The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1880-01-08

save me from a certain danger which
threatened me at my aunt's. Lucy was
to have a friend with her for the Christ
mas, who was a great heiress and belle,
and to whom she had resolutely deter
mined to marry me. Now l knew Lucy
to be a sensible girl, and that if l
showed her the picture she would see at
a glance that my falling in love with
| such finished coquette and worldling
as her friend, Miss Chester, was simply
out of the question, after having accus-
toned myself to the innocent loveliness
of my g1ileless little inamOrata. l
reached Fenly. my aunt's place, four
days before Christmas, and Lucy came
out to meet me, aud told me the others
had gone to ride, and that she stayed
at home especially to welcome me. This
was very good of her, of course,
but / knew my cousin pretty well,
and I at once OWNED that this
premeditated tete-G-tete with me had
some object in it, and / was not wrong.
She only allowed me to 90 in and kiss
my aunt, who was an invalid, and then
dragged me off to the library, made me
seat myself in front of her, and opened
upon me at point blank range, with a
volley of Miss Chester. | bore it pa
tiently for awhile, and then l reminded
her of my pre- engaged affections. She
scoffed, derided and sneered; laughed
at me, shamed me, and called me
goose; but it had but little effect, and
finally asked me to show her the picture
of my little ballet-girl, for of course she
must be some creature of that sort to be
scattering her pictures in this anOny-
nous way about the country. This
made me angry, and would not show
4 ho,. Ly7f11 11vr
and | made a resolution to avoid Miss
Chester, and to spend twice as much
time in the smoking-room as usual, and
to devote most of my other time in hunt-
ing. l had pledged myself to remain
until after Christmas, and | would do
that; but mademOiselle Lucy should see
that sometimes the opinions of other peo
pie were worth something, and l would
not be married to order as she seemed
inclined to insist upon. When we were
parting l ventured to suggest to her that
Miss Chester might possibly be disin-
clined to the match-had that idea ever
occurred to her? OF course it had, she
answered; and she never supposed that
Di would marry me, when she had re-
fused scores of better men, for any
reason except to Oblige her. She hoped
l did not think that Di Chester was q
girl to pine after such man as me!
And with this parting thrust my cousin
stalked out of the room. l went up
stairs to my old, familiar quarters,
to change my dress for
dinner, and 1 was Istlessly
engaged in my toilet, when heard the
clatter of hoOfs. I walked to the win
dow and looked out. Several people on
horseback had drawn up under the win
dow, but patch of bright blonde hair
upon black habit and under a black
feather, caught my eye. The girls
back was turned to me, and l was sur
prised to find myself regarding her
lovely figure and hair with more interest
than l had felt in any feminine lowell
ness since l had been in my present
state of thraldom to my photograph.
This was Miss Chester, of course, and
she aOGS a lovely creature-that Is, as
far as I could see, for l had not yet had
a view of her face. just at this mo-
ment she turned her head-her chin was
raised and her head was turned directly
upward toward my window. My heart
gave a great Jump, and my blood came
tingling through my veins-it was the
face [ had learned to adore and worship
the one lovely face in the world to me,
and l realized that | had for a whole
year been in love with my cousin S
| friend, Miss Chester. l stopped and
watched her dismount, and / saw her
dainty foot, and watched her exquisite
motions as she came toward the house,
/ and | confess to you, my confidential
| friend, that l was smashed. Excuse the
emotion which has betrayed me into
! this expression, but 1t conveys an idea
of my complete collapse better than any
] that occurs to me just now. After re-
| Election l concluded not to reveal my
! secret to any one, not even Lucy; but
| to try, with all my might and main, to
be my best self, and throw out of my
life, at once and forever, all that was
wrong, and vain, and selfish, and igno-
BILE, and see if it was not possible to win
the love of this peerless creature.
came down presently and was pre-
sented in due form to Miss Chester, and
l record it proudly so far controlled
myself as to meet her calmly and easily
instead of falling down and caressing
her slippers, as / felt dangerously in
| elined to do. She was dressed in a
| piece of French millinery, with a train
of about twice the length of her small
| body, and she had numbers of spark
! ling rings on her little fingers, and a
! great many other beautiful things, in
which they had tried to make her look
| like a woman, but she was my innocent
| child sweetheart stin. There was quite
a large company staying in the house,
| but it fell to my happy lot to take Miss
FChester in to dinner. L don't know
what might have happened if l had
not pocketed my pride when l saw Lu-
cy arranging it all, and said in an i'm
| pioring whisper: % Oh, Lucy, if you
please" accompanied with such be-
seeching cOntortions of countenance as
proved to be irresistible. So Di and |
sat side by side together, and drank
! champagne and ate olives. Di likes
| champagne and olives, and we have de
| cided that these terms are but free
rendition of nectar and ambrosia, and
that Fenly is Mount Olympus going in
cog. 1 should further suggest that Miss
! Chester is Venus, except that I can as
1 sert no well founded claim to being q
blacksmith, and so the parallel stops at
that point.
That night there was fancy-dress
bali in the house, and the neighbors
from far and near collected, but for al
| know the rest of the company may
have presented very successful persona
fications of night, and mist, and cloud
and Miss Chester, dressed in a white
cashmere gown, plain, and low, anC
close-ftting (trimmed with gold braid)
with her blonde hair divided over hel
fair brow, and her head circled with {
fillet of gold, no brighter or more beau
tiful than the two long plaits that fel
behind, was Light; or at least so sh'
seemed to me.
} In the few days that followed ther,
were numerous excursions about tn,
country, in all of which, thanks to M
dear cousin Lucy, was Miss Chester
escort. She's a dear girl, this cousin o
mine. though she would torment m,