Litchfield enquirer., 1874-10-22

waiting to avenge any possible insult of f red to one of their number, s'and ven. tured to enter it. Finding it unoccnpied as had been told, am afraid I had the audacity to sit down and amuse myself for few moments at the. piano-while
 waiting for my friends"
 Hawkins raised his beautiful eyes tc hers. He saw very pretty girl, witt frank, gray eyes glistening with excite. ment, with two red, slightly freckled cheeks glowing little under his eyes, with short scarlet upper lip turned back Ike rose leaf, over line of white teeth, as she breathed somewhat hurried ly in her nervous excitement. He saw all this calmly, quietly, and, save for the na. fear without quickening of his pulse. II knowed it," he said, simply. II heard ye as kem up."
 Miss Nelly was furious at hls grammar, his dialect, his coolness, and still more at the suspicion that he was an active mem- Der of her invisible claque.
 'Ah," she said, still smiling, "then I think heard yo,t-'
 ''I reckon not, he interrupted gravely. II didn't stay long. I found the boys hanging round the house, and I allowed at first I'd go in and kinder warn you, but they promised to keep still, and you look ed so comfortable and wrapped up in your music, that hadn't the heart to dis turb you, and kem away. I hope," he added earnestly ''they don't let on e2 they heered you. They ant bad lot them Blazin' Star boys-though they're a little hard at times. But they'd no more hurt ye than they would a-a-a cat!" con- tinued MT Hawkins, blushing with faint of the inelegance of his sim, ile.
 No, no, said Miss Nelly, feeling sud- denly very angry with herself, the Fool. and the entire male population of Five Forks. No! have behaved foolishly, I suppose-and if they had, it would have serve me right. But only wanted to apologize to you. You'll find everything as you left it. Good dayT'
 She turned to go. MT. Hawkins began to feel embarrassed. 'Id have asked ye to sit down, he said, finally, eff it had been fit for lady. Ioughter done SO, enny way. don't know what kept me from it. But 1 ain't we'll, Miss. Times, I get assort O dumb ager-it's the ditches, I think, Miss-and I don't seem to hey my wits about me-"
 Instantly Miss ArnoS was all sympathy her quick woman's heart was touched.
 ''Can I-can anything be done?" she asked, more timidly than she had before spoken.
 "No!-not unless ye remember suthin' about these pills" He exhibited a box containing about half dozen. 1T forgot the direction-I don't seem to remember much, any way, these times-they're 'Jones's Vegetable Compound If we've ever took 'em yell remember whether the reg'lar dose is eight. They aint but SIX here. But perhaps ye never tux any," he added, deprecatingly.
 ''No," said Miss Nelly, curtly. She had usually keen sense of the ludicrous, but somehow Mr. Hawkins's eccentricity only pained .her.
 "Will you let me see you to the foot of the hill?" he said again, after another en-
 Miss Arnot felt instantly that such an act would condone her trespass in the eyes of the world. She might meet some of her invisible admirers-or even her mpanions-and, with all her cratic i'm pulses, she was nevertheless a woman, and did not entirely despise the verdict of conventionality. She smiled sweetly and consented, and in another moment the two were lost in the shadows of the wood.
 Like many other apparently trivial acts ID an uneventful life l. was decisive. As she expected, she met two or three of her late applauders, who she fancied, looked sheeplsh and embarrassed; she met also her companions looking for her m some alarm. who really appeared astonished at her escort, and, she 1ancied, trlAe envi- ,us of her evident success I ear that Miss Arnot, ill response to heir anxious did not state entirely he truth, but, without actual assertion, led them to believe trat she had, at very early stage of the proceeding. completely subjugated bhl, weak minded giant, and had brought him triumphantly to her feet. From tell Ing this story two or thee times she got finally to believe that she had some foun- 1ation for 1t: then to a vague sort of de- sire that 1t would eventually prove to be true, and to an equally vague yearning to hasten that consum nation. That 1t would to any satisfaction of the Fool she d1d not stop to doubt That it would cure him of his folly she was quite confi-
 
 men or women-who do not believe that even hopeless love for ourselves is more conducive to the salvation of the lover than requited affection for another.
 The criticism of Five Forks was as the reader may imagine, swift and conclusive When it was found out that Miss Arnot was not ''the flag" masquerading as young and pretty girl, to the ultimate de- ception of Five Forks in general and the Tool in particular, it was at once decided that nothing but the speedy union of the Fool and the ''pretty school-marm" was consistent with ordinary common sense. The singular good fortune of Hawkins was quite in accordance with the theory of his luck as propounded by the camp. That after ''the flag" failed to make her appearance he should ''strike lead" in bis own house with out the trouble of prospecting, seemed to these casuists as a wonderful but inevitable law. To add to these fatal probabilities, Miss Ar not fell and sprained her ankle in the as- cent of Mount Lincoln. and was confined for some weeks to the hotel after her com oanions had departed. During this peri od Hawkins was civilly but grotesquely attentive. When, after a reasonable time had elapsed, there still appeared to be no prospect of the occupancy of he new house, public opinion experien- :ei singular change in regard to it's theo- -ies of MT. Hawkins's conduct. ''The flag was looked upon as 8 saint-like and ong suffering martyr to the weakness and of the Fool. That, after erecting this new house at her request, he bad suddenly ''gone back on her; that his celbacy was the result of long habit of weak proposal and subsequent shame less rejection, and that he was now trying hls hand on the helpless schooI-marm, was perfectly plain to Five Forks. That he should be frustrated in hls attempts at any cost was equally plain. Miss Nelly found herself invested with a rude chivalry that would have been amus- ing had 1t not been at times embarrassing; that would have been impertinent but for the almost superstitious respect with which it was proffered. Every day some body from Five Forks rode out to 1n- quire the health of the fair patient. ''Hez Hawkins been over yer, to-day queried Tom Flynn, with artful ease and indiffer-