The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-05
u don't want it," remarked Tom

Esher.
my dear fellow" responded Frank
Chasu BILE, in an indolent tone, s'you're
quite welcome. I can't help it if a
pretty girl-the only pretty girl who
happens to be on hand, too-likes me
better than she does theI rest of you
1t shows good taste on her part, but
really Its not my fault. I don't give
myself any particular trouble to please
the little thing, and I don't see that
you are called on to take up arms in
her behalf"
"And I think" put in quiet voice,
''that you are speaking in very i'm
proper tone about lady. Miss Tren-
chard is the loveliest girl I ever saw,
and the sweetest. She is a thorough
lady too, and as gentlemen we are
bound to respect her name as much rs
we should herself were she present" "
1t was Ralph Challoner who spoke.
He looked straight into Frank Chas-
uble's eyes, and that worthy quailed
under the glance.
"I'm sure I meant nothing" he
muttered, uncomtortably. mo one
admires Miss Trenchard more than I
do. ! don't know what you mean,
Challoner."
eyes, YOU do" retorted Ralph, with
the same quiet decision; "you know
perfectly we'll what mean"
But Frank did not seem inclined to
take up the gauntlet. There was a
moment of silence; then the young men
moved away. If Ralph Challoner could
have seen the look in Aimee's eyes as
she peeped out at his rctreating back, he
would have been very happy man, l
think.
But with all the glow of gratitude, the
soothing which had come to her morti-
fed spirits with his chivalrous words,
calmness was impossible now that the
moment of reaction was come, and for
half an hour Aimee wept as bitterly as
girl can weep. 1t was for the ship
wreck of shallow ideal that she wept, as
well as from wounded pride. Had she
learned to love Frank Chasuble, the pain
would have gone deeper; but, as a re-
cent writer. has told us, there is such a
thing as "imagination-ache," and the
suffering it causes, though not vital, is
hard to bear. So Aimee wept on and
only succeeded in drying her tears in
time to appear at tea, when that useful
plea of "a headache accounted for her
pallor and detection. -.
Frank Chasuble found Miss Trenchard
changed somehow" from that time
forward. She was less accessible, less
easily Interested; he even detected a
CLEAN of mockery at times in the smile
which met some of his impassioned sal
lies. She was far more attractive to him
in this phase. He became piqued, inter-
ested; eventually he fell In love, as he
would have termed it. Aimee had her
revenge, if she wished it, in the mortifi-
cation with which he received the gentle
but decided "No" which ended his suit.
But he never heard from her or from any
one else the tale of the organ-loft adven-
ture. That she kept for the husband =
no other than Ralph Challoner-who
three years later visited remote Nova
Scotia and bore away bride. To him
she confessed that the dear love which,
to his surprise and rapture, met his so
fully and completely, was born in the
little curtained space. the reward of his
manly intcrposition on her behalf; and
knowing this, the chapel lis still the
Mecca Of his Imagination, the place to
which his memory goes back to pluck
that fairest flower of romance which is
the recompense of all true and happy
manhood and womanhood, whether
clerical or lay,in England orin America,
or Observation-Disclosures Bazar.