The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-01-19
THE NEW ORLEANS DEMOCRAT, SUNDAY JANUARY 10, 1875


pearance? They usually show up In
February"
"Why, you see, Lady Mary Is trium-
phant--not In such q violent hurry this
year. With one daughter about fmme.
diately to make very fair match, and
another who has hooked 80 big q fish as
Clayton, she can afford to rest on her
oars little while"
"Another?-whichf- mean which
daughter has hooked Clayton?"
"Ohi didn't you know? 1t is little
one they always kept under lock and key
In town, lest, being younger and pref
tier than her sisters, she should throw
them In the shade, and make them look
antiquated. In the country, however,
she went rowing about, doing the wood
nymph business, and Clayton's place 10
only few miles off; so he came across
her In ramble, renewed his acquain.
lance at the Manor, proposed. which
was quite unexpected, he being con-
firmed old baohelor-your Imagination
can picture the rest, having exhausted
mine for your amusement"
"But is it really true p
"Truei Yes and will take place the
first week In August, ride Court Crcw.
lar. The other sister is to be married
at st, Georges next month. Lady Mary
| has found the country better specula-
| ton than town this time. Dalton was
caught down there; only had the living
last summer; lucky they caught him
the first year; they wouldn't have done
It the second, he would have grown
more artful.'
SO Critic Waybrook was going to be
married. The little girl whom he had
thought 80 fresh and childlike and un-
sophisticated had angled for and caught
one OF the biggest and most unmanage-
able fishes swimming about on the mat
rimonial ocean. II wonder II she ar
ranged 1t all herself, or allowed her
mother to do it for her-the latter prob
ably. She'd no strength OF character
but one oughn't to expect 1t, suppose"
note still In his possession. cold and yet
so blotted and tear stained; little know
ing how much 1t had cost Gertie to write
it, and how great struggle she had had
in order to be allowed to write any letter
at all
The Waybrooks had only been in town
a fortnight, and Ralph Gainsmere had
met them half q dozen times already, In
the Row and at parties and 80 on; he
had spoken to Lady Mary, uttered half
a dozen coldly polite sentences to her at
girls. dertie he had avoided as care
fully as 1t is possible for one person liv-
ing In the same circle to avoid another
he had escaped bowling to her, but he |
could not escape seeing her, and seeing |
her could not help knowing that the |
face which had first charmed him had |
grown perhaps q shade graver, a little |
more subdued, but otherwise was the |
same childlike countenance it had ever
been. He altered his tactics after she
came to town, and firted more pointedly
A L. - L. a H., l. 4. /
in his heart he despised and sneered
and laughed at the women who listened
to his pretty speeches, knowing they
imagined they fooled him, while he
knew that he was fooling them. At
times he almost hated Gertie
FOR having bewitched him with her in
nocent face and trusting eyes-innocent
lace and trusting eyes which had
proved 80 unstable, cold and worldly
'or interfering with his peace of mind,
md deluding him into believing In her
TEX; hated her, and despised and mis-
,rusted all women for her sake. ii
Gertie saw that he passed her without
aware Of her presence met {
ler night after night, and day after Y
lay, without showing, by word or sign, |
hat he remembered the days she had
ound it so impossible to forget; and l
The felt piQued and angry. A woman I
always tells man when she jilts him I
hat she hopes he will be happy, all the G
ime devoutly hoping in her heart that q
le will be miserable, and she rather {
likes to see any man breaking his heart |
or her at any time; but when she i'm
Igines she Is breaking hers for him, it +
8 a cruel disappointment to find him /
Without any outward and visible sign of /
lis Indebtedness. SO, when Gertie d
ound Ralph apparently the same as IL i
le had never seen her, still as IRE y
In manners and appearance, |
IS small talking and es irritable. she
ould have cried with vexation, and t
made up her mind that he had never 8
AIRED for her. b
She despised herself for still thinking 3
I him, and him from waking her up
rom her 'day-dream,' by proving 8
imself 80 very mortal. She tried t
radually to persuade. herself that she /
ad outgrown her fancy-to imagine '
hat she disliked him but the imagine
ion had no reality in it.
The last week in July, and the glass '
t ninety three in the shade. Half the Y
ashionable world at Goodwood, and
be other half preparing to take flight
rom the heat and dust OF London. '
Day after day had passed away, bear
1g Gertie's hopes In their flight till q
here was only one more chance OF her Ii
yer seeing Ralph again before her mar Y
iage, at the Berthons' party. She was I
citing almost desperate now in her q
espair, and would have broken off the
Engagement she hated, and escaped g.
'om the bonds she dreaded, but there s
as What will the world say?" to be I
1ought Of Chat world for which we g.
are so much, and yet which recipro. O
ites SO little Of our affection), and
lere were all the preparations, and SO n
q. And above all, Ralph Gainsmere b
light think she was dying of love for Il
Inn, when he did not show that he even
LIST a stray thought upon her-no, she n
ould play her part out. She chung to
lie idea Of the Berthons' party as q v
rowning man clings to straw; it
as the last time he would ever see her "
, Gertrude Waybrook. Did he know il
? she wondered; probably not; but a.
me good star might prompt him only n
st to look kindly at her when he n