Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-07-24

viding for the rescued, listening to their
story, and talking over the event.
When Stella left her room. about noon.
she was met by fisherman's wife bring
ing her sealed note. 81 found it in the
pocket Of Jim's pea-jacket. and l made
out how it was for Miss Stella Ames,
and they told me you were the lady as
tainted on the beach," she explained.
"You see, Jim has gone for the doctor
up to town, and he changed his coat
first to look ship-shape like"
THANK YOU" said Stella "Who
can have written to me here?" as she
tore it open and read:
Il am going to carry the lifeline out TO
shipwrecked crew. shall probably never re-
turn alive, hut it Is their only chance. While
you are dreaming on your pillow l shall, per.
haps, be tasting the bitterness of death and
parting. verify, death Is this'-to see you
no more till the sea gives up its dead. My
darling, my darling. let me have the happiness
of repeating love you. love you, stella
Good-by' sweetheart sc:d, ,s; .uorsHv,p..
Then she turned to the torn envelope
addressed to Miss Stella Ames.s Sea-
shell House. To be given her only in
case never return" The revelation
was premature. Colonel Audenreid
had returned. but so spent that the
doctor had been summoned from town.
Mr.. Martin took his family back to
Martinvale. but Colonel Audenreid re-
NAMED at the seaside a fortnight long
er under treatment. In the mean time,
Stella went Monochrome for Stella
meaning attendance on the whims of a
wealthy hypochondriac. with a small
stipend. without relaxation. One
morning the post brought her letter
from Felicia. Perhaps it contained
news of Colonel Audenreid. 1t did
with q vengeance. i, ~, ..-.-,
"DsAREsT STELLA" Dit beganl.-"Ho odd
that the very thing wished should come TO
pass, I'm almost daft 10 think that after
all my nonsense, it shoufd De me-myself-
little Insignificant near-sightedF Felicia Martin,
whom Colonel Audcnreid asks To marry him.
I can hardly believe my ears; and all the while
l believed he was smittea with your charms
How glad am that you didn't care for him.
You must be my bridemaid. Mamma says it
shall be white satin and pearls - :. e.
"Yours, in the seventh heaven, FELICIA
up. S.-Aiter all. he doesn't make quite the
ideal lover fancied-he Is so respectful, ana
mot at all gushing, you know By-the-way,
you never told me how you came 70 faint that
night of the wreck
1t was no wonder that Mrs. Davis
found Stella distraught that day, talk
ing at random, absent-eyed and fantas-
tic in her moods. What did it all
mean? Why had Colonel Audenreid
written her that note if he loved Felicia,
and why was he going to marry her if
he loved somebody else? Didn't he
know that she had received his mes
sage of love? Or did he mean simply
to ignore it, having seen fit to change?
From living in a state OF happy excite
ment. when every footstep in the Street
below might be Colonel Audenreid's.
who was fastening to repeat the bur-
den of his note, Stella was suddenly
brought down to earth, to the dull GER
tainty that nothing more was ever like
ly to happen to her. that there had been
some dreadful mistake somewhere,
which had lent her days arcse-c0lOr for
little while, to be sure, only to leave
them grayer and more for,orn than be-
fore. All at once she remembered with
a shudder that Colonel Audenreid's ia
tai note was at Martinvale, that one
morning she had been reading it and
getting it by heart in her own room,
when Felicia knocked at her door, and
she had slipped the precious document
between the leaves Of her ''Golden
Treasury" lying on the toilette table,
and then Felicia had entered with Mrs.
Davis summons for Stella to return to
duty, and in her hasty packing and de-
parture she had left Martinvale without
the p" Golden Treasury" Some day
she promised herself to beg leave of
Mrs. Davis, to run away to Martinvale,
and secure her treasure, not that its
possession would signify to her any
longer, only in order to keep it from
Felicia's eyes; but Davis would
not hear to being left an hour, and
sometimes Stella cherished the insane
idea Of writing to Mrs. Martin, andre
questing that lady to send the Golden
Treasury Of Song which she would