The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-07-30

might nave given such gladness tt
this young girls heart; she did moi
think itsworth her while to repeat
what Archer Delevan had said tc
Ler when, in quiet matter of fact
way, he, had asked her to be his
wife.
I can offer you only "a second
love, Miss Verener,' he had said
gravely,: "a love that perhaps
springs from the loneliness and dis.
appointment 7 have ever experien.
ced since I lost Maude Leicester
| If you think I am worth having
will .you take me and teach me tc
forget her?'
| All, wasn't he worth having
even though be had told her he
hated her, but wanted her for an
ornament to his splendid mansion /
So THE triumphant girl had shown
:Maude Aeicester her ring, but had
not shoWn her wha; she might have
done. She felt perfectly justified
in not telling it; it was, in the first
place, 4 lovers first confidence,
and as such to be sacredly respect
ed. Again, had she but limited to
Maudes that Archer De1evan was
still true, she knew she should lose
not only her hired companion, but
her husband, ad tutatruna, also.
1t had been pitiful story, that
Of Maud Leicester, who had been
compelled, through the wickedness
of her father, to leave their native
city and bury herself in a new
world where the faces were so
strange, and there came never a
breath of the dear old life back to
her. She had taught an humble
village school away out l., Missouri
for seven years of those ten; and
then, when. by chance-no, rather
Providence = her old-time friend,
Alma Verener, had come upon her
and offered her a home in her own
house, Maude had gone, in feverish
delight-not so much, because she
loved this friend, as of the vague
hope she had of Meeting the man
she had loved 50 long and constant
ly:
But when, in the guileless good
ness of her heart, she had told Ve-
rener this, her one romance, that
lady had taken especial pains that
the two should not meet; and when
a designing woman, who has set
her whole heart on winning man
with whom her servant is in love,
you may depend upon it that luck
less dependent will not be allowed
a fair chance. And Miss Verener
had succeeded in winning Archer
Delevan for herself, and losing him
to Maud Leicester.
4 am perfectly aware how dis
tasteful the allusi ion must be to
you, Miss Verener, but I can hardly
forbear to ask you if you really
think Miss Leicester died West 2
He was such a strange lover;
and Alma Veyena began to wonder
whether, after all, he would not
break off the engagement from
sheer queerness. lie was forever
talking about Maude, since one un-
lucky day when she had casually
mentioned she saw her in the West.
But if there were lies endless in
number to be told, Alma Verener
could and would tell them to furth-
err her own ends.
Dead, Tn quite sure, Mr.. Dele
van: else why is it I never hear
from her, az she promised to write
me?'
'And when you saw her last she
was we'll and happy?'
so I should judge from her gay
ETY. and good looks. The landlady
said she was about to bemarried.
'And you've never seen her since
that time!'
He did not make 1t a question,
but rather an assertion. Ills ears
were tingling with that news
'marriedp r2
And Miss Verener looked quiet
ly ~, with never a blench Of the
eyelids.
Il have never seen her SINCE
There followed a silence, and
then she said:
oh, by the by, I've a lovely
bunch Of ferns to show you, that
were given to me this morning.
She glided across the room, and
from glass saucer removed a bou;
quet of exquisitely dried ferns, and
handed them to Mr.. Delevan.
Heavens where dld 1t come
from?'
For they were tied with a piece
of pink-budded blue ribbon, and
Mr.. Delevan arose trembling at the
sight OF it. .,
The ferns? Senator Lovell'a
wife,
No, the ribbon. Where did it
come from p
She looked up in surprise at his
passionate tones.
4 suppose when the parlor maid
placed them here she has done it.
Why?' -,
He laid down the ferns and
walked over to the window.