Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-06-24

though ought to be angry, but deciding
that | could not be vexed by Cousin
Nicholas. "I've no doubt she'll think
better of you when tell her about your
scars" said
"When you tell her about my scarsr'
he exclaimed, SO that | started and trem-
bled. "Open your lips to her about
them, you blessed little chatter-box, and
I'll kill you! If she won't care for me
without scars, she shan't care for me at
all"
"Well, / declare, I never" begun.
"Just take me to mamma, if you please
If Paul heard you speaking to his"
"Hang Paul! Hush! hush!'' he said,
drawing my hand through his arm and
holdingit. "Youhave made me happier
tonight than you ever can again"
81 think everybody has gone crazy "
| cried. And then, instead of his taking
me to mamma, Cousin Nicholas arm
slid round my waist, and he was whirl-
ing me round the room to the madden
ing waltz music in a way that mamma
asserted afterward was utterly indecent,
and that Romaine declared took her
breath away. 81 should never have
IL VI YOU, 5ue SdlCl.
Dear me !" / answered; "you don't
suppose he's going to 90 signing like a
furnace for you forever, when you"
"When / what?"
:. Have refused him twenty times.
GIVE never had the chance to refuse
him once. / don't want to have it"
You're afraid you'd accept him,
MISS" L exclaimed.
81 don't want to accept him."
You'd accept him quickly enough if
he was a slender young officer with his
face hidden by a bright brown beard and
smooches and sTnlrches of powder, driv-
ing his soldiers out of the house-the
first man that ever kissed your hand,
Miss Romaine, with an old silver-set dia-
mond ring on his. You needn't think I
hadn't any eyes, if l wasn't but six years
old, or any memory, or any faculty of
putting two and two together.
"Oh, how can you be so cruel?" she
cried, hiding her face in her hands.
T "Tm not cruel" / siad. cts you
that are cruel and silly too. Cousin
Nicholas is worth dozen of that fellow
that you set up for yourself to bow down
to. Don't you suppose Cousin Nicholas
would have driven the soldiers out, and
have kissed your hand too?"
nicholas, where bullets were fly
ing?"
"Yes, where bullets were flying, and
riddled with them, besides. And you
don't deserve him, that you don't, if you
are beautiful. But, oh. l do declare,
Romaine, when you are SO perfectly
lovely, and he does love you so, for yon
to-"
Chow do you know he loves me so !?
He never said it."
GAS if there were no other speech than
just 50 many words! l can't see how
you can be so unfeeling.
81 never said | was unfeeling."
"What? Really, Romano? Areyou
i'll earnest? Do you really care for him,
just n little p
dill mean l could--maybe. But
but then, you know, dear, II can't
talk about it. / feel as if | were pledged
AS if / were breaking bond"
"To that old fellow? Fiddlesticks
ends You, twenty-seven years old, al
most an old maid, and as silly as that !
Now, I'll tell you what, if you don't
turn short corner, I'll see what | can
do myself; and when it's too late for
you, you'll be eating your heart out
with envy and rage. There he comes
now, and I'm gong out to see him and
Begin and so / ran down the lawn to
meet him as he gave his horse to the
groom---it was Only the next day after
Mrs. Chances ball.
tive something to tell you, | said,
taking his arm and holding it, in way
to drive vexation to Romaine's heart, for
| knew she was looking at us behind a
curtain somewhere.
"And I've something TO show you, my
dear child, he answered, and hefumbled
in a pocket moment, and then open
ing his hand just little way, let me see
CLEAN of something sparklng-dia-
monds-silver-s set.
"Nicholns !" | cried. And stood open
mouthed, looking him over from head to
/ foot.
/ Ten years make great alterations"
he hummed.
"But Nicholas"
"Hush hush !" he said. "Do you
/ believe she has suspected ?"
ooh, never Oh, make haste Oh,
do go in She's in the music room,
I looking out behind the curtain" And
| never was so impatient with anybody
in my life as with the slow, careless gait
at which he went up the lawn and into
/ the house.
| ran in, half an hour afterward, to
get my japanese work. They had gone
out on the balcony, and were leaning
over the rail together, lookingat the sea;
ana as ] Just glanced at them there was
color on Romaine's cheek and a glory
! in her eve that almost made my heart