The Van Buren press., 1876-05-30
VAN BUREN, ARK, MAY 80, 1876.

something if you do; we all shall. Oh,
don't, don't"
must say was vexed. The driver
swore by all the saints, and devil besides,
that no sick man or anything ont of the
way had ever been in his carriage " sence
the world was med |" But nothing con
vinced Nan. She became painfully excl
ted, and was fairly forced to give up
the matter or be downright cruel But
George would not be persuaded. He
looked at me with sort of contempt
uous compassion but forgave him, for
he had never been married. 20 Nan and
| walked home, and George drove to the
station. was sulky and Nan was sweet.
She knew l had made great effort to
please her. and she knew George had
sneered inwardly at my compliance, for
her perceptions were keen and quick, SO
she made herself unusually lovely to re-
ward mo, A.d, @hatfar stiil, whom GAarga
was seized with small -poX fortnight af.
ter and brought to the edge of death, and
by police investigation l found out that
the Indignantly virtuos hackdriver had
that very evening OF the concert taken
two smallpox patients to the hospital,
all Nan said was, :" Oh, Jack, how good
you was to let me walk home" To
which l answered, :" Bless you dear nose
But was doomed to be still indebted
and reconciled.to that wonderful orgsn n.
A year or two after the smallpox affair,
Mans old grandmother, a decrepit. French
woman of ninety, died in Paris, and IN a
fit of pique left all her money and jewels
to Mans mother, whom she had utterly
ignored since her marriage, to Mrs. Gle
ment's great distress But her son had
turned out disspated, worthless fellow,
and at length was shot in q disreputable
duel, and in the last year of her life Mad
anne Dupare quarreled with the niece she
had adobted, and cut her off with amourn
ing ring. The Inheritance amounted on
ly. to few thousand dollars in money,
but the most valuable part was the jewel
ry. for besides quaint old rings of enam.
ell, carbuncle and sapphire, a pair or two
Of cameo and garnet bracelets, were u
comb and necklace of diamonds, .an heir.
loom in the family, of great value Now
Madame Dupare had had the forethought
to leave these to Mrs Clement in such a
way that they be alienated or sold, add
ing few cutting remarks as to her pro-
bable need of money, since she had mar
ried that vaurien American Poor
Mrs. Clement she was past sneers this
long time, and the inheritance came TO
Nan, and in due time reached her, after
dangers by land, sea, and the custom
house.
Ofcourse some ubiquitous reporter for
the papers heard this item of news some
where, and made a telling little paragraph
The diamonds in renlity worth about ff-
Ssoss ~s"v~ ~oss'.~s ssoit..ss sss..o.
ty five thousand bequest of jewels" in
big capitals. All the circumstances were
arrayed before the public, copied into ci-
ty papers, repeated in weeklies; and from
that moment our lives became burden.
What should be done with those dia-
monds till we could take them to New
York and sell them2
Nan did once put them on, having first
sent our girl off or an errand, looked un
der every sofa and chair, behind the doors
into the closets. She even closed the
register, 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 gass, put on her wedding gown
and the diamonds, and enjoyed herself.
| must own she looked as lovely as a
goddess; the comb sparkled like coro-
net OF stars (for it was set starwise after
quaint old tashion) in her coiled dark
hair, and the brilliants made river Of
light around her delicate, round neck.
Diamonds evidently were proper gems
for her They kindled the deep sparkle
of her eyes; they illuminated the haugh-
ty little head with q sort of fitness not de-
scribable. Her rich. soft gown Of creamy
silk, with falls and folds of rare old lace
as frost work; the 1.-THE, graceful figure
and piquant, high bred face evinently
were meant for diamonds, or diamonds
meant for them.
Man. said l, "don't sell the things.
We don't need to /; and they are lovely on
you.".
Nan turned slowly around and looked
at nae with a curious smile,
"Oh, Jack is that your idea of the
eternal fitness of thingsI Shall | wear
these sparks to church, or to tea parties :?
Once year, pereaps, there is wedding
here that might be blinded with my fine
ry, unless everybody looked at the bride
as they ought. And besides" she added
with sudden energy" do you want our
lives made nuisance by these things
How have we spent the last ten days.
Il looked back in dismay not a day
had passed that we had not racked our
brains for place to hide those diamonds.
They had been respective dwelers in the
stove under he ashes, down the register
pipe, in pickle jar iull of bran, deep
among piles Of sheets in the linen chest,
lost in the cedar closet in the crown of
Mans Sunday bonnat, and the pocket of
my wedding coat, laid away in drawer.
Once they were twenty four hours in a
loaf of bread, all night in an old fashion
foot stove. Time fails me to recount
their wandering. We neither slept qui-
etly nor took needful exercise and when
people came to the house and asked to
see them, the very friends of our bosom
even, they were treated with subteriuges,
and went away disappointed
| cannot say we told any right-angled
and respectable lies we descend to mean
er depths. Our invariable answer 10
friendly requests was, Ibid you think
we were so silly as to keep them in the
house?' wincing retributively under the