The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-08-13

" idealized sketch OF Harry Conrad's head, |
and Won have placed 1t there as a shrine,
sunpose. before which to offer your silly
alienation. do declare, Kate, that you
are most absurd young woman"
absurd as may be, mamma, until TO.
dav YOU seemed to sanction my attachment
to Harry. 1t is cruel--cruel to expect me
to tear my heart from him at a moments
warning. know what you have come to
say. but would rather not hear it. All
the persuasions self.interest may promptyou
to utter will be powerless to change my
feelings toward Mr.. Conrad"
"You dreadful girl is that the way you
brave me to my very facet You cannot
you shall not-marry Harry Conrad. Have
not given you to understand that such a
union is out Of the question that it will
bring destruction on all you are bound to
care for in this worldln
Kate grew pale, but she quietly said:
MY refusal TO sell myself for gold can
only affect myself, mamma. Your fate and
that of Edna cannot, in any way, be con.
trolled by my discarded lover"
"Can it not! when he owns the very roof
that covers us--the soil from which our
scanty living is drawn! 1t is true, Kate,
He holds mortgage on the place for
money advanced to Louis, and my dover
right in this poverty-stricken home is all
that stands between us and starvation. This
is what came to tell you, and this is what
you must consider before you anger, by re-
fusal, the man who certainly has the first
claim on YOU"
Kate fell back as if she had been Shot
and the courage she had boosted so hard to
sustain deserted her. Her breath came in
| low, gasplng sobs, and after long inter
val of silence, which her mother thought
would never end she family said
Il understand that my fate is settled,
then. | shall be allowed no choice. Oh!
know too well that | shall be forced to
submit my will to yours, and struggle as !
may, the net will close around me and
compel me to give my hand to one man
while my whole heart is in the possession
Of another. Oh, mother! mother, how
; could you have suffered things
to come to such pass as this! Paupers ,
dependent on Richard Stanton for the
very bread We have eaten, he will demand
his payment Of me, and l dare not refuse
it. | know the kind OF man he is-he
would set us adrift pcnniless, homeless, to
beg, to starve, should prove false to that
silly pledge gwen in childish thoughtless-
ness, and oh! so bitterly repented OF since
Her voice sank into low, sobbing muir
murs, and her mothers pity for her was
mingled with exultation that she seemed
to yield at once to the necessities Of her po-
sition, and accept the fate il was so much
10 the interest of the whole family that she
should not refuse.
4 week passed away and nothing was
heard from the expected lover from Cali
fornia, although he had written that he
should not be many days behind his letter,
and at last rumors came that the Albatross,
on which he had left San Francisco, had
been wrecked, and that many lives had
been lost.
Kate had been struck down by brain
fever, and for days she lay vibrating be-
tween life and death, ravlng in widest
deiirium, and then moaning over the cruel
fate which gave her heart to one lover and
forced her TO yield her hand to another.
Mrs. Loser was fond and proud of her
lovely daughter, yet the deepest uleaa IN
her heart at this dreary crisis was, that IN
the death Ol na1e the prospect Of wealth
must pass from them all.
Edna watched unweanedly by the sick
couch of her sister, and Mr.. Loser devoted
himself to her assistance. He was a great
help 10 her, for he had studied medicine in
his youth, and he undertook the manage
ment Of the case himself, declaring that he
could bring Kate safely through all the
phases of this torturing illness. He had
given her a potion which
would not only break the fever,
but so affect her brain that for time she
would have but little recollection of recent
events, and so would not be apt to say any
thing to Stanton about her lover, Harry
Conrad.
A few hours after Loser had administered
the dangerous potion to Kate, Stanton
suddenly arrived. He was man SIX feet
in height, magnifcently proportional, and
might indeed have passed as a demi-go
among men OF lesser mould, for his head
was massive and handsome as the marble
bust Of Napoleon, His eyes were dark
hazel, well set and expressive, but with
CLEAN in them which showed that if things
went wrong with him d temper might be
aroused which it would be difficult to ouell.
Loser, who had warned his wife and
Edna with regard to what he had done,
was the first to meet Stanton, who had
heard Of Hates illness and eagerly oucs-
toned her step-father as to her condition.
Losers face fell slightly as he saw by
Staunton's manner how difficult it was GO
ing to be to deceive him with regard to
Hates real feelings but he made the best
he could OF the situation, saying:
We'll, to tell you the truth, our dear
girl has been very ills still suffering
much, but the feveris broken, and think
i am almost sure, that with care, she
will soon be restored to U.S."
Good Heaven! is she SO far gone as
that" cried Staunton, with paling face
what caused her illness2 What is the
matter with herr 1t was not brought on
by her dread of my arrival, | hope"
His eyes famed, his lips trembled and
his brow grew stormy as he uttered the last
words.