The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-10-20

dared ask YOU for the hand of your
daughter Alice" Mrs. Magilvray was
slowly drawing herself up to one of her
awful heights. But" continued Eu-
gene. " thanks to aheaven-directed burg
lar, who found, some nights ago, in Sc
cret compartment of my uncle's old
desk his latest will-which, being of no
use to him, he politely returned to me
I am now to be put into possession of my
uncle's estate"
ooh, the blessed burglars" cried
Alice, with clasped hands Instantly
turned upon her mother.
OF my uncle's estate" continued
Eugene, (Which the Institution Tor the
Blind Feeieeans has relinquished into
my hands without a contest. Under
such circumstances, said he, with a Sc
date elegance of manner that only relf-
reproach could have translated into sar-
casm, 81 feel that it is not impossible
you may find in me the qualities you de-
sire in a son-in-law."
I" am confident, Mr.. Descamps." said
Mrs. Magilvray, that you can not hold
me blameworthy if, with Alice's beauty,
and sweet temper, and accomplishments,
anu dllIdCDlNt-
ooh, MAJ NAL you needn't cry up
wares in this wayp' cried Alice, with a
burning face. "Tell him he's welcome
to take such baggage"
"And the sooner the better" cried
Eugene, catching the redeemed little
maid in his clasp, and holding her fast.
" | should be the last person to blame
you, Mrs. Magilvray, for setting high
value on what | find to be beyond price"
And there the Roman melted; and
Mrs. Magilvray tried TO lift her eyes
benedictionwise, and stammer out some
thing about blessing little children, and
only succeeded in tumbling over into
hysteric.
g 1t was some weeks later that Alice
came into the parlor with little long
flat tin box in her hand. cts Eugene's
bonds" said she. He's just left them
at the door to take care Of. He only ne
gotiated them yesterday, and got home
too late to deposit them in the bank. 1t
frightens me to death; but he's been
telegraphed for, and has no time to 90
to the bank this morning either, and so
he leaves them here on his way to the
station. | shan't sleep wink. What
would you do with them, ma? Just
think. Bonds in our housed"
" should sit up all night and watch
them," said Maria.
" Put them between the mattresses"
said Mrs. Magilvray, with the air of hav-
ing solved every problem, and having
been used to the presence of a hundred
thousand dollars worth of bonds in the
hon o = nil nj hot
the mattresses Alice put the box, having
first taken the precaution to tie one end
OF a cord in the little paddock and the
other end about her wrist
1t was little after midnight that
Alice woke wide-awake with one of those
starts in which you are sensible of an
unseen PERSONS neigh borhood She sat
straight up in bed and put out her
hands; one of them fell on lump of
ice. 1t was Maria's face stone-cold with
terror. She too was awake. ooh,
Alice" she contrived to whisper in a
CHASTITY whistle, there's man in the
room." At the same moment Alice felt
sharp tug at the string round her right
wrist. There was man in the room.
He had been searching the house over
for the box, having never lost sight of
Eugene from the day of the Wills PROV
ing; he had come at last to the room of
the sleeping girls, and had turned his
bulPs-eye upon them one instant-iust
long enough to detect the string round
Alice's uptossed arm. His sharp wits
taught him the truth; he had taken hold
OF the string, and was gently following
1t up to the box, when he tugged in the
wrong direction, and in breath Alice
shrieks had filled the house, and she had
sprung out Of bed and was pursuing him
as full of valor as a tigress defending her
young. The burglar had the box, but
she had the strlng-a stout Whip-cord.
She wound it round and round her wrist
as she ran, and in another moment she
had doubled on him, and had both her
little hands upon the box; and if he
wanted to carry it off, it could only be
by carrying her, for she chung like a
limpet. There was no shrieking then;
it was struggle in dead silence-Alice
too intent, the thief too cautious.
" Come now, little one" he said, hoarse.
ly, at last, "no more Of this. It's no
use. Twas mine before twas yours
You'd never have had any of it if |
hadn't sent him back the will-fair
division. A blow of his fist on her
temple or from the butt Of his pistol
would have finished her and left him
of merely gratifying yourself, and mar
rying so as never to be able to help your
family"
"The very depth of selfshness for
me not to sacrifice my whole life! ;"
And then there were tears again; for,
in fact, little Alice's whole life, between
her naturally joyous temperament and
her daily reverseS, was quite resolved
free; but somehow he had hesitated in
giving it, thinking to shake her of, and
the moment of his last hoarsely whis-
pered word, Mrs. Magilvray-an awful
sheeted vision, in night-cap that would
have terrified a ghost-issued from her
room, holding aloft a kerosene lamp, and
the three boys burst upon the scene with
orange-wood sticks and the old queens
arm, and there was nothing for the
unlimited guest to do but to make congo,
which ne did at once; and Alice was
picked up IN a dead faint, but still clasp
ing the box.
Eugene came back that night, and he
was SPECIFICS and cold with horror when
he found to what he had exposed his dar
ling. And Alice was i'll with a raging
fever, and with that housebreaker's face
sealed upon the space before her eyes
a dark and pallid face strangely evil
and strangely beautiful, with the
straight lines of its features and the
brilliant blaze of its eyes, but with a
great scar running like a cash along the
cheek. She did not even know she saw
it at the time, but now it seemed to hang
before har IL q n naSlv inst &c yba,, +Io