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

]. bird made all ofresplendent diamonds
and Tutoring its rainbow wings in thu
light; that was to fasten her bridRl-v veil
la thing that flashed and sparkIed il
its miniature splendor as the swan doe
sailing down the great, bright stream
4 of the heavens. Some ANONYMOUS per
son also sent her an odd trifle. II wa
a chain of tiny eggs, rifled from nest
in reeds and rushes, in branch ant
hedge; blue and silvery. brown, pearl
white, speckled, and green; lovely
little amulet, full of suggestions o
summer and wildwood music of bird
songs and breeZes. But Henrietta saw
that every egg was hollow, blown from
end to end, and strung on black
thread; she remembered that "there are
no eggs in last years nest"-and SHE
knew from whence it came. Asshe sal
and played with it one night, when
1 Don 1ldefonso brought his cousin
MLean as his witness to some legal
papers that were being drawn up pre-
paratory to the marriage-the first time
since that night when her engagements
ring had bruised him, that M'Lean had
entered the house-she pinched each
egg into fragments between her white
fingers, and then burned the thread in
the flame of the drop-light, and blew il
carelesslY and absently away as il
burned. She was so ill the next day
with blind fury of headache that both
Don 1ldefonso and Mrs. Huydekoper
were-if one may use SO vulgar an ex-
preston in connection with such ele-
giant peoPle-nearly out of their heads
with alarm. AS for M'Lean, if he had
known it-so differently are lovers con-
stituted-I suppose, instead of alarm
ing him, that it would have made his
heart leap with joy, and he would have
broken into the house and carried Hen
rietta of by force of arms-to repent
| the rash act, most probably, for all the
rest of a,his natural life. However, he
never did know it; lie cursed her for a
vain and heartless girl, who loved
money better than love, better than
virtue; who was selling herself as
much as if she were Il woman of the
street; who was no longer any ideal OF
his; and then he agoniZed over her
picture that long ago he had stolen, and
confessed that he loved this abandon
ed wretch to distractionI
One day, about fortnight before the
day that was to make them one, Don
Ildefonso came into Henrietta's pres
ence with parcel in his hands. IL was
| a furnished old shagreen case, as old as
time immemorial apparently.
81 have reserved my most precious
gift for my last" said he. every bride
in the succession OF the De Islas for
three hundred years has worn this
chain. We call 1t Les dUetiuldS de las
perLIS, the haZel-nuts Ofpearls, for they
| are large and white as the blanched
kernels of the nuts on the haZel-hedges.
But it was necklace of the Expresses
of the Incas. My ancestor brought it
back from America to Spain, and hung
it on his daughters throat upon the day
of her espousals; another ancestress
than she carried it to Trinidad. With
the exception of three pearls that have
mysteriously and ut intervals disap-
penred, 1t is the same now as when it
was snntched from the treasure chests
of Peru. 1t never has been worn by
any bride 50 fair as mine will he, most
fortunate of my race, by any bride so
best beloved of allthe world Ii is but
a tritle to you, lady of my heart-a dead
leaf, II fallen petal, in your hand. Yet
wear il for its old traditions sake"
And he laid it in his grand fashion
across her pHlm-so grand 81 fashion
that she would have smiled ut it If she
had not almost lost the trick ofsmiling.
1t was Il row OF pearls, ancient, yellow
pearls, each pearl, as he had said, the
size of n hazel nuts kernel, the color of
a low summer moon, iridescent too,
almost as an opal, full of phosphOres-
cent and silvery flakes of light-pol-
ished, flawless, perfect pearls, each one
little fortune in itself.
Henrietta, indifferent or not, could
not help admiring these; in all her life
she had seen nothing half so beautiful.
"It is only snmple," said Mrs. Huy-
dGkoper, when the Don was gone, "of
the hidden, unremembered riches That
he will be all the time discovering TO
you, without thinking that he is doing
anything extraordinary. [ can see you
nov ne you will look next sum-
mer at the Springs-you will be
encrusled with diamonds; you will be
radiant, yes, radiant; you Will shed lus-
tire as you walk. And what spiteful
things Mrs. De Laine and her girls will
have to say, and never dare to, and the
venom singing their tongues! You
are Il fortune, girl. And he is SO noble,
so truthful, so good-one grows easily
attached to him. / am fond OF him al
ready, and have reason to be. Icould
never have hoped for such II son.in-
law; completely suited. Do you know,
my love-I may as well confess it now
Il once had quito an anxiety lest you
were'not so sensible and discerning as
1 hoped, and would let yourself ba led
away by IL fancy for that young NJ Lean
without n penny to his purse And
ii has turned out so well as it is now,
for we have scarsely enough to pay
the wedding bills. But that will be
easily arranged" said the beaming
Mrs. Huydekoper.
But before this confidential harangue
of her mothers, before Don Idefonso
had taken his departure-which, as
was intimated, he of oourse had done ere
Mrs. Huydekoper ventured to open her
lips In that manner, and before Henri.
eta, tired OF gazing, had sent the pearls
up stairs, and while she still was
thanking him for them and praislng
them, she ran her fingers idly, though
rather lingeringly, over their round
cold softness. "rhere are thirty seven
of them," said she, without having
known that she had counted them.
"Yes." said Don Ildefonso, taking
again the beautiful moony things and
counting them himself. "There are
thirty-seven. Once they were forty;
but, rs 1 told you, three have disap-
peared-stolen, 1t must have been, by
some cunning thief who knew how To
penetrate into the Golfers Ofthe De 1slas
better than rust and decay ever knew. !"
And unwilling to weary her with his
potentiality OF magnificence, to be con-
tinually, us 1t were, setting price and
reward before her, he swung il as IL it
had been a chain OF daisy-bells plucked
today to fade Tomorrow, into the hands
of Emeline, the young wailing-wOman
and sewing.girl, who had been sum-
moued, and who was told to take 1t
and lay it on tue table in Miss Huyde-
koper's dressing-room, where the
young woman sat at her work. Don
Ildefonso, In the unsuspicIousness of
his heart, never Thought of being hap
pier when Henrietta, after proper
| thanks, dismissed his gifts from sight
and apparently from mind: but Mrs.
Huydekoper did not know how to ex-
press the satisfaction which she felt in
her child, for whether it were native
beauty of character, or mathematical
manmuvering. in her eyes it was equal
ly admirable.