Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1868-03-21

with the utmost precision, and looking
up in his face with the sweetest OF
smiles, said in the tone of one address
ing ahopelessly spoiled child. "There,
dear; now are you satisfied p
John flung himself to the other end
of the sofa with an impatient jerk.
"Pshaw Nettie, that isn't wha. /
mean r'
ats what you said you meant, at all
events" replied Nettie, with tho same
innocent astonishment in her wide-open
eyes; "and think you are very cross
and disagreeable to-uight, dear, and I
really don't know what to make of it. !"
Here Nettie departed from the pas
slve attitude SO far as to indulge in q
very pretty pout, which encouraging
weakness, SO disarmed John, that he
only said f'Nettie p in very pleading
and reproachful tone. Whereupon
Nettie relinquished the dangerous pout,
and with the most cruelly, patronizing
smile, observed that she was sure dear
John must be far from we'll; he vas
not ger orally cross unless he had a
headache, and she thought he had bet
ter take good walk in the fresh air,
and then go home and go to bed.
John stared at her for moment in
undisguised astonishmept, and then
quietly rose up and walked out of the
house. Nettle called, "Goodby, dear !"
in the sweetest manner, after bis re-
treating form but the silent hgure, fast
disappearing in the darkness, deigned
no reply.
Nettie went to bed forthwith, and
meditated on the perform ances of the
evening. First she felt triumphan.
that she played her part so well tri-
umph partly compounded Of the ordin-
AIRY feminine pleasure in acting, and
partly of the pleasing conciousness that
Sophy could reproach her no longer.
Then she began to recall Johns "cross-
ness" and to feel rather aggrieved
thereat then she thought Of the fond,
| lingering "Good- night" she had lost,
and few little tears stole up to her
eyes; then she reflected that after all it
was her own fault, and she had been
very cruel and just as another shower
was about to descend on Johns account
it was suddenly checked by a sweet but
guilty thrill of satisfaction to think that
she had this power over him, and could
make him miserable if she chose Then
It occurred 10 her that, after all, John
did behave in very cross, disagreeable
manner, and that he ought to be pun
ished for it, even if the process did
make. her somewhat uncomfortable !;
after which righteous and highly moral
conclusions she went to sleep, with a
sigh for her own discomfort and smile
for her power over John vainly striving
for the mastery of her lips.
The next morning the tempter ap-
peared again in the likeness of Miss
Northam arrayed as to her person in
the coolest and freshest of morning
dresses, and as to her spirit in the calm
consciousness Of her las: victory over
Do Witt. whom she had reduced the
night before to a state bordering an
idiocy.
She listened to Nettie's triumphant
relation with the quiet dignity of rec
ognized superiority, and advised her to
continue in the same course. And that
Nettie might have every advantage of
position, she invited her to tea, the low
ers to come in during the evening, af-
ter they had been sufficiently talked
over by their respective owners.
Whether Miss Sophy's interest in
this little affair arose from the fact that
her genius for Irritation was 80 great
that her own province was too small for
her ambition, and she sighed for new
worlds to conquer, or whether she had
'sthat sort of itch for settling other
peoples dessinies" which Charles Reade
says is one Of the commonest forms of
sanctioned lunacy, or whether she had
really worked herself up into the belief
that she was sort of female missionary
and doing vast deal of good, I cannot
undertake to say-I leave it to the
readers of Harper's Bazar to determine.
But Sophy Northam, clever as she
was, had made one little mistake. She
had prescribed one of Morton DeWitt's
doses for the inner system of John
Marshall. To be snrc, as this brilliant
strategist argued, all men are alike, es-
pecially when they are in love but
still, in every human machine, like
every patent lock, there are sundry out
ofthe-way twists and turns which make
it a little different from every other ma
chine, and make it rather more compli-
Gated and difficult to manage.
Now just such nature as John Mar
shall had never happened to cross Miss
Sophy's path before. He was entirely
too simple for her to comprehend, and
the lock had little twist in one of its
wards which set at defiance the pretty
little key she had lent to Nettie.
In other words, John quietly took
up the same course of action that had
been prescribed for his defeat, and at
tackled Nettie on her own ground. That
evening he was more brilliant, enter
taining, than she had ever known him,
s.udiously polite to her, aud very atten-
tive to everybody else. Sophy was lost
in admiration. With the maguanimity
of great warrior, she could afford to
acknowledge the prowess Of rival. As
for Nettie, she felt like the fisherman
in the Arabian Knights who let the genie
out of the bottle and could not get him
back again. There it was, this dark,
iimnnnderahle volDrre ne smoke roliin,