Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-10-20

went leisurely strolling up the path,
and it was all of an hour before they
reached the door of the old manor.
Now" she said, 81 will introduce you
to your aunts and uncles and grand
fathers. the pretty Priscilla in her jon
quill blossom brocadA the staid old
Mrs. Margaret in her black lace. |
wonder what they will think OF you
somehow you are not at all like what
thought my cousin Francis would
be-"
every naturally" said Mr.. Maurice,
finding it impossible to enter the house
itself under his alias for / am not your
cousin Francis.
"What Not? Not my cousin
Francis? Who, then, are you 2" cried
the young beauty, in a quick flame of
indignation, in which, tie say truth, she
looked lovelier than ever.
II am Mr.. Vincent Maurice"
And for all answer Miss Kate Rivers
clapp ed her hands upon her face, and
ran away round the piazza, and behind
the lattices, and out Of sight, as fast as
her feet could fly.
1t was not very promising begin
ming, but lightning falls where 1t will,
and Mr.. Vincent Maurice was very
yearly in love. He came over in state
next day, with his mother and Mrs.
Stanton, to make his peace; and per-
haps because he found the maiden re-
fractory 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 ali her life,
and never had lover, when her indig
nation had died off, had all her de-
lenses down, and thought so fine, so
charming, so ideal, so perfect gentle
man had never been completed ON this
earth rs Vincent Maurice was, and re-
turned his love with idolatry.
Well, it was "a season of rapture, tnat
summer. 1t seemed to Kate that hap
piness could 90 no further than sitting
by Vincenl's side, rowing on the river
opposite him, riding through the forest
ways, with all the glorious green and
glooms and sunlit spaces about
them. Happiness made her more eff
child than ever she could hardly
walk for dancing, she could hardly
speak for singing a bird, 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 rs much SO if
at the end of month OF it he had not
brought down Mr.. Godfrey, peculiarly
staid and elegant counterpart of him.
self, and all at once seen these gay,
frank ways with that friends disap-
proving eyes. The friends eyes sup
piled a new point of view. 1t was the
first sensation 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 u pair OF steps
and wrapped round and round by
some of the rustic youths with the long
oak-leaf garland with which the walls
were festooned, till she looked like a
dryad, when, seeing him, she stood up,
breaking all the green bonds asundcr,
and sprang down the stairs to his side,
he met her with words which, under
the circumstances, were sharp re-
buke. 1t became rather frequent after
that, presently almost constant. At the
end of another month it was not poetry
and love that filed their entire CONVEX
sation, but Mr. Vincent Maurice was
endeavoring to formulate 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 merr'-
ment only for the sake of displaying
her dimples? Was she going to wear
curls on her neck forever? For heav
ems sake what did she mean by allow
ing these pumpkins to address her by
her Chritian name-the woman who
was going to be his wife? Would she
always be a rural holden, and never a
woman of the world? Wasn't it time
she cultivated some repose of manner?
And did she never intend to speak
without blushing? Under this pressure
Hates gayety became a very forced
thing, and half the interim of his alb
sences she spent in tears.
'If you object to my dimples you
are taking fine way to smooth them
out, she cried.
"And few such speeches as that
he answered, would make the lowell
est lips disgusting"
But there was spirit in her that
made ii 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 spirits would
assert Itself. But the sight of him was
getting to be not so frequent AS it had
been, and she was dropping vislbly I'M
der the neglect.
One early September afternoon,
however, he came, and came unex-
pectedly, to find her in a field surround
ed by group of children, crowned, as
! they were, with coronet ofripe grains
and stIaws, bearing strong resemblance
to the headdresses of Madge Wildhre,