The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-02-05

tears in her eyes. Other people were.
laughing around her; one tai gentle.
man almost stopped to look under her.
hat as he passed, bowling to her com.
:paniop, and would have joined them
had Blumenthai bern less frigid.
II have seen tina, gentleman BEFORE"
said Nina; The caule with lady who
was in hurry for some. flowers Ihad
promised. He called her Stella"
z. 1t was his cousin, Stella Grandelaw,"
said Victor. s ny v. 81 Z.
One day Victor, who could no longer
find spretext to continue the sittings,
put his picture on exhibition. All the
town was speaking of it before night.
"Such flesh-tints! such expression! such
beauty!" z:$lG. :.-==
!" Yet it does not equal the original"
said Grandelaw.
%"No," returned Victor; " pigment is
q poor make-shift for fire and spirit"
+ At about this tinie> he received news
that his only sister was seriously i'll in
London. He WAS Obliged to drop his
pencil and fly to 4'+r, without SO much
as bidding Nina go'd-by; but he would
write and explain. he promised himself.
In the meantime Grandelaw found o.
casion to make friends with Nina She
had happened iuto shop to purchase
materials for her work; she had laid her
pocket BOOK down for au instant, and
not till she had nearly reached the door
did she discover that she had taken up,
not her own, but another's plethoric
purse. At the same moment q strange
hand detained her and she was accused
of theft. "This lady is friend of mine"
said Grandelaw, stepping forward to her
rescue, having followed her into the
shop" she is a friend of mine;" and
the accuser begged Thousand pardons,
and obsequiously bowed herself out of
sight.
After this: what could Nina do but
accept him at his own valuation? How
could she avoid meeting him in her
walks, and allowing him to accompany
her? how refuse admittance to one who
had befriended her? And he knocked
often, and watched her at her pretty
toll, and the intimacy progressed. Some
times she opened her door, and showed
beaming face, but the smile would
fade soon. At other times he observed
that she started when footstep paused
outside; she expected some one, an
swered absently, listened to his batteries
with far-away look in her soft eyes.
One day Grandelaw determined to probe
the wound.
''Did you not sit to Victor Blumen.
thai for his Undine p he asked. ut
was picture worth painting; he must
have had a thousand sittiEgs."
"Not nearly so many" sighed Nina
II should have been jealous. if I had
been Mrs. Blumenthal." -:
"Jealous!" repeated Nina-"Mrs
Blumenthal! His mother?"
His wife-Victor's wife" -
ellis wife!-Victor Blumenthal't
wife!' ).
"Oh, then perhaps you did not know
hezwas married ?" ~ :cs.r
"He never spoke of il. - - -s- ~ .t..s~.
because everybody knew it. Come
Miss Nina, don't look at me as if wal
to blame. Victor Blumenthal was mar
ried more than two years ago to his
cousin Theodore. If you doubt it,
will find you the notice of his marriage
among my file of the Tribune. But o.
course you have no interest in it. What
is it to you are meY ''. .
"Nothing, nothing" she answered
II do not doubt it." But she had grown
very white, and her eyes shone like
wandering stars, and the needle. trem.
bled in her hand. "Of course he is mar.
ried," che added, in lighter tone,
'only the idea never occurred to me be.
fore-it took me unawares."
What had Victor Blumenthal meant
she asked herself, "by those words q
thought too SENDER" by glances that
made love palmer than speech? Why
had ne held her hand till she blushed,
and kissed the pink. finger tips? Why
had he sought her out, only to break
her heart? Did he not love his cousin
Theodore And then she hid her face IN
her pillow, remembering how her heart
had gone out to q married man. An.
other woman's lover, and she had mis-.
taken him for her own! Doubtless this
was why she had neither seen nor heard
from him for 80 long; he had OWNED
her heart, and oLscience had made q
coward Of him. But it should never be
said of her that she wore her heartaon
her sleeve. And when Victor returned
with the sister whom he had succeeded
in snatching from the valley OF shadows,
having written to Nina, but in his anx.
iety mailed the letter without an an ad.
dress, she had been engaged to Mr..
Grandelaw for more than q month al.
ready, and had gone to visit his mother
in . neighboring town till the wedding
should take. place, without leaving any
trace behind her. Grandelaw had, III
fact, prosecuted her into consent. a
thousand things had conspired in his ia,
vor. She had fallen ill and into debt;
and work had failed, and Grandelaw had