The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1876-02-18
A LITTLE BIRTHSTONE.



So those STYLED her who seemed to
know best. But she was a pretty Little
birthstone. Pretty? Her lovers de-
clared her a blazing beauty. But a
stranger might only be attracted, by
The contrast of dark skin and light eyes,
to look again; but, looking again, the
charm had worked, and he found her
as blazing a beauty as olive and carmine
tints over soft outlines, as luminous
gray and black-lashed eyes hiding their
brilliance under dropping lids,
as pearly teeth and alluring smiles,
could make her. Round, supple, un-
dersized, she insinuated herself wher-
ever she would, and when she did not
fasclnatc as a woman. she overcame as
a child.
But the worst of it was that she did
her mischief with such an a~rtless. air
that her very victims were at a loss to
tell whether she were guilty or guileless.
Not so the gossips. With one accord
they doomed her, and among themselves
forgot that her name was Virginia War
rem, and spoke Of her only as that Little
Birthstone.
When Roger Harvey came to the
borough and decided to settle there,
taking old DIR. Freeleigh's good will, il
was agreed among the matrons that ne
was to undergo an early naturalization
at Virginia Warren's hands. II he were
n tender-natured young man, he might
do as the divinity student did, who was
found drowned in Bruce Brook. III he
were of sterner stuff But that made
no difference; the ernes stuff had gone
down be IRE Little Birthstone.
But 1 en- il was seen that the young
doctor mad looked 81 head and shout
ders" over Virginia, and had allowed
his eyes 10 rest on Louise Freeleigh,
then the gossips transferred their So
iicitude to the gentle girl whose cheek
was Just painted with the blush of her
first happiness, and they only hoped
that Little Birthstone would let Louise
alone, and be content with her W
property. For Little Brimstons's pro-
perry was a presumable though not vet
declared lover, Gilbert Allen, whom,
perhaps because not sure of his regard,
she loved with all the passion Of her
nature, which did not, unfortunately,
abate her endeayors TO seduce the af-
lection of other lovers still, since the
excitement Of the game was dear to her
AS the breath she drew.
As for Gilbert Allen, though drawn
by Virginia's beauty, he did not APP
prove Of her conduct. And it may have
been a sense of this that rendered her
defiant, and that, when DIR. Harvey was
first seen in church, made her balance
whether il was worth while TO drag this
new captive in her chains. But when
she heard he was likely "a marry Louise
Freelsigh, that ended her doubts. of
course she would let him know that he
had been precipitate. "The sly prssl"
she exclaimed "All the time he nego-
tated with her father she used her op-
portunity. Ii he finds he has been in a
hurry, tit will serve him right
Simple, sweet Louise Freeleioh-as
for using her opportunity, it had never
occurred TO her. A gentle spirit. over
awcd by her fathers sternness, the first
m that the Young doctor turned
to her with the deferential courtesy 10
which she was all unused, the first mo-
ment she saw his smiling face, met his
glance, that moment she felt, though
without recognizing the feeling, that he
was the only man in the world whose
existence mattered a rush. And as for
him, he went back to the hotel that
night repeating the words from the
Cantieles, ssThon hast doves eyes -
He had not made many more visits TO
the place, in the process Of arranging
the business with the old doctor, before