The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-05-28

fore the clock strike sfve, out go bag and
baggage, on the pavement. I've stood
this kind of nonsense long enough"
He disappeared, closing the. door be-
hind him with bang that made the
walls rattle. Flora had listened to the
brief colloquy with paling cheek, which
grew still winter as Lizzie burst into
paroxysm of bitter tears, hiding her
face in her hands. Flora arose and bent
over the bowed form with caresslng
touch.
dearest, are things really as bad as
this ?"
Lizzie replied only by sobs.
sCan't you contrive to raise the
money to pay this man ?"
ssHow can I ?'' moaned Lizzie. every
thing we have, except the very bed
Clement lies on, is sold or pawned. L
am faint from lack of bread, and it is
impossible to get even the most poorly
paid work."
Flora's lips auivered. She had never
seen poverty in this CHASTITY guise before.
"Oh, if could help you" she sighed.
''But paper never gives me any money;
| he pays my bills cheerfully, but every
thing passes through his own hands,"
''It would kill Clement to be moved, "
sobbed Lizzie. "If could but obtain
the three dollars I would not care for
| aught else."
As Flora bent over her cousin, one
| shining braid of glossy golden hair be-
came detached from its fastening and fell
| from beneath her bonnet. She put up
her hand mechanically to replace it, and
at that moment she remembered MIR.
Macassar's words.
'Lizzie ?" she exclaimed, impetuously,
sswait few moments and you shall have
the money. I will be back in half an
| hour"
And she hurried away with crimson
cheek and sparkling eyes.
Mr.. Macassar was lounging over q
newspaper when Miss Montague entered
his luxurious room second time.
''Sir,'' she said, advancing close to the
counter, and speaking in tremulous
tone, 81 have concluded to have my hair
cut off. Will you give three dollars
for it %
The spruce coiffure started. Was Miss
Montague in earnest, or was this only q
jest?
ssWhy do you not answer me ?" she
| asked sharply.
Certainly, Miss Montague, STAN
mered the hair-dresser, recovering his
l. y
wish it. Please step this way"
Poor Flora! Never had her golden
waves of hair seemed half SO lovely and
lustrous as they did at the moment that
the deft fingers of Francoise unbraided
them and passed the cruel, cleaning
scissors among the bright strands. And
when Mr.. Macassar, with polite alacrity,
presented her with a bank note, the big
s'3" might as well have been an Egyptian
hieroglyphic for all that her tear-swim-
ming ewes could decipher of it.
She carried the money to Lizzie, and
then, woman-like, went home, looked in
the glass, and then cried heartily.
For she had been passing proud of
those pale brown tresses, threaded with
gold and blending into auburn lights
every turn of her dainty head. And now
they are all gone-all gone!
"Who is that pretty girl just coming
into the room, in the white Grape with
blue forget-me-nots in her hair, and the
little short dancing curls, like bits of
oiled sunshine, round her head?" The
speaker was an deliberately dressed young
man, who stood with gold-mounted
glasses at his eyes in Mrs. Warrener's
brilliantly lighted saloon. At his side
stood tall, foreign looking gentleman,
Will large, Uldck eyes duu SOmeWuat
naughty, although handsome face. He
had bent eagerly forward at his compan-
ions words.
''It can't be possible!" he exclaimed.
"And yeti is-Miss Montaguer"
"Faith, Gilroy, you're right!'' ejacu-
lated young Mauvers, 'sFlora Montague,
and none else. But what on earth has
the bewitching little fairy done with that
glorious hair of hers? Cut ii off to be in
fashion, I'll be boundp'
ST don't think" said Gi1roy, contract
ing his elbows, fthat Miss Montague is
one to enslave herself to all the idle
freaks of the reigning mode"
Il know you are a sworn admirer of
the young lady, Gilroy," returned his
companion laughing, "but all women
are alike!'
Cali women are alike" The words
fell like molten iron on Clarence Gilroy's
heart. Was it indeed so? Had the idle
dream that Flora was better and nobler
than the rest of her sex proved but
vanishing delusion, after all? He re-
membered the words he had heard her
speak but an evening or two before:
Nothing shall ever induce me to have
my hair cut off in the absurd way that
people call fashionable
one nad not Scrupled TO perJure her.
self, then; she was as unthinking and
frivolous as the idlest butterfly that ever
futtered around the flower gardens of
society. He turned away silently, and
when Flora Montague's innocent violet
blue eyes were raised smiling toward his
face they encountered a cold, repellant
gaze that the fair young girl was unable
entirely to comprehend.
The spray of blue forget-me-nots had
fallen from Miss Montague's lair, and
she had gone into the comparative soli-
tude of the conservatory with saucy Nell
lie Hyde to rearrange them. One chande-
ier alone diffused it's soft 1ustre among
acacias and tea-roses, from shades of
crimson-tinted glass, and the two girls
stood directly beneath its pink glow, all
unconscious that Clarence Gilroy leaned
against the farther door, few steps be-
yond, in the shadow of blossoming
tropical vine, whose fiery scarlet stars al
most touched his forehead.
"Do you know, Flora" said Nellie, as
she adjusted the truant flowers, and
stepped back to observe the general
effect, .'that everybody is wondering
what in the world possessed you to cut
off that splendid golden hair of yours?
some lay it to the score of vanity-others
to that of caprice and Z"
sNelliep' said the soft. serious voice of
Flora, with tremulous falter in its ac-
cents eI never meant fo rovaa1 tho