The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-08-26

to let me walk home." To which | an
sWered, ''Bless your dear nose.n
But | was doomed to be still further in
debted and reconciled to that wonderful
organ. A year or two after the smallpox
affair Mans old grandmother, decrepi
Frenchwoman OF ninety, died in Paris
and in Il fit of pique left ali her money
and Jewels to Mans mother, whom she
had utterly ignored since her marriage. to
Mrs. Clements great distress. But her son
had turned out Il dissipated, worthless fel-
low, and at length was shot in disreput
able duel, and in the last year of her life
Madame Duparc quarrelled with the niece
she had adopted and cut her off with a
mourning ring. The inheritance amount
ed only to Il few thousand dollars in mon
ey, but the most valuable part was the
lewelry, for besides sundry quaint old
rings OF enamel, carbuncle and sapphire
4 pair or two of cameo and garnet brace
lets. We're a comb and neck lace Of dia-
monds, an heirloom in the family. Of
great value Now Madame Duparc had
had the torethought to leave these to Mrs
Clement in such u way that they could be
alienated or sold, adding a few cutting re
marks as to her probable need of money
since she had married that 'yaurien
American.' Poor Mrs Clement she was
past sneers this long time, and the nheri-
tance came to Nan, and in due time reach
ed her, after dangers by land sea and the
custom-house.
OF course some ubiquitous reported for
the papers heard this item of news some
where, and made telling little paragraph.
Ehe diamonds, in reality worth about fiji
teen thousand dollars, figured as "a sey en-
ty-hVe thousand bequest OF jewels i'll BIG
capitals All the cil cumstances were ar
rayed before the public, copied into city
papers. repeated in weeklies; and from
that moment our lives became a burden.
What should be done with those dia-
monds till we could take them to New
York and sell them?
Nan did once put them on, having first
sent our girl OFF on an errand, looked un-
der every sofa and chair, behind the doors,
into the closets She even closed the reg
stcr, lest man should lurk in the cellar,
and shut all the blinds for fear Of opera
glasses across the way. Then She lit all
the gas, put on her wedding gown and the
diamonds, and enjoyed herself
| must own She looked us lovely as a
goddess the comb sparkled like q coronet
OF stars (for it was set starwise, in a quaint
cid iashion) in her coied dark hair, and
the brilliants made Il river of light about
her delicate round throat. Diamonds evi-
IDENTIFY We're the proper gems for her.
They kindled the deep sparkle of her
eyes; they Illuminated the naughty little
head with u sort of fitness not dcscribable
Her rich soft gown of creamy silk with
its falls and folds of rare old lace. delicate
rs lrost-work; the 1.-the, graceful figure
and piquant high-brcd face evidently
were meant for diamonds, OF diamonds
for them.
NAN y said |. ''don't sell the things.
We don't need to and they are lovely on
YOU
Nan turned slowly round and looked at
me with Il curious smile,
"Oh Jack is that your idea of the
eternal fitness of things Shall | wear
these sparks to church, on to tea parties?
Once a year, perhaps, there is a wedding
here that might be blinded with my tinery,
unless everybody looked at the bride, rs
they ought And besides" She added with
4 sudden energy, 'do you want our lives
made a nuisance with these thingsH How
have we spent the last ten days?"
looked back with dismay; not a day
had passed that we had not raehcd our
brains for place to hide those diamonds
They had beeu respectively dWeIIcrs in
the stove under the ashes, down the regis
ter pipe, in pickle jar full OF bran, deep
among piles of sheets in the linen chest
lost in blankets in the cedar closet, in the
crown OF Mans Sunday bonnet, and the
pocket Of my wedding coat, laid away in
a drawer, Once they We're twenty-tour
hours in q loaf Of bread, all night in an
olu-tashloned ioot-stONe Time fails me
to recount their wanderings. We neither
slept quietly nor took needful exercise
and when people came to the house and
asked to see them, the very friends of our
bosoms even, they We're treated with base
suhteringes, and went away disappointed.
| cannot say we told any right-anged
and respectable lies; we descended to
meaner depths. Om inyariable answer
to friendly requests was, Ibid You think
we We're 50 silly As to keep them in the
house ?" wincing retributively under the
commentators of our sense sure to fol-
low, and the appalling tales OF other peo-
pie who had been 50 idiotc as to do such
Il thing, and been robbed. or murdered,
or frightened to death in consequence.
We went to the expense OF two reyolvcrs,
and borroweda u dog, who barked at evcry
mouse in the wall, and aWoEc us to hnrrid
suspicious and tremors.
But at last the business which detained
me in W was finished, and | could
make arrangements for our journey And
then came the important question How
SbplllI IN hrpriD11S fb1Itra t1
New York? Ii would never do to pack
them in trunk proposed to Nan 10
wear them.
And be murdered, of cuUrsc,' she in
lionantly answered.
thought they could be hidden under
her dress and hat, but this she would not
hear to; she was afraid her very con
sciousness would betray her 50 at last
we put them in an ordinary morocco hand
bag, which she never let 90 of one mo
ment in all the days journey. This was
enough to attract attention in itself, but
we got safely to the hotel where we were
to stay, and drew a freer breath.
1t was six o'clock at night. We were
too tired to 90 down town, and having
ordered some dinner. Nan, proceeded 10
array herself for that ceremony.
But what should we do with the dia-
monds? There was but one thirg now.
Nanon put the comb in her hair and over
laid it with those soft and abundant coils
till not Il star peeped to light. and over
all she pinned a little black lace handker
chief, out of date rs to fashion, but might
ly picturesque. The necklace was worn
under her high dress Of dark silk. and for
fear the shape of the ornament would
show, she had tied herself up, As to throat
and shoulders, in a scarf of some delicate
sort of lace She looked like an invalid
angel; but who cared9 The jewels We're
covered up, and the cases locked in our
handbag
In the evening friends came in to see
us. They stayed till ten o'clock, perhaps.
Nanon, very tired, went up stairs before
me few minutes. When | reached our
room, | found her sitting by the open win
dow. She did not stir tor a moment, but
when | WAS partly undressed said she had
left her lace an1karchief i'm the narlor