The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-02-22
A CENTENNIAL BALL.

Il
ball in Stockton next Wednesday. DO come
and trip on the fantastic, and wear your
grcat-grandmother's best bib and tucker. A
masked ball, too. Such larks!
Yours forever, SUE AMoRY.
Lii folded the note ana sighed. What
was ball without Roger Roanoke! And
what was Roger to her, or she to Roger,
that she should sigh, but lover who had
amused himself with her for a long sum.
MGR at the mountain house where they
had been stranded together, and then left
her without word! Why had he pre-
fcrred her society to that of all the
other and fairer women in the neighbor-
hood? Why had he given up trip to
the Adirondacks. if not to linger by her
side: Why had he spent hours of leisure
reading Browning and Tennyson to her,
looking into her eyes as often as upon the
the shooting expeditions or the trOuting
parties. Why those boquets and bon
hons. Why had he been jealous when
she danced with another at the hops !
when Conrad AnOry sent her a pcrfumed
note with the last book out!
why those words thought so tender
For the commOnplaces spoken,
Ii the love was never meant!'
Above all, why had he kissed her hand
ut parting, and told her that she would
hear from him? And why had he kept an
obstinate silence ever since. These were
questions which Lii asked herself over
and over, till there seemed but one an
swcr possible-he had been playing with
her; only it had seemed so very like earn
est that she was slow to believe it, He
had even been in town, even passed the
house where ILL moved and had her be.
ing, without knocking at the moor. What
more did she need to convince her? If he
had written the letter and it had gone
astray, would he not have received it
again from the dcad-letter office, and
would he not have fastened to explain !:
Perhaps it was quite as we'll that the
flames which devoured the Silver Creek
House, only three days after Rogers de.
rarture from the mountains, had swept
away all the mementos of their senti-
mental acquaintance. How we'll she re-
membercd that dreadful night, when she
had gone to bed with headache, re-.
guessing Aunt Della. if any letter arrived
for her in the evening mail, to tuck it un-
der her door! how she had walked in the
dead riddle of the night with the
flames tapping her bed hangings, and had
only time to slip into wrapper and run
for her life, half suffocated with the
smoke! But the loss of her summer
wardrobe, which she could ill afford,
was half forgotten in the happy anticipa-
ton of Rogers letter, which never came.
What should she do at ball with broken
heart. Yet why should she deny herself
the pleasures Providence sent her, be-
cause a happiness had been withheld !
She ought to forget Roger. Why not
make a beginning now. She could never
believe in any one as she had believed in
Roger, perhaps; but would it not be
pleasant to- show him that others appre-
ciated the one he had spurned:
But the question of sentiment aside, that
dreadful riddle which pcrplcxes half the
women in the world, presented itself to
her-what should she wear? Nothing
less than toilet hundred years old at
least would answer; and although most of
Lill's clothes were old enough, vet they
hardly reached that figure. There had
been splendid brocades, that would stand
alone, in the family wardrobe, but pre-.
vious generations had worn them thread.
bare at dance and festival, while to Dor
row Lii was ashamed. Now that there
was lion in the way. she began to feel
the violins in her minds ear. and her
Up in the attic, in the camphOr- wood
trunk which her ever-so- great. grandfather
had brought from India, ages nearer the
beginning, there was an old fashioned
gown, to be sure, carefully folded away
from the light and the moth. And such
gown! a marvel of glistening white bro.
caded satin, with generous garniture OF
old lace and white lilac blossoms. SO per
feet and perfumed that one might fancy
they had but just been plucked from
the bush growing in the sunshine-a bridal
gown that had never been worn by bride
which had lain year in and year out in
the antique chest, with its carved brazen
clasps, folded in tissue-paper. Not one
OF all the gay and giddy girls among the
nrst owners descendants had dared to lift
1t from its hiding place and deck herself
IN Its glorious sheen. Lii remembered
to have seen 1t once. when Aunt Della
was in the spirit to exhibit relics, and had
vOuchsafed, "This Is sacred heirloom
of yours, Elizabeth Aunt Della never
INDUCED in Authorizations, and "Lill +"
savorcd of slang in her ears" the bridal
dress OF your great grandmother, when she
was going to marry st. Regis RAYMOND
foolish Misunderstanding, and that was
the end Of it, NY great aunt used to tell
us girls that grandmother never loved
grandfather-which was very wrong OF
her indeed-but she never would look or
this gown again, which came straight from
London, but hid It away in this chest
and locked it up, and threw the key into
the mill-pOnd, but one of us girls took of
the hinges one day when she was dust ant
ashes, and brought the beautiful thing Il
light, but none of us dared to nut IL or. ,
oh, I should like tor cried Lii.