The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1871-12-21
"You give me carte blanche W
HInr9e lI0ncIo 9v

"You give me carte blanche ?"
"Carae blanche 2"
:But if 1 did upset the boat,'' eays
Lenore, half laughing. half vexcd-"I
don't say that I am going-but if I did,
your frst care ought to be to pull me
out"
"Ought it ?'
| "Oughtnt it?"
II don't know what it ought to be-"
replies Paul pulling leisurely along
through the shining food ~ know
what it woula be-"
"What ?"
''To pull myself out"
''You are like man heard of. who
said one day to another man out hunt
ing, Don't look behind, there are two
women Ia the ditch, and if you look,
you'll have to stop and pick them out"
e l was that man."
Lenore laughs: "You would let me
drown, then ?"
"Undoubtedly."
"Well, you are the only man in the
world who could sit there and tell ne
so to my face" cries the girl, angry
scintillations flashing from her superb
eyes, and the ever-ready color rushing
head)ong to her cheeks.
off you were to upset the boat" re-
plies Paul, calmly, looking with intense
dlsapprobation at his beautiful COM
panion, II should know that it was
your deliberate intention to commit sui
eide, and 1 hope 1 have better manners
than to run counter to any lady's plain
ly-expressed wishes.''
III have great mind to try" an
s"ers Lenore, looking down into the
clear brown depths, where her own ina
age lies, tremulous and shimmeripg,
and then into LeHesuier's impassive
face.
"D' by all means only let me pull
you hundred yards farther on. 1t is
five or six feet deeper und er those pop.
lars"
"Atter all, 1 think 1 WON'T" says
Lenore, naively, her anger subsiding, as
soon as she sees that it neither alarms
nor awes, nor even very much amuses
him. II don't know how it is with
other people, bus, with me, the mere
fact of being given leave to do thing,
takes away all desire to do it,
"From the little l know of your
character, should imagine that you
did not often wait to be given leave"
"Not very often,' replies the girl,
graVely, looking away beyond him, to
where, on the Rauce's right bank.
Lehon Abbey lifts its rooaess walls and
gray arches to the sky, "Once, long
ago, when 1 was little, | was very, very
ill-I'm not over-strong now, though
you would not think it to look at me
and the doctor said I was to have what
ever l asked for, for fear of bringing on
a fit of coughing if 1 screamed the
consequence was that, if ever I wanted
any thing, I always threatened to break
a blood vessel, aud straiyhtway got it."
81 should think that that threat had
lost its efficacy now," says Paul, look
ing incredulously at the girls full, wo-
manly figure, and at the plump though
slender dimpled hand, that droops over
the boat-side-at the round cream white
column of her proud throat.
"Nc, 1t has not" she answers, shak-
Ing her head "the prestige OF my DEL
icacy still remains, though the fact no
longer exists, and I, of course, am care
full to keep up tradition which tends
so much to my own interest, as it en-
ables me to have my own way in every
thing"
"Wh at very bad thing for ycu"
says LIE Mesurier, brusquely, eff l
were your sister, l should set up a rival
blood-vcssel."
'1t would be no use,' answers Le-
more, laughing, and swinging her broad
straw hat to and fro. "Jemima is one
Of those hopelessly healthy people who
will line on, without an ache or pain,
t. hundred, and then tumble down.
stairs or get run over by an omnibus,
natural means having proved utterly
inadequate to kill her."
They are slowly sliding past LehoD,
past the ivied bridge, past the steps
down to the waters, wherein the Lehon
monks used to batho their holy, sleek
bodies in the by-gone Summers, 10 the
quick stream. Pious Sybarites, who
reconciled God aud Mammon as
never any one. has done since then
"It would have been very different
if papa had lived" continues Leuore,
beginning to dabble again, uuremon-
strated with this time. Gle used to
make US get up at FIVE o'clock on win
ter mornings to 60 out walking by
starlight with him; used to mako US
stand in row before him, with our
hands behind our backs, to repeat the
Catechism; and if we stumbled in our
DUTY to our Neighbour or Il desire'-
Jemima always stuck fast in Il desire
made US hold out our hands to be
caned."
"What a thousand pities that he
died !" says Paul, almost involuntarily.
resting on his oars, an staring straight