The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-10-09
A PIECE OF RIBBON.
BY MARY REED CROWELL.

It was pretty piece, too, of rare combina-
tion of two utterly dssimilar colors. 1t was
narrow, not three-fourths Of an inch wide, of q
bright. light blue with pink rose buds dotted
az regular intervals along it. 1t was slightly
mussed on both ends, and in the centre were
two pin holes.
And that was what Archer Delevan was ca
ressing SO fondly; the ribbon that still bore
the traces of having been tied around Maude
Leicester's white throat by her dainty fingers.
He was the last person you would have
selected from crowd to be the man who had a
romance not that he was not handsome, tor
Archer Delevan was as splendid specimen OF
mankind as woman could have desired; not
that he was not full Of courtly grace and dig
nifed bearing, for he wore both those charms
as prince of the blood royal might have
done !; bat it was because there was settled
gloom and shade in his brown eyes, and stern
willfulness strongly marked around his lips
bare lips they were, and as perfect as Apollo's.
There were very few people in this world but
that would have declared Mr.. De'evan to be
utterly demented, had they seen him that
stormy wintry night, with all the world locked
out from the warmth and magnifcence of his
bachelor chambers.
1t was certainly very untoward thing for a
was as rich almost as tabled Cresus, who had
but to ask them, to have any-perhaps all-of
his fair friends fall in his arms, and bless him
for Che opportunity he had given them OF be-
ing Archer Delevan's wife.
But all his wealth, style, position and in
auence would have weighed light in the scales
against that tiny throatlet of pink-budded
azure silk, and that was what he realized as he
sat beside his handicapped centre-table with
dark, sgloomy frown intensifying in his eyes,
and his whole frame trembling from the pas
sion of the kisses he poured on that perfumed
toy.
the story of that ribbon, only inasmuch as Mr..
Deevan nursed and cherished it.
Ten wears back, when he had been moneyless
and nameless, and altogether nobody, girl of
fifteen had laughingly given him, at his impas-
stoned request this strip Of silk, warm from
her shapely throat.
He had only seen twenty-five years then, and
had pleaded with all his native eloquence for
Maude Leicester's love; and she had been so
witchingly coy, yet not discouraging, as she
laushingly gave him the love-token, and as
sured him it was Of far more worth than her
heart.
Suddenly the Leicesters vanished from un-
der his very eyes, and he was left with only his
never-dying memory of the violet-eyed beauty,
and this sole link. And tonight Archer Dele
van was yearning Tor her whom he worshipped
with all his soul.
"Well, Mande; after two years. siege, I have
won the guerdon of victory. Seep'
Alma Verener held up her hand, where q
cluster diamond ring sparkled in the morning
sunlight that came streaming in the east bay
window at Verener Villa.
A pale shadow gathered around Maude
Leicesters mouth, as she saw the engagement
ring; =.
him all these long ten years."
There was a malicious sparkle in Almas
blue eyes, as she listened to the weary-worded
confession.
ct told you Archer Delevan was not the man
to remember such boyish folly"
She did not say the words that might have
given such gladness to his young heart; she
did not think it worth her while to repeat
what Archer Delevan had said to her when, in
quiet matter of fact way, he had asked her to
be his wife.
"I can offer you only second love, Miss
Verener," he said gravely: "a love that per-
haps springs from the loneliness and disap-
pointment have ever experienced since lost
Maude Leicester. If you think am worth
having, will you take me, and teach me to for
get herr"
All, wasn't he Worth having, even though he
had told her he hated her, but wanted her for
an ornament to his splendid mansion?
So the triumphant girl had shown Maude
Leicester her ring, but had not shown her
what she might have done. She felt perfectly
justified in not telling it; it was, in the first
place, a lovers first confidence, and as such to
be sacredly respected. Again, had she but
limited to Maude that Archer Delevan was still
true, she knew she should lose not only he1
hired companion, but her husband, ad tuturum
also.
1t had been pitiful story, that of Maude
Leicester, who had been compelled, through
the wckedness of her father to leave their ma.
tive city and bury herself in new world
where the laces were 30 strange, and there
came never a breath Of the dear old life back
to her. She had taught an humble village
school away out in Missouri for seven years O,
those ten; and then, when by chance-no
rather prOyidence-her old-time friend Alma
Verener had come upon her and offered her
home in her own house, Maude had gone, ir
feverish delight-not so much because she
loved this friend as of the vague hope she hat
of meeting the man she had loved so long an(
constantly.
But when, in the guileess goodness of hc
heart, she had told Verener this, her one 70
nance, that lady had taken special pains tina
the two should not meet; and when design
ing woman has set her whole heart on winning
may depend upon it that luckless dependen
l.. Ill E,:r A..