The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-10-19
say the truth, she looked lovelier

say tne truth, Sne looked loveilel
than ever.
And for all answer Miss Kate
Rivers clapped her hands upon hel
face, ran away around the piazza
and behind the lattices, and out OF
sight as fast as her feet could fly.
! 1t was not very promising be-
ginning, but lightning falls where
it will, and Mr.. Vincent Maurice
was very nearly in love. He came
over in state next day. with his
mother and Mrs. Stanton, to make
:. the peace; and perhaps because he
found the maiden refractory he
became all the more in earnest, and
before the week had passed it was
all over with him, and he felt life
was not worth living without Kate
Rivers. And little Kate, who had
known not dozen men in all her
life, and never had q lover, when
her indignation had died off, had all
her defences down. and thought so
| fine. so charming, so ideal, so per-
feet gentleman had never been
completed on this earth as Vincent
| Maurice was, returned his love with
Iidolatry.
| Well, it was season of rapture,
that summer. 1t seemed to Kate
that happiness could go no further
than sitting by Vincent's side, row.
ing in the river opposite him, riding
through the forest ways, with all the
glorious green's and glooms and
sunlit spaces about them. Happi-
ness made her more of child than
ever; she could hardly walk Tor
dancing, she could hardly speak for
singing; a bird, a bubble, any light
and airy thing, was less light and
airy, less gay and sparkling than
she.
At first Mr.. Vincent Maurice
found this simply intoxicating; and
perhaps it would still have been as
much so if at the end of month of
it he had not brought down Mr..
Geoffry, a peculiarly staid and ele-
CANT counterpart of himself, and all
at once seen these gay, frank ways
with that friends disappearing eyes.
The friends eyes supplied a new
point ofview. 1t was the first SEN
sation that he had had that she was
not altogether faultless, but it was
not the last. When he came from
the city at another time and found
her trimming the chapel for some
festival, sitting on the top of pair
ofsteps and wrapt round and round
by some of the rustic youths, with
the long oak-leaf garland with which
the walls above were festooned, till
she looked like q draad, when, see
ing him, she stood up, breaking all
the green bonds asunder, and sprang
down the stairs to his side, he met
her with words which under the CIR
cumstances, were a sharp rebuke.
1t became rather frequent after that,
presently almost constant. At the
end of another month it was not
poetry and love that filed their en-
tire CONVERSATION, but NinceEf6 hfuu'
rice " Is endeavoring to formulate a
code of manners. Would she walk
and not skip? would she talk, and
not sing? would she listen, and not
laugh would she leave her pranks,
and be serious ? Was this perpetual
merriment only for the sake of dis
playing her dimples? Was she GO
ing to wear her curls in her neck
forever? For heavens sake what
does she mean by allowing these
pumpkins to address her by her
Christian name-the woman who
was going to be his wife? Would
she always be a rural holden, and
never g women of the world
Wasn't it time she cultivated some
repose of manner? And did she
never intend TO speak without blush
ing? Under this pressure Kate's
gayety became very forced thing,
and half the interim of his absences
she spent in tears.
"Ify you object to my dimples you
are taking fine way to smooth
them out" she cried.
"And q few such speeches as that
would make the LOWEST lips disgust
ing" he answered.
But there was a spirit in her that
made it impossible yet to give up
her individuality. She would have
done anything under the sun to
please him; but it would have
been somebody else and not herself,
had she done this-and then the
sight of him made her so happy,
and the moment she was happy the
old exuberance of spirit would as
sert itself. But the sight of him
was getting to be not so frequent as
! it had been, and she was dropping
visibly under the neglect.
One early September afternoon,
however. he came, and came un-
expectedly, to find her in a field
surrounded by a group of children,
crowned IS they were, with coro-
net of ripe grains and straws, bear
ing strong resemblance to the bead
dresses of Madge Wildfre, and toss
ing together with them the haycocks
of the aftermath, in which they had
all been tumbling. He stood looking
on in naughty disapproval. As
soon as she could she disengaged
herself from her little people and
from her harvest crown, and came
to his side.
Il wonder you could leave such
companionship for mine at all, "
said he stiffly, for greeting.
"Why, Vincent, certainly" she
began. falteringly, and with chang
ing color.
Certainly what?" he asked.
at is their holiday" she said,
taking courage from his rudeness.
'And you would not wish to de-
prive them of it-and they are so
used to me, it would not seem holi-
day without me-"
"As much child as they. Are
you never going to be 4 woman ?'
II feel already like an old one
when you speak to me So"
| He softened a little at that. "The
fact isl he said, 'that you ought to
90 away. You ought to see the