The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-04-28
THE ROSE OF TUoLUMNE.
A NEW STORY BY BRET HARTE

THE ROSE OF TUOLUMNE.
A NEW STORY BY BRET HARTE.
10 From the New York Times
81 allowed to go to bed, Ridgeway." said
Mr.. McClosky, meekly, "but my girl Jinny's
jist got back from little tear up at Robin
sons, and amt inclined to turn in yet. You
know what girls is. So thought we three
would list have a social chat together to pass
away the time"
"You mendacious old hypocrite, she got
back an hour ago." said Ridgeway, las that
savage looking escort of hers, who has been
haunting the house ever since. can testify.
NV belief is, that, like an enterprising idiot,
as you are, you've dragged that girl out of
her bed that we might mutually bore each
other" b.- a-f
Mr.. McClosky was too much stunned by
this evidence of Ridgeway's apparently
superhuman penetration to reply. After
enjoying his hosts confusion for moment
with his eyes, Ridgeway's mouth asked
grimly:
"And who is this girl, any way?"
"Nancy's."
"Your wife's?"
"Yes. But look var, Ridgeway," said
McClosky, laying one hand imploringly on
Ridgeway's sleeve, "not word about her
to jimmy. She thinks her mothers dead
died in Missouri. Eh!"
Ridgewsy nearly rolled from the versnda
| in an excess of rage. "Good God! DO YOU
mean to say that you have been concealing
from her fact that at any day, any moment,
may come to her ears? That you've been
letting her grow up in Ignorance of some
thing that by this time she might have out
grown and forgotten? That you have been,
like besotted old ass, all these years slowly
forging a thunderbolt that any one may
crush her with? That"-but here Ridge
ways cough took possession OF his voice,
and even put a moisture into his dark eyes.
as he looked at McClosky's aimless hand
feebly employed upon his beard.
"But," said McClosky, "look how she's
done? She's held her head as high as any
of 'em. She's to be married in month to
the richest man in the county, and" he
added, cunningly, Jack Ashe amt the
kind o. man to sit by and hear anything
said of his wife or her relations, you bet.
But hush-that's her foot on the stairs. She's
cummin'."
She came. 1 don't think the French win
dow ever held finer view than when she
put aside the curtains and stepped out. She
had dressed herself simply and hurriedly,
but with woman's knowledge OF her best
points, so that you get the long curves OF
her shapely limbs, the shorter curves of her
round waist and shoulders, the long sweep
of her yellow braids, the light of her blue
eyes, and even the delicate rose of her COM
) plexion, without knowing how it was de-
} livereG to you.
The introduction by McCloky was brief
; When Ridgeway had got over the fact that
1t was 2 o'clock in the morning, and that the
cheek of this Tuolumne goddess nearest
him was as dewy and fresh an infants
that she looked like Marguerite, without
probably ever having heard of Goethe's he.
, rome, he talked, I dare say, very sensibly
When Miss Jenny, who from her childhood
had been brought up among the sons Of
8 Anak, and who was accustomed to have the
supremacy of our noble sex, presented to
! her as a physical fact, found herself in the
: presence of new and strange power in the
slight and elegant figure beside her, she was
at first frightened and col I. But finding
that this power, against which the weapons
2 of her own physical charms were of no avail
was kindly one, albeit general, she fell tC
worshipping 1t, after the fashion of woman
4 and casting before 1t the fetiches and Other
3 idols of her youth. She even confessed to it
7 So that in half an hour Ridgeway was il
possession of all the facts connected with
: her life, and great many, fear, of her fan
. cies-except one When McClosky found
the young people thus amicably disposed, ht
? calmly went to sleep.
It was pleasant time to each. To Miss
4 Jenny it had the charm of novelty, and she
3 abandoned herself to it for that reason muct
3 more freely and innocently than her com
I panion, who knew something more of the
lncNlldDlc JOsiS Va VIC pOclStOns uO uO
f think, however, he had any intention o
$ love- making. / do not think he was at al
D conscious of being in the attitude. / an
4 quite positive he would have shrunk from
Z the suggestion Of disloyalty to the one wo
man whom he admitted to himself he loved
l But, like most poets, he was much more
3 true to an idea than fact, and, having
8 very lofty conception OF womanhood, will
!, very sanguine nature, he saw in each new
5 face the possibilities of realization of hi
d ideal. 1t was perhaps an unfortunate thinl
s for the women, particularly as he brough
b to each trial a surprising freshness which
:, was very deceptive, and quite distinct from
. the blase familiarity of the man of gailantry
u 1t was this perennial virginity of the affec
d tons that most endeared him to the bes
i women, who were prone to exercise toward
# him a chivalrous protection-as of one kel,
j. dulged in the dangerous combination o
IS sentiment with the highest maternal in
o stincts. 1t was this quality which causes
8 Jenny to recognize in him a certain boyish
y ness that required her womanly care, an
70 even induced her to offer to accompany hir
d to the crossroads when the time of his de
g parture arrived. With her superior know
e ledge of woodcraft and the locality she woul
n have kept him from being lost. I wot nc
<, but that she would have protected him fror
)t bears or wolves, but chiefly, think, froI
q the feline destinations of Name Robinso
al and Lucy Rance, who might be lying in wa
~ for this tender young poet. Nor did sh
cease to be thankful that Providence had, Z