Litchfield enquirer., 1881-04-07

Shall l congratulate them" Belle asks
 hurriedly, as the young people pass out of
 sight on their way round to the entrance
 door, and Mrs. Ainslie shakes her head and
 says:
 Dick hasn't spoken yet, Miss Belle, but
 know what her answer will be. Bless the child, she worships the ground he walks on,
 and she'll make him good wife; no wastings
 and no pinchings for the Welbyns; they're all
 through of a piece l couldn't abide cover
 slut to come here Tn my place" a Hg5 j
 Fl think 1 should like the man to worship
 the ground l trod on," Belle says; and just
 then Dick and Jamie come into the room. and
 Miss Ffolett proceeds to tell them about her
 birth day ball, and to ask about the brown colt without delay
 Have him? Of course she shall have him
 there isn't question about that. Dicks eyes dance with pleasure at the
 thought of seeing her on the colt he has bred
 so cleverly and nurtured so tenderly His
 soul burns with the ardor of his desire to gIve
 her the colt but he does not dare to do this.
 He almost winces as he thinks of the surprise
 that would flash from her bright blue eyes if
 he proposed such thing, and he almost hears
 the sternly grave tones in which the Squire
 would refuse the offering for his daughter. Il had hir, out in the low meadow, and
 took him over some timber this morning, and
 if I'd had cup of water in my hand there
 wouldn't have been a drop spilled He's as
 clever at his fences already as his mother,
 Bayleaf, was, and you know what she was,
 Miss Ffo'ett you've seen her many a time."
 "Yes, and you rode her SO splendidly," the
 young lady says, frankly complimenting him, without a thought of the way in which her
 words make the blood leap along his veins. ''I should like to see the colt, Dick" "Ill bring him out, ;" the young farmer says
 promptly but Belle says: "No. no, I'll go to the stable and look at him: and, mind. not a word to papa or any one about my having asked about him They want to surprise me-" she laughs joyously ''so 1 you must help me tekeep the secret I've found | out i; but If you hear of any one from our house
 wanting to buy horse, mind you offer the l brown colt"
 | She is going out to the stable with Richard
 Ainsle as she says this. leaving Mrs. Ainslie
 and Jamie in the parlor.
 "What pretty girl Miss Belle has grown,
 Jamie bursts forth with enthusiasm II saw her in Plymouth the other day, riding with her pa and Lord Charles Collingford, one of
 the gentlemen on board the Admirals ship. They say in Plymouth that Lord Charles is after her.''
 "Now, do they?" Mrs. Ainslie responds | fervently. With her whole heart would she iCJ'iCC Io CiIdG every uOOi0EI1An s nearG HI | the country was laid at Miss Ffolett's feet | All the better for her sons peace of mind, the
 old lady deems it, that fair Miss Belle should
 have many ardent and gallant and suitable adorers Right glad will she be when one of
 these IS chosen. "Then Dick'll settle him. | self with Jamie"
 l The brown colt ''is a picture," and deperts
 himself fautlessly. Miss Ffolett, standing by
 hlm in his stall, filings her arm round his strong | shiny neck, presses her fair cheek down on l his satin skin, and VOWS that ''be. and no
 other, shall be her own dear horse." Dick,
 standing about somewhere between the colts | heels and the harness room door, watches the | group with curiously compounded feelings of
 pleasure and anguish. How good she is to
 look upon! How graciously she permits him
 to look upon her! How closely she seems to
 approach him in her liking, and sympathy, and interest in the colt! How far she is away | from him in realty .... ...... | The young farmer hates his position, and
 despises himself for so hating it. as he stands
 watching her. It is useless for him to attempt
 tO reHind himself that the ''rank is but the
 glinea stamp, the mans the gowd for a that. 7"
 Whats the use of the man being gold, if he is
 such q rough nugget that this lady's eyes can.
 not perceive his value? Would that he had
 the rank-aye, and with it the thousand and I one traits and characteristics, habits and man
 ners, and tricks of bearing, that mark the diff
 ference between those who wear the rank from
 mere "men" such as himself And while | these thoughts go surging through his brain, | she lifts her winsome proudly gracious little | face away from the brown colts near shoul-
 der, and says:
 | Il mustn't sel6shly. give all my thought to | the colt. Dick. Your mother tells me that
 Jamie Welbyn and you"
 ,.~sl. e- 1 charged in a moment with such passion and l such grief that she can say no more. My mother shouldn't trouble you with the
 nonsense she thinks about Janie and me, Miss 1 Ffolett. Here, Jim," he calls sharply to the
 stableman, you havn't given the colt half 1 the grooming he ought to have after the sweat 1 ing gave him this morning."
 1 He goes into the harness-room, and comes 1 back moment or two after, with a couple of l fine brushes in his hand.
 'pll give the colt rub down myself, Miss Ffolett, " he says, stripping of his coat. and 1 turning to work with more that grooms ar dor. He takes savage satisfaction in show l Ing himself at his toughest before her. His l honor demands that he shall assume to be no
 more than he is, working farmer, before this | radiant, unmercifuliy friendly young queen l of his soul, who, standing by, says present. | ly:
 ''1 always wish to do that for any horse love. The darling! Look how he turns his
 nose to you. his dear fine quivering nostrls. | How can you help kissing him? couldn't" "Miss Belle, will you go in to mother ?" he l asks despairingly. ''Shell think so much of
 it if you go and praise up the colt to her, be | cause Bayleaf was my fathers favorite mare, and mother thinks too much can't be said for l the colt"
 He looks haggard and harrassed, but, Belle Ffolett takes no special note of his looks. She l merely gives the colt farewell pat, and then steps across the yard to the house, daintil, tapping her pretty little Hungarian boots as ] sine walks, thinking pleasantly of how much l somebody will like to look at her when she is l on that brown colts back.
 Dear old Charlie!" she thinks; 'I should
 be just as fond of him if he hadn't penny l and wasn't his brother's heir.n Then, in spite l of this asseveration, her spirit kndles within her at the prospect of being a Marchioness, 1 and she goes back into Mrs. Ainslie's parlor l with lovelier light than ever beaming in her eyes, and something in her step that seems
 like jocund Spring itself
 Looking at the brightness and the lightness 1 and remembering that the girl had just come from the stable where her son is, the old lady l says to herself indignantly: =. ''Shes no business to go on like this f1atter- inS hiiii, poor oOy, Wltn lOOklng SO happy De cause he's got colt she wants to buy l! And l all her pretty ways make Jamie seem set and heavy.like; yet Janie's the wife for him, and the wife he'll have, and this one will be no
 more to him than the crowned Queen on her throne"
 Belle fingers for few minutes. babbling on in her happy unconsciousness, and then, with out giving thought to young Ainslie's pro
 tracted absence ih the stable, she says good- bye tp Mrs. Ainslie and Jamie, mounts her
 horse, and rides away to luncheon at big
 country house near Plymouth. where she is to
 meet many of her friends. To one of these, Lord Charles Colingford, she confdes little secret You can have that brown colt, Charlie,"
 she says .,I have taken the trouble to find that out for you this morning, Young Aims lie, of Little Firs bred her himself so you
 can bring the colt in one hand, and demand
 me of papa with the other, on my birthday"