Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-02-01
THE GIRL IN THE RED JACKET.

In the summer of 1856 I had reached
one of those moments that sometimes
happen in life, when we seem to have
come to an end Of all the interests of
existence.
How l had been brought TO the hope
lessIess of the hour | can best explain
to my reader by allowing a glimpse of
q letter:
And so, my dear Robbie, we must be
once more only friends. / am sure, after
all L have said, You can understand that the
fatal decision in regard to your uncle's
property falls as heavily upon me as upon
you; and you will appreciate that / do not
conceal from you, as a mere artfui girl
might do, that it is solely on account of the
unhappy termination of your lawsuit that
my decision has been made.
Were my own income, with the addition
of your salary, sufficient to maintain such
an establishment as our position demands,
\ what different words / might pen!
But we must be sensible and we must be
brave. Had all been well, nothing should
have prevented our return in October, and
the event, of which, / fear, we both dream
ed too sentlmentally, would of course have
occurred. AS it is, / think We shall stay
abroad a year longer, spending, probably,
the winter in Rome.
Adieu, my good Robbie, my kind, indul-
gent, and too fOndly remembered friend.
Do not forget that whatever pangs of separ-
alton you may suffer are shared by YOU
faithful but decided
ARABELLA AINSLEE.
A few weeks after l had received this
letter, and while the keen sense of q
double wrong goaded me to thoughts
of the " bare bOdkin" order, I met nv
friend Alfred Colt.
With q masculine delicacy for which
/ forever give him credit, he avoided
allusion to my misfortune, and with
artful transposition Of person assured
me he was really ailing, and begged
me, as . good fellow, to run down with
him, for over Sunday, to Long Branch.
There is nothing SO passive as misery.
A gay watering-place was the last spot
my choice inclined me to visit; never
theless. at this perching-place of pleas
ure, and in the very height of the
season, L found myself on the morrow.
Dear reader, you have, l imagine,
visited this famous seaside. You will,
then, remember where On the beach,
near the lower bathing place, an I'M
slightly wreck thrusts itself upward
from the sand. Every year is burying
it deeper; but still its gray and rust
SbGIucA tIulU6IS luOCh LUC CANC1Fo1S IA
storm and surf to quell its impotent
protest of Indignation and bring it to
the quiescent level of the strand.
1t was on that wreck, piled with all
the abandon and grace feminine drape-
ries SO well assist the natural suavity of
woman totassulne,i that a merry group
greeted u "early morning vision,''
as we strolled forth, at an hour when
Colt had assured me we should have the
ocean to ourselves. :,
In trush, 4 very few people were
abroad. breakfast Att the lhotel had
hardly commenced. We had been our
selves the "early birds" of that repast,
and had witnessed ON our egress from
the dining-hall a brief sceneSthat must
be mentioned. here for its conneetion
A slendsriy formed led woman man. ii dee %
est mourning, and yelled blackfy sal-s
messto her feet, appeared at the doorsz
way 1T the "ladies,. p~arlor,n and with
few nasty strides was crossing the
hall towludthastzirsaay when sudden
ly, witl i half-suppressed
e-xclanntiSa of mingled recognition and
dread-shs sossed her arms wildly up
ward and fell to the floor.
The few people happening to be near
rushed to her assistance. She was lift