The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-11-14

it's mountain source. Leroy and Louise
had wandered away to collect brush
wood to boil the .tea-kettle, but had
gathered flowers. instead; and when the
sunset had begun to fade, and warned
them to return to their party, they
found it was something more easily said
than done. After some time spent in 9
vain search for the right path, they seated
themselves on a mossy log till Louise
should recover breath and strength, and
studied such fragments of consultations
as peered through the branches over.
head, and listened to the lonely pathos oi
the whip-poor-will, and made the place
ring with their chorus. not much daunted
by the situation, Leroy happy enough in
the protracted seclusion which had be-
fallen him. Later he had waxed senti-
mental and poetical, and she had laughed
at and interrupted his loftiest flights.
.gWere you ever in love, Miss Dab
neya" no asked.
"Scores of times from the age Of six.
Isn't that everybody's experience?'
"Not mine," he returned. II was
never in love but once"
"And who was the happy creature p
she asked, recklessly, thinking he re-
ferred to some hobbledehoy era. ~
b sWho was she? Why do you speak
in The sad imperfect ?"
"You don't mean to say"
"Imean to say that the only woman
I ever loved, or shall love. is"
! "Oh, ,-harkl" cried Louise, rising.
II hear ,footsteps-pardon the digres-
lGon. a'Lo, the conduering hero comes !"
4 She. sang. ,ss0h, Mr. Northcote, how
glad I am to see you I didn't know as
we should get, home till morning." as
that gentleman waved the brand he had
stolen from their gypsy fire and shouted.
Eureka |"
"I didn't know but I was de trop
again, when found You and Leroy TAX
ing it 80 cozily." said Northcote, later,
as he opened Mrs. Furniss' garden gate
for Louise to enter, Leroy having been
already captured by the hostess. 81
feared 1 had mistaken my vocation, and
! had not been cut out for discoserer. "
7 - Indeed; I was never SO glad to'see
you in my life. ,"
"Really2 Was it go bad as tbat?,
"We weSe 80 hungry" : H'TF
'"I Thought Leroy looked as If he
would like to eat me. F"
CT doubt if you would be tender"
CT could be, Miss Dabney, depend on
it-both tender and true. There, don't
start.~' You thought you had es-
! capped Charybdis only to fall upon Scy]la
Uponmy word. 7 was afraid you would
have accepted Leroy before I could find
you" -. -"
"You thought I was to be had for the
asking" .,.... ,-.
4 ! fIfeared you were not to be had at
ALL"
"But why should You have cared if I
had accepted forty Mr.. Leroys2
a"Because, in the first place, it would
he a little unusual, and becau I
thought you might do better"
I" Thank you. I will 90 in now. We're
there any letters tonight Mrs. Fur
Miss ?" :lu' IL. t.. .',.,.l..
"Here are two for Mr.. Loring North
cote, ditto for Miss Mellish, and one
Iyes, one-for Miss Dabney,' replied that
II don't know the hand" said Louise,
turning it over and stud ying the post
mark. "Fairfeld. I, never heard of
the place before. Some mistake, I fear. "
Fairfield, repeated Leroy, catching
the word, and speaking on the impulse,
with heightened color. cts new
summer resort. There's some sort of
water there good for blues and bilious
ness"
Louise opened the letter.
"M1ss DABNEy" Gt began, -" You
may think an intrusion for me to ad-
dress you, but I hear that you are staying
at Valley Farm, under the same roof with
Mr.. Leroy, and that he is falling a victim
I to your cruel spell beg you send him
hack to me. He is mine he is all l
have. can not live without him. Be-
fore he met you, he was all my own.
Have mercy, and send him back to me
heart-whole What will it signify to
you ?-only one conquest the less among
your scores, while it will mean either life
long misery or happiness, as you may
chuose, to LIzETTE LAYTON"
| ; The gentlemen had gone to the smok-
Iing-room, and the ladies 'of the house
were chatting merrily about her as she
read. Mr.. Leroy had been trembling on
the brink of a proposal that very night,
and yet he was engaged to be married.
\ How dared he mention love to her! But
= had she been yblameless 2 Hadn't she
I fiirted deliberately with another girls s
lover? What disaster had she not
wrought in her mad pursuit of an ad-
miration which she did not value! What
should she say to him How could she
send him back? At what expense had
her vanity been fattered? just to prove
that she was attractive like other women,
she had worked this wrong. To be sure,
she had had no experience to guide her.
She hud supposed that the boundaries
of Irritation and love-making were more
| clearly defined. She had never meant
to make Leroy love her; but, whatever
. she had meant, it was all one to his poor
foolish Lizette. Her regrets and self
accusations beset her so sorely that she
was obliged to leave the gay raillery
about her and take refuge upon the YER
anda, where the shadows hid her and
leaning her head against the lattice,
where the dew-drenched passion -dowers
shook out their sweetness, the hot tears
filled and overAowed her eyes, and soba
seemed to tear her heart asunder.
"'Tears, idle, tears Louise" whis,
pered some one whose neighborhood she
had not heedrd. "Can help you
Shall I stay and try?" - 90 = -
"Nobody can lelp me. Mr.. North.
cote have done such adreadful thing
, 7 Lhave-ye I have been flirting with
another woman's lover. aShe, has written
to tell me SOTO. beg I will send him
back to her. He is all she has, she says.
And IAIdonf care d fig for!him !; and
. what, shall do if he asks me to marry
him, as he may, you know 2" -.
III PsAs he would have done, i 7 hadnt
{ arrived in the.nick of time, tonight. " !
"What shall I do? How shall I send
him back heart-whole ?" = -" 81,
"sYou would avoid the dreaded ques
ion, Itancy, ifshe we're to heat to-mor'
row that-that you belonged to some
body else; that some one had stolen
march on him-f he we're to hear thai
you beloneed-to nae.
u "Oh, Mr.. Northoote, to you You
= don't want to own such a mischief
maker" ,.....
""I want to own you, Louise"
; Mx. Leroy, strolling out from th'
...s.tf 10 .tt- r,s7.E ,l-' 4fi, - q. .L...t