The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1871-12-21
A little silence.

A little silence.
"Does he want you to go, too ?" she
asks, moved by some sudden impulse,
hitting her eyes and looking at him
hardly, yet shauefacedly.
"Me| with surprise, "not that l
am aware off,"
"Oh !" dropping her eyes again.
"Why do you ask ?"
81 had no particular motive" (non-
chal ntly). II never have motive for
any Of my actions"
'Take tea-kctlle. Light our own
fire ; there must be plenty Of sticks in
those great chestnut ut-woods-have tea,
What do you say, Lenore cry I,
anxious to interrupt a tetc. a-tete that
must be so distressing to my sister.
"Charming!" answers Lenore, iron
ic lily. IA fire that one lights ones
self never lights; the kettle Invariably
topples over, and water of the river
tastes of old iron; but what are such
tritliog drawbacks ? Let us go, by all
means !"
CAPTER V.
WHAT JENNA. SAYS.
A steep path, aud steps cut on the
hills rough face, from the binding
white high-road to the waters edge.-
A beautiful brown river washing the
feet of the granite height, on which
Diana sits like queen; Diana's walls,
and towers, and spires, looking down
upon its lonely Rance. The Rance,
that little lower down will 60 stealing
under the worn stone arches Of the
old bridge, and a little higher up
come flowing beneath the great viaduct,
that, with its ten giant arches, strides
across the valley. At the landing
place, little narrow four-oar, with a
sharp nose, is lying, and around it are
four people talking.
"Of course, if you wish it, Leuore,
We must CO. I say, resigned, but
gloomy, as stand beneath huge buff
supshade, which casts becoming yell
low light on my interesting face, clad in
a dust-coIored gown, and girt about the
waist with a leatbern bag-impersona-
tion Of travelling Englishwomen. "But,
if We all get in, We shall inevitably
swamp it."
"1t is only intended for three, really
two to row and one to steer," says
Frederick. setting down a very large
basket, under which he had been stag
gering along all the way from Mdlle.
Leroux's. "But I thought that, per-
haps, if Miss Jemima did not mind,
one of us-the one that is ightest-
Miss Jemima, for instance, might sit
at the bottom of the boat, on shawls,
and cloaks, and 90 forth, in the bows"
"It reminds one rather Of Raphaeps
cartoon of the miraculous Draught of
Fishes does not it ?" says LIE Mesurier
(for he is the fourth person) laughing
as he jumps into the little sklff, and
deposits in it an immense stone jug Of
claret.cup. "'rhe proportion in size
between the Apostles and their boat is
something like the present casc.-Mi<s
Herrick; if you are to sit in the bows,
Pm afraid it will have to be on the
clarct-cup."
"Frederick " cries lcnore, from the
lowest step, on which she is sitting,
lifting up calmly-commanding eyes, and
a little round cleft chin toward him
"suppose you solve the difficulty Sup.
pose you walk 1t is charming along a
towing path; no wind, no flies, no
nothing !"
"Of course, If you wish, Miss Lenore,"
looking rather blank, and still painting
from the effects of his wrestle with the
basket "bnt-"
"You can add some more but
teraies to your cvllection," con-
t'nues my sister, in a wheed-
ling voice. "I dare say you have got
your green gauze scissors in your pock-
ct; do you know" bringing the whole
battery of her dimples to boar upon
Mr.. LeMesuricr), "he catches butter
flies with pair Of green gauze scissors
and sticks pins in their poor fat bodies
how he reconciles it to his conscience
and his bishop I don't know, but I sup.
pose, like fishing, it is form Of cruel.
ty purely clerical.
1T is rather hard to turn poor West
out of his own boat, isn't it?" replies
LeMesurier, looking down on my sister
more collectediy than men are in the
habit of looking; nor, indeed, am
able to detect one grain Of admiration
or appreciation in his cold blue eyes,
He looks at her much as he looked at
me. II say, West, you weigh, I regret
to say, at least five stone less than do,
you take my place. l really and truly
don't care straw about it,"
This last sentence, emphatically spok.
en-, is intended for an aside; but I, who
have happy knack of overhea1ing
things that | am not meant to overhear,
catch it. Frederlck's piece of infor-
nation about his friend, "the society Of
respectable women always bores him
he makes no secret Of it," recurs to
my mind. He is doing his best to
shirk two eminently respectable women
at the present moment.