The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-01-13

count the cost of failure or success. 1t
right to such attentions, and admiration
and love as Mr.. Bligh lavished upon her,
and as Theo offered at a respect Ill dis
lance, on the score of being his uncle S
nephew 1t was new sensation to her,
| and she enjoyed it to the full; reve ling in
! it as one does in sunbeams after long
+! frost, or in dainty viands after a lolrg fast.
The idea of its being wrong or reprehsn-
sible in any way to gather these roses of
love and youth and pleasure, that were
blooming in her path, never entered her
mind. She was only intensely fond of
the excitement of being put upon pedes
tai and being only worshipped in the sight
! of all men.
( Given such a creature as this frorl the
birth, and are We justified in Judging
harshly of and condemning the deeds it
dictateso The girl was not obeying her
! instincts when she turned her tlowcr-like
face gladly toward any one who seemed as
a sun to her. And Theo, with all this fine,
tawny beauty of his. did seem very like a
sun to the girl. "Bright, and warll, and
genial" she called him, speaking Of him
quite openly and frankly to his uncle
whose heart was beginning to misgiv', him.
Miss Dundee was on the edge Of preci-
| pice, and was totally Unconscious Of the
! fact.
| There came day when it was revealed
| to her suddenly, so suddenly that it made
her dizzy, and then she behaved like a
/ woman.
We all know when people want 20 be
! together, and have no special end Or aim
that may be shouted aloud in the market
! place for being SO, how they devise and
invent motives, and exhaust and warp
! opportunities. The country is capital
stage whercon to develop the little plots.-
And so in this case every ruin in the vicin-
ity was dragged in to assist in the denrue
ment, and every point of view from when re
anything could possibly be seen was called
upon to contribute to the furtherancc of
the lovers stratagems.
All this time while the excursions were
going on, to "look at something or other
| that not one Of them ever saw, the uncle
and nephew were in the house together,
and am sorry to have TO record that it
was not the guilty one that suffered most.
Tho elder man was profoundly and iustifi-
ably unhappy, because he feared that the
two people he loved best in the world might
deal him the hardest blow man can have
dealt to him. The younger man was
excitedly and fitfully unhappy truly, but
then he had hours of such compromising
bliss.
For instance, his conscience did not tell
him that there was anything actually dis
honorable in his riding along Madge's side
through the autumn woods and lanes; nor
did it prick him for alphabetically endors-
| ing her views of things or for keeping the
conversation generally in those channels
wherein her words and ideas ran most
freely. Still, though his conscience left
him unscathed for these derelictions from
the paths of perfect prudence, there were
| hours in the watches of the night when the
Young man suffered to the full as acutely
as did the elder one. Hours when he
painted vivid pictures of the time when he
should be away from the Chase and its
Inhabitants, and when Bonnie Dundee
would be ruling there, the lady of the land.
Bonnie Dundee" no longer, but his
uncle's wife; hours when he comprehended
| for the first time in his life the fullness of
the truth that one cannot play with fire
without being burnt; hours when he re-
preached himself bitterly for having SO
| tritled with his own peace and well being
as to have stayed on in the vain hope of
his reason and Judgment killing his pas
sion; hours when he realized how abso-
lutely empty his life would be when this
girl for whom his heart was sick should be
another mans wife, and that man his own
generous trusting uncle.
| 1T never occurred to the young man to
think that Mr.. Bligh suspected anything of
this. AS have said, Theo's conscience
had him entirely guiltless of their being
aught in his manner that could indicate it.
Nor did he do the girl the injustice of sup
posing that she was aware of it. "Like Il
woman, she will take scalp that's fling
at her feet" he would say to himself
modify; "and like fool I'm ready to
fling mine there, only shall never do it,
| He had firm faith in his power of self
| command. 1t was his honest Intention lust
to gather few more roses while he might,
| and then to go away, having made no sign.
But the Chase can never be il home to me
| again; I'm banished far more etfectually by
1--we for her, than / could have done if l
had hated her. This he told himself one
day as he was riding along with them on
the very last excursion in which he meant
| to permit himself to indulge in their COM
pany.
Bonnie Dundee was in great force that
morning. pretty woman on a handsome
spirited horse, which she feels perfectly
capable of managing, and escorted by
couple of men of whose admiration she
feels herself to be secure, is sure to be at
her best She seemed such a cloudless
creature as she rode along, distributing her
attentions with that subtle impartiality
| with which well-bred woman, and we'll
bred one alone, can keep two men enthralled
at the same time that gloom obtained in
Theo's soul. 1t was bitterly hard to feel
that she could be so carelessly happy, when
all before him was SO blank and barren.
Presently his uncle said something that
caused him to gather himself together, and
sent all the blood coursing through his
veins in way that betrayed itself in his
face.
.sTheo has been talking this morning of
leaving us soon; before he goes, DEAR we
must let him know what day LA is to come
back and hail you as aunt 1t cost Mr..
Bligh more than slight effort to make
this speech with apparent ease. But he
succeeded in doing SO, and only he himself
suspected the pain his own words gave him.
"Going. Theo going!' she exclaimed,
lasninr from, finn into surnrise and soIau,