Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-05-12

offsets Of velvety sward swept in SLOW
! curves to the river and the road. A few
trees and shrubs carefully disposed, and
narrow line of gay ,colored flowers edginl
the entire length Of the first Offset, gave Al
air Of elegance and brightness 70 thu
whole. Altogether, 1t was as lovely ,
place as you could ask for, and Tom wa
not to blame for feeling Just the least bit in
the world proud of it. But his specia
pride was his daughter Blanche. stop ,
moment while describe her to you as sh,
quaintance
You are to remember that she ID hu
fourteen still child, but easy and grace
full as woman. Slender, tall and fall
might describe her, but wish to be lit
tie more explicit. First then, she ha6
rare, clear, grey eyes, full Of shifting light.
and shadows, fringed with heavy darl
brown lashes, which had trick OF droop
ing suddenly and yelling the light OF
shadows in her eyes. Her brown hair,
soft and family waved, fell over her shout
ders in luxurious abundance, and set Oh
the clear, creamy whiteness of her COM
plexion, charmingly. Sometimes exercise
or excitement brought a faint tinge OF pale
rose ito her cheek, but ordinarily the
vivid crimson in her lips was the only
color in her face
Tom Arnold's assertion that she imam
aged both the house and himself" was
strictly correct. Indeed. it would be very
hard to live in the house with Miss Blanche
and not be managed by her. The girl was
q born diplomat, and it seemed rather a
mistake that she had not been born to
royalty, where her talents might have
made her famous Yet she never gave
loud orders, or issued any particular COM
mands, or seemed to rule, but everybody
about the house, from its master (by cOur-
tesy) down to Billy Doane, the chore boy,
knew that she did.
l think there are some persons, both
men and women, who have the power OF
casting glamour over the eyes OF others,
and then of leading them whithersoever
they will, without any apparent effort.
Beauty is powerful ally, but 1t is not an
indispensable one. There is subtle
power of fascination more mighty than
the handsomest face, but when both are
united in the same person, especially II it
happens to be woman, the spell is COM
plete. l say especially woman" be-
cause everybody knows the superior"
weakness of men, and the ease with which
q beautiful or polite woman can hoodwink
them, when she really sets herself to the
task.
All through the summer and autumn
the Andersons entertained faint hopes of
hearing in some way from their lost Viola.
The little hair trunk, studded with brass
nails, with the solitary NJ. on the lid, was
put carefully away up stairs, and more
than once had Myra Anderson knelt down
before it, and lifted the dainty little
dresses-so like the bright little creature
who had worn them-and pressed the
senseless things to her heart and her lips,
in wild passion Of sobs and tears.
But the soft haze of autumn faded from
the faintly-rounded hills and the silvery
river, and winter came-cold, cruel and
stern-and no word from Gordon had yet
come. There had, then, nothing ever
been heard from her, or he would have
written, and the spark Of hope burned
lower and lower as the days went by, and
they came after a while to speak of her in
the tender, awed way we speak OF the
dead
And so the days came and went; and
by-and by frightened and heightened, and
the river slipped of its silver chain, and
the prairies grew family green in the sun
shine, and April, flushing and weeping,
came shyly over the threshold Of Time.
CHAPTER v.
1t was perhaps the middle Of April
when Tom Arnold stopped at his sisters
one night on his way home from little
trip he had been making south TO buy
cattle.
Rather an odd thing happened to-day
or rather should say, yesterday" he
said drawing letter from his pocket Il
expect you would cali it u special Provi.
dence, Ben, but prefer to wait till know
what it's about before decide. am not
a very religious man, but have little
theory Of my own that forbids the idea
of saddling all the miseries OF mankind
on Providence" When anything comes
along that's Enthusiastically good, 1 am
willing to admit that He had hand in it,
but don't hardly believe He ordains evil.
But here is the letter." tossing creased
blotted, and sadly soiled envelop on the
table.
Mr.. Anderson took it up and carried il
to the west window where the sunset
light could fall on this eyes were getting
to be little treacherous. The original
post mark was altogether indistinguish
able from being crossed and recrossed
with other post marks, and the envelop
was fretted and worn on the edges.
"Idon't know how happened TO go into
the Rock Island post-office, unless twas
because H always has glorious cigars
with which to regale his friends, of whom
| have the happines to be one," Arnold
continued, as Ben Anderson drew the
letter from the envelop. "Well, what
should be the first thing my eyes fell on
but your name heading list Of advertised
letters, l asked H. tor the letter i'm
mediately, and he gave it to me very glad
ly, saying that it had been TO the Dead
Letter Office and been sent back again
had been sent down to Rockdale and re
turned and he had an impression it had
been to Rockford, but he might be mistaken
He thought it must be nearly year since
it first came there. The last time it came
back he put 1t in drawer, and hadn1
thought Of it since, and the List which
it headed was an old one, which he hae
neglected to take down."
"Myra," broke in Ben Andf rson, sharply
"come here"
She came and took the letter from hi
hand, glanced at it, and gave q little
quick crV.