Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1877-07-16

SHe CTleu III ClcdICI eVuO, 10 nc uOau'
"No, no, ma'am. He wus here, ia mt
a month, said Scotty. 81 think he's off
huntin' in the hills. I'll find Circus
Jack and bring him up here. He'll be
likely to know-him and Jim wus real
good friends"
"Thank you," said the stranger, soft
ly, in voice which smote Scotty's heart
exceedingly.
The Doctor, meanwhile, had gone for
Mrs. Sharpe, who presently entered, and
invited the stranger to "hev little tea
She was small, fair woman, with a
washed-out look, and mouth not inno-
cent eff dipping" but she looked and
spoke kindly, and the stranger was glad
enough to answer "Yes," and follow her
into the dining-room. The crowd fell
back as she approached, but only enough
to give her room to pass. Some stealth
lily touched her dress as she swept by
them, and when she had disappeared,
and the door had closed, forty tongues
were loosed at once, and q scene of ex-
citement ensued only equalled by the
one which followed on the shooting of
"the Judge" by "Little jack" over a
game of poker, in that very bar-room of
the Grand Hotel.
"Mought | ak your name, ma'am ?"
inquired Mrs. Sharpe.
Marian Kingsley" was the faint re-
ply.
"Miss or Mrs, ma'am ?" pursued
Mrs. Sharpe, glancing at her shapely,
white, ringless hands.
The stranger gave slight, impatient
twitch.
sit doesn't matter" she said. "Call
me Marian. That will do as we'll as
anything"
Mrs. Sharpe was washed-out woman.
Many of the natural and laudable in
stincts remained, perhaps being fast COL
ors but horror of the class to which
she now supposed Marian to belong was
one which had faded out of her nature.
She gave slightly superciliOus look,
which fell upon the woman like moon
light upon ice, and pursued her inqui-
ries.
'Came from Frisco 2"
ii came through there. didn't see
anything of the place"
"Whar did yer come from ?"
philadelphia" The tone was chang
ed. She evidently felt the impalpable
ruoeness OI Ine Iaueu wUman, anu knew
how to resent it in the same way. More
conversation ensued, in the course of
which Mrs. Sharpe discovered that Ma
rian had little money-enough to pay
her board for few months-and that
she had come there to find james
Courtney Wilmer"
Mrs. Sharpe had information to give
as well as to take, for she knew some
thing of Jim.
"We called him Jim," she said scorn-
fully. "He didn't git no 'Courting' from
we."
Poor Marian gave a faint smile.
"There might be other James Wilmers,"
she said. 81 wanted to be sure"
Mrs. Sharpe didn't think this could
be the one.
"He's q rough, ragged creeter," she
said, ''and had the snakes for four weeks
at time"
Marian shrank and covered at this
with a pitiful look on her beautiful face.
"Has he had money left him ?" asked
Mrs. Sharpe.
Marian nodded.
"'Twont do him no good. Soon's he
hears of it he'll drink himself into
snakes. Alters did when they struck
good lead on the Banderita. Circus Jack.
he loses all hisn's at poker SO thar they
CO."
In the course of an hour Circus Jack
scrubbed and "fxed up" to degree
which made him almost unrecognizable
by his comrades, appeared, escorting
Scotty, also prepared by q choice toilet
to enter the presence of the ladies.
"'Scuse my not comm afore," said
Scotty. "Hosses must be tended to, and
them of mine wus about beat out"
Marian smiled graciously, if fabsently,
and turned her clear hazel eyes to Cir
Gus Jack, who with many excuses and
profane epithets. most of which he apol-
ogized for instantly, gave her all the in
formation in his power in regard to the
man she had come to find.
No one in Mariposa knew him better.
He was almost an integral part of the
City of "Buttefie" The buttefies, by
the way, for which the town is named,
are not those that soar in the air, but
"Mariposas. fastened by long, tough
filaments to the ground.
Many night had Jim Wilmer crush
ed his swollen face into them, and slept
a drunken sleep with their soft wings
folded sorrowfully above him.
There was something of q mystery
hung about him. which the "boys" had
never been able to fathom. Some said
he belonged to wealthy and aristocrat-