Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-04-27
THE LOST LOVE-LETTER.

- w ell, wonders VIII never cease !!
1t was bright little boudoir, with sea-
green walls and carpet of the softest emerald
velvet, the windows dim with the branching
greenery of fragrant iemon-trees and a silky
black spaniel coiled up on the rug in front of
the fire. Miss Melissa Jones sat in the mid
die of the loom her false curls stirred BY
some inward agitation, and her forty-year old
cheek flushed with a bloom more genuine
than she usually wore, while her gypsv-like
niece, Nelly Howard, dark brilliant beauty
of seventeen, leaned over her shoulder and
eagerly perused the open letter that lay in
I the worthy spinster's lap. She it was who
had made the above remark, to which Aunt
Melissa answered testify:
Nv onders? | don't see anything so very
wonderful in the matter. If Gerald Plumer
chooses to fall in love with me, | can't help
itr7
Why aunty, he is only twenty-five, and
YOU are forty ~
Only thirty-nine /" calculated Miss Melis-
sa in rather beligerent tone of voice.
And he Is handsome, and-noy, aunty
pardon me, but you never pretended to be a
beauty -
Miss Melissa's cheek grew scarlet.
Mr.. Plumer possibly recognizes the power
of intellectual charms" she answered tartlv
And more than this" pursued the relent-
less Nelly, " everybody supposed the young
man in question to be desperately in love
with our little Efie-where IS she. bv the
way? Gone up stairs l suppose, to cry over
her detaulting cavalier Well, | shall coun
sci her 20 call pride TO her assistance But,
! by the way, aunty, you haven't told me how
and when this epistle arrived. BY post or
through a messenger -
1T was Yesterday evening" she simperd,
'Mr. Plumer-Gerald, l should say" (NeIlv
made a grir'ace)-" called. He only stood "a
minute, talking, by the fire. | supposed.
foolish thing that | was, his short stav was
owing to Etfie's being away from home But
he had not been gone five mInntes before
discovered this folded paper lying on the floor
at my feet Was il not an exquisite way of
proposing See, he calls me his dearest
one and signs himself my ever devoted
slave -
Fiddlesticks, Amt Melissa - exclaimed
the irreverent Nelly. T" He only wants your
forty thousand dollars Its just impossible
that young man like him can really have
fallen in love with you 2
Aunt Melissa rose from the chair with a
countenance of such lowering wrath. that
Miss Nelly wisely remembered the maxim
about discretion being the better part OF valor
and beat hasty retreat only stopping once
to laugh, on the stairs But her countenance
changed as she entered the room where a
young girl sat, with her forehead resting on
the window ledge, and her violet eyes spark
ling with tears
Crying, Efie! Let me wipe the tears
away, dariing-he isn't worth one of those
diamond drops"
"oh, Nelly, Twas so secure in the certainty
of his love !"
Forget him, dearest !" urged Nelly. 'sNav
don't sob so piteously-sumnon up all the
pride there is in your gentle nature, and meet
him in future coldly as though he were /
stranger = EZ GlE
And Fife, through her sobs, faltered out
that she would try
Miss Melissa blosSomed out that evening /
like peony, in georgous crimson silk dress /
With gigantic bracelets on her arms, ana sat
IN state IN the parlor, her false ringlets glossy
with pomatum ~
For Gerald's note said he would call soon.
TO receive mis- fate from my own lips" she