The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-09-12

I JuUuUIuGLW .
ton, she fed TO rose-water and cosmet.
les TO repair the damage the few drops
had done-nnd M'Lean thought he had
never seen her SO lovely, so brilliant,
SO gentle, SO altogether and bewilder.
ingly exchanging and overpowering as
she was that night. Don ndefonso de
1sla thought SO too; and on the next
day he laid before her mother a formal
| offer OF his hand and heart for Henri
eta.
Mrs. Huydekoper's greedy eyes gilt
tered-she was not the only mother in
the city whose greedy.eyes would have
done the self-same thing. But she told
him that Henrietta must choose for
herself, and that, except to bid him
God-speed and to recommend him to
favor, she hadsno power in the matter.
Indeed, she would prefer, she intimn-
ted, not even to do SO much as that, for
her daughter was so faithful and Obe-
dent, SO in earnest to please her, that
she feared lest any word from her might
have more influence than even Don
1ldefonso would desire. This, after all,
was scarcely more than the truth, and
1t confirmed Don IluefonsO in thinking
he had found a priceless Jewel, and he
could not admire Mrs. Huydekoper too
much for her unseltish feiusal to grasp
such "A settlement as he could make
upon her child-for he it known that
Madame had deemed it only the part of
prudence to tell him they were poor,
and TO add that so soon as the settle
ment of her lamented husbands affairs,
which had been exceedingly delayed,
was concluded, they should retire to
some distant cottage far from society
and they gay world. That this should
cause Ildetonso to hasten matters by
his interchangeable exertions was not at
all surprising. He determined to speak
to Henrietta on the first opportunity,
opportunity being the one thing which
he found difficult to obtain; and mean
while he exhausted his invention in en-
deavors to win from her some express
sion beyond that cOmplaisnnce which
she accorded to all her lovers, which,
however, was not SO difficult. For
Henrietta had something of the Coz
quette in her, and liked to see her pow
er, to play with her line before she
drew ii in. Having been informed by
her mother of all that had passed she
felt secure enough, and was determined
not TO allow Don Ildefonso TO speak
with her plainly just yet; for it she ac-
cepted him too readily he might suS-
pect that there was less love thnn lucre
in the case; neither was she quite sure
she should accept him ut all, nor yet
was she prepared to refuse him. She
preferred for the present TO leave the
question an open one, and at any rate
10 enjoy her liberty and the sunshine
yet a while longer. For if she married
this Islander, and rolled in his untold
gold, it would ull the same be IL power
ty; the glitter of his diamonds would
be darkness; his sumptuousuess would
be n separating and imprisoning wall
than which convent has no thicker,
no crueler, no more impenetrnbie. If
she did not acknowledge that To herself
it lay like lcaden loud somewhere in
that inner consciousness at which she
hnn 0flnI1 IuIIOhnI &C han nihnF nnnntn
asserted its reality. But the very
Thought or possibly marrying the Don
one day made her treat him now with n
sudden Coldness-coldnesS better than
the best of art, for it only fired his ar
dor doubly; and then, seeing she had
grieved him, her natural kindness rose
uppermOst, and she smiled on him with
n sweetness that was Intoxicating, and
that only welded his chains like heat.
Indeed ri this Time she was the creature
of twenty moods an hour.
Ono day, nj last. the Spnniard burst
forth with the whole story; and Henri
eta had nothing better to do i'll return
than to burstinto tears. II her mother
had but beheld her then, the worry wo-
man would have been willing nearly to
annihilate her.
'Ah! L seeW cried the Senior de ISla.
~ have alarmed you, 1 have shocked
you, you do NOT yet love me. But is il
impossible that you should? Can not
teach you by my own love? 1t is true
that am twice your age; yet my heart
is so young-it has never felt the sun
before; and now love springs up in it
like great flower; for ali, adore you,
sweet eye of my s0ul!"
And the more he talked the more
Henrietta cried; and Mt last his emotion,
his pity, his desire 10 sOothe her, going
far beyond the bounds of Spanish pro-
prieties-but then he knew he was not
among the Spanish prOprieties-ho took
her in his arms to hush her; and that
was too much for him, and he covered
the beautiful face and hands with his
kisses, und that was the end OF 1t.
Henrietta did not go out that night
1t was ut the beginning of Lent. That
was very fortunate; Mrs. Huydekoper
said, this oppOrtune happening of the
Lenten season; for Henrietta and Don
1ldefonso would be able TO sec SO much
more of each other than If it were in
the height of gayety; and then all the
preparations could be going forward
during Lent, and the marriage could
take place ms n continuation OF the Eas-
ter festivals. Henrietta did not go out
that evening, but M'Lean came in-she
was alone just then-nud as she took
his profIered hand, shyly for her, shy
in her new position and wretched, for
all, in the sudden knowledge that now
she must put him away from her and
forget that he existed-as she took his
prOffered hand something on her finger
cat that hand shnrply-it was the
diamond ring, that had blaZed there
like the ransom of kingdom since
that afternoon. M'Lean gazed ut tia
solitary second, as he held his wound
to the light. "That hood comes from
my heart" said he. Henrietta heard
him, standing white as the stalne be-
hind her, faint and ready to fall. He
turned nbnut caTne back bant and
robbed her lips of ono long, pRlpitating,
breathless kiss, and then was gone.
The wicked Henrietta remembered
that kiss, and cherished it, and felt its
burning warmth again long after
memory of it become sin.
But now the Spaniard's suit was
swift, Never did any one better fulfill
the rigors and e8actiOns of the court of
love. At first, too, Henrietta was so
duh, SO really miserable, that she sub
mitted with what he took for tender
ness to all his adulation. Heliked this
quiet, serious side far better than her
gay and sparkling one; it fitted more
his ideas of Spanish state. Every day
he brought fresh gifts, the house over
ran with the rarest eXoticS-not bou-
Duets, but whole shrubs-enamels,
carvings, bronzes, cashmereS, places,
and such .jewels-Mrs. Huydelioper's
eyes blinked and watered at their splen-
dor; other peoples mouths watered.
Henrietta looked at them listlessly;
like them by-aud by, but just now
nothing mattered. "She does not care
for such baubles," said the SpHniard 10
her mother; 'she is an ardent MIXTURE
ali, she loves, she loves! But by-an1-
by, one day, she will know them ut
their value"
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