The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1881-03-04
TIT FOR TAT.

yatory Rock. The setting sun was cast
ing long shadows athwart the waving
field of grain and stealing slowly down
the rocky hillsides.
She was n facinating woman. Her
face was beautiful beyond description,
and her voice had a subtitle power, ca
ressing undertone that sent thrill
through every fiber Of her companion's
being.
She and her widowed mother were
staying at spacious farmhouse in q
lovely Connecticut valley. She had
come there to recuperate from her social
designations of the past winter i'll New
York, and to gain strength for new dissi-
pations and triumphs In the fast APP
preaching autums.
1t was rumored that she had broken
many hearts and ruined more mems lives
than she cared to count; but then rumor
often lies.
He was tall, sunburnt man, with
dark blue eyes, and mass OF waving
blonde hair. He was clad in the garb of
a simple farmer, but he did not look
wholly like a tiller of the soil. His brown
hands were too shapely and his carriage
too elegant for man country-born and
country-bred.
Still. he had been working on the
Meadow farm during the summer, and
in all his leisure moments had been the
constant shadow of the woman at his
side.
He way man of passionate impulse,
and his neart was capable of an allah
sorbing love or an all-devouring hate.
As they walked slowly down the hill
side in the rich evening light, the lady
chatted half familiarly, half condescend-
ingly with her companion, while he
listened with the partly eager, partly alb
stracted air OF a man plunged In some
deeply interesting experiment.
She talked with an air of conscious
social superiority, and he listened or re-.
piled like man with hidden purpose
and hidden strength.
AS they came to low stone wall he
took her hand to assist her III surmount-
ing it. Upon the other side of the wall
he still retained her hand. She turned
upon him with look full of astonish-
soent
THANK you for the assistance, NJ
Chapman" she said coldly, striving to
withdraw her hand from his. 81 am
quite able to proceed alone now"
He made no answer, but still held the
little hand in his strong grasp, while
with his eyes he seemed trying to search
the innermost depths of her heart.
A crimson flood illuminated her face
''Mr Chapman, you will be kind
enough to release my hand at once. "
This with freezing hauteur.
''But suppose L want it, he said
quietly, with look full of meaning;
suppose tell you that want you for
my wife; suppose / declare that / love
you, that your beautiful face enslaves
me, that your soft voice sets my heart on
fire, that L can not, l will not live with
out you"
His eyes were glowing like living
Goals, and his face appeared TRANSPORTED
with the passion of tho moment. Then
losing all his cool self-control, he burst
forth in the full tide of his overmaster-
ing love.
"Ah, Christine, my darling, my queen,
my life, he cried passionately, ''let me
claim you as my own, let me take you to
my heart, let me make you my wife. I
am starving, Christine, actually starving
for little love from you. Say yon love
me, darling, or" he added hastily. eff
you do not now love me, say you will try
TO- Give me a fragment of hope, dear,
little crumb with which to appease the
terrible hunger at my heart. j."
He had dropped on his knees at her
feet and was looking eagerly, longingly
into her fair flushed face.
With great effort she wrenched her
hand free. Then with cleaning eyes
and a tone that cut him like a knife, she
said
"You could have hardly chosen more
fitting opportunity or a better place in
which to insult me, sir. Whether you
are brute or driveling fool cannot
tell. hardly know whether to feel pity
for your ignorance or anger ut your au-
dacity. You marry me, youP she ex-
claimed with an insulting laugh. 'Do
we mate COWS with canaries. or jackals
with lambs? Come, sir, will allow that
your speech is a little better than the
average country clod; / will acknowledge
that your manners bear some degree OF
refinement in short, that you are n little
above your station in life; but to marry
you, to live on carrots aud turnips with
You, to contemplate life of patchwork
quits ana rag carpets, why surely you
are insane, raving mad"
She burst into cruel laughter at the
picture she had drawn, and then, not
even deigning to glance at the bowed
head OF the man beside her, she turned
upon her heel and moved slowly away.
With bound he was before her again.
"Nliss Cannell, Christine, hear me, ="
he cried eagerly, ''you wrong me, You
do me cruel injustice. am gentle
man, every inch your peer" he added
proudly, "and / am rich. very rich. L
can crafty your every wish, can sur
round you with every luxury. I"
She cut him short.
Enough. thought you were crazy
before, now I know it. You wealthy
man! Do men of means masquerade III
homepun, in cotton jeans? Do men OF
means toll day after day in the broiling
sun for mere pleasure? An inspiring
pastime truly for rich man."
''But let me explain my position to
YOU, Miss Cannell," he cried rs last
resort. II came to this place"
ITO work; that is obvious. Do not
,,rovoricafa further Mr. Chairman with