar Steel
Company, to appoint you surgeon for
the, plant. Think -of that all your
assistants to do your work, and a
royal salary!"
"But I do not wish others to do
my work," -explained Walter, quietly
but with a latent force back of it.
that told. "I wish to do some good in
the world. The people down at the
old settlement mills have no physi
cian. I am going among them."
"To starve, to get down to their
debasing level, to be robbed and
laughed at for your mistaken philan
throphy!" snarled the old man,
wrathfully. "And that girl, too
the daughter of that worthless old
inventor, Darley. She's the attrac
tion, I doubt not."
"Yes, uncle," confessed young Rid
ley, frankly, "Miss Darley is, indeed
the attraction. I love her I shall al
ways love her."
"Trapped you, eh!" sneered the
uncle.
"Don't malign her, uncle," said
Walter. "Her father's position was
as high und honorable as your own,
before the family with which you
wish me to ally myself robbed him of
his star invention. As to Bertha, she
has become an angel of mercy
among the poor operatives. She has
cast her lot among them, not only
from necessity but from choice. As
to trapping me Miss Darley refused
my offer of marriage, distinctly and
irrevocably, last evening."
They parted with that, those two
who had been so companionable and
harmonious until the proud, 'stern
will of the selfish old tyro was op
posed. Two days later Dr. Walter
Ridley hung out his shingle at the
settlement as a physician, in addition
acquiring the barren honor of being
chief surgeon of the. old mills.
It was a cruel place, the great
works where most of the labor in the
finishing shops was done by children.
The chief products were minor hard
ware novelties that required burnish.
ing, lacquering, sorting and packing.
Wherever machinery could be used it
was employed. The great Timoar
plantthad about crushed , out the
