The Red Cloud chief., 1880-01-29

a- HeF Iflenus Miss IHs>tsrs WA s1mpl
out of the question, after having accus
toned myself to the innocent bvelines
Of my guileless little inamorata.
reached Fcnly, my sant's place, fom
days before Christmas, and Lucy cam,
out 10 meet me, a. d told me the other,
had gone to ride, and that she stayed
at home especially TO welcome me. fbi,
was very good of her, Of course
but l knew my cousin pretty well
and / ut once disined that thi.
premeditated tte-a-tck with me had
some object in il, and I was hot wrong
She only allowed me 10 90 In and kis.
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 q
volley Of Miss Chester. l bore il pa
tiently for awhile, and then ! reminded
her Of my pre-engaged affections. She
scoffed, derided and sneered; laughed
at me, shamed me, and called me a
goose; but it haG but little effect, and
finally asked me Ia show her the picture
OF my little ballet girl, for u! Course she
must be some creature Of that sort To be
scattering her pictures in this anony-
nous way about the country. Thi.
made me angry, and l would not show
IT her. and SO we parted very hu;ily,
and | made a resolution 10 avoid Miss
Chester, and tn spend twice as much
time in the smoking-room ~ Usual, and
TO deyOte most of my other time in hunt.
ing. 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 | would
not be married to order as she seemed
inclined To insist upon. When we were
parting ventured to suggest tn her that
Miss Chester might possibly be disin.
clined to the rnatch-had that idea ever
occurred to her? Of course it had, she
answered; and she never supposed tina,
ID 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 a
girl to pine after such a man as me!
And with this parting thrust my cousin
stalked out of the room. | went up
stairs to my old, familiar quarters,
T. change my dress sor
dinner, and L WIS listlessly
engaged in my toilet, when I heard the
clatter Of hoofs. L walked to the win
dow and looked out. Several people on
horseback had drawn up under the win
dow, but a patch of bright blonde hair
upon ablack habit and uhder a black
feather, caught my eye. The girls
back was turned 20 me, and I was STIR
prised to find myself regarding her
lovely figure and hair with more interest
than ! bad felt in any feminine lowell
ness since l had been i'm my present
state of thraldom to INV photograph.
This was Miss Chester, of course, and
she wdS a lovely creature-that n, As
far as | could see, for / had not vet had
a view of her face. Just at this mo-
ment she turned her head-her chin was
raised and her head was turnet directly
upward toward my window. My heart
gave . great jump, and my blood came
tingling through my veins-it was the
face l had learned to adore and worship
the one lovely face in the world 10 The,
and | realised that | had for a whole
year been In love with my cousins
friend, Miss Chester. / stopped and
watched her dismount, and I saw her
dainty foot, and watched her exquisite
motions as she came toward the house.
and L confess TO yon, my confidential
friend, that | was smashed. Excuse the
emotion which has betrayed me into
this expression, but it conveys an idea
of my complete collapse better than anv
that occurs to me iuss how. After re-
Election | concluded not to reveal nv
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-I
| record it proudly 50 far controlled
myself as to meet her calmly and easily
instead of falling down and caressing
her slippers, as l felt dangerously in
clined to do. She was dressed IN a
piece of French millinery; with a train
of about twice the length of her small
body, anu 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 still. There was quite
n large company staying in the house,
but it fell to my happy lot to take Miss
Chester in to dinner. / don't know
what might have happened if l had
pocketed my pride when l saw Luz
cy arranging it all, and said in an inn
whisper: "Oh, Lucy, if you
accompanied with such be-
seeching cOntOrtions of countenance as
proved TO be irresistible. So hi and l
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 a free
rendition of nectar and ambrosia, and
Fenly is Mount Olympus going in
l should further suggest that Miss
Chester is Venus, except that l a as
sert no well founded claim to being a
and SO the parallel stops at
hat point.
That night there was a fancy-dress
ball in the house, and the neighbors
from far and near collected, but for all
[ know the rest of the company NAV
have presented very successful persona /
ications of night, and mist, and cloud,
md Miss Chester, dressed in a white
cashmere gown, plain, and low, and
'lose-itting (trimmed with gold brady,
With her blonde hair divided over her
air brow, and her head circled with a /,
illet of gold, no brighter or more beau
iful than the two long plaits that fell :
behind, was Light; or at least so she I,
eemed to me. |,
in the few days hat followed there I
we're numerous excursions about the :
COUNTRY, in all Of which. thanks to my !
lear cousin Lucy, l was Miss Chesteris I
scort. She's q dear girl, this cousin of
nine, though she would torment me !
and then to show her the picture, i
nd | was obliged to promise that 1 !
you'd grant her request on Christmas =
l was shocked to hear that she d
ad told Di the whole story one day, but q
omehow l got the idea that the sweet '
hid looked a little p~ensive, all that v
vening, and so, in my heart 1 blessed b
ny cousin. who, ignorant as she was, Il