Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-09-08

| you know, have half the mind to say,
now have known you, not for years,
but from the eternities. can't seem to
remember the time when did not know
you. Till tomorrow, them" And he
was gone, and she had crossed the field,
and ran into the house, and torn off her
lendings in hurry, and was lying on
her pillow, with all her bright tresses
streaming over it, when the rays of Mrs.
Marlborough's kerosene gilded them.
| Mrs. Marlborough was thoroughly fa-
| tigued, and when that was the case the
conscientious chronicler would have to
state that she was thoroughly cross as
well; but to Marion's surprise she was
beaming as placidly and brightly as her
lamp. It was not the face that Marion
had expected to see.
| Well, my DEAR" said her mother,
who, after all, and meaning no disre-
jspect to mothers in general, was not the
woman of most discretion in the world,
$50 fate got the better of you, and you
had Mr.. Desmond to yourself for the
day. Or did you arrange it all before
hand, child? You needn't think we are
displeased with you"
| A DISASTROUS speech for her purposes.
Profane hands laid on the holy of holies
injured it past valuing for Marion. If
she had been made by the happy day to
reverse and forget her resolutions of the
night before, this remark Lit them up
/ like torch in the darkness, and she de-
| termined, in dead earnest this time,
that if she could not go away and visit her
Aunt Emily, she would at any rate have
no more to say to either of the Des-
monds.
But, as she might have known, she
| found on the next morning that she
would no more be allowed to go to her
Aunt Emily's than to the moon, and
that it would be nearly as difficult to
pursue her other intention, as the whole
yachting party was to spend the day
with her mother, and one must be civil
in ones own home.
"Two days together r said her yes
terday's friend, approaching her gayly
as the party landed, with his hands full
of water-lilies.
81 am afraid you will find it such
BORE" she said, and took his water-lilies
as matter Of course, and moved off to
speak to Mr.. Crayshaw, and left Mr..
Desmond inquiring if this were the gra-
cious creature of yesterday, or a twin
sister of different temper. A little
piqued, he thought he should like
to discover But it was in vain;
scrupulously civil, she was distant
and cool as the white and rosy top
of Mount Blanc. You are person of
surprises" said he, when he at last had
her where she could neither go forward
nor retreat, by his side at the dinner
table. yesterday we were the old
| friends of years; to-day should
think had never met you till the night
before last"
aWell-and did you" she said,
quietly.
Have I offended you ?" he asked,
bending forward and looking at her 80
that her own eyes fell
Why should you imagine such a
thing? Have L been rude to you?'
"By heaven I wish you had. Then
you would be sorry for it. Anything
would be better than such indiffer-
ence."
If she colored and paled in swift sue
cession she fervently hoped that no one
else saw it; but she knew that her com
panion did; and she turned to the deaf
Mr.. Craddock on her other hand,
and devoted herself to him with a
charitable assiduity of which Mrs.
Marlborough never conjectured when
she placed the personages at her table,
81 never dreamed of an ideal of
caprices," murmured Mr. Desmond, as
he held open the door for her to pass
through; and then he thought he saw
sudden tear spring to the lovely eye,
and reproached himself for brute, and
strode after her to tell her so; but she
was not to be found, and he was not
certain, after all.
But here they were only in the be-
ginning. The Desmonds and their gay
yachting companions were to be about
Paryisport the whole month, and in one
way or another she would be obliged to
meet them daily, for her family were
determined to make the most of the
festive season, and SO the path she had
chosen to walk was thorny. There
seemed, then, to be but one method of
putting stop to the whole business of
barter and sale which her mother and
Aunt Anne were carrying on, and that
was to seek the most Ineligible member
of the party, and conduct such flirta-
tion with him as would make her elders
wish they had never been born. And
this idea the wicked beauty straightway
carried into action. 1t never occurred
TO her that Mr.. Crayshaw might take the
affair seriously, and SO complicate mat
ters; she rode, read, walked and talked
with Mr.. Crayshaw, and wondered what
her sister Emily ever saw in so fright
fully dull man, when one day Emily
carried him off in triumph before her
face.
Meanwhile the young gentleman
who, as Marion half acknowledged to
herself, if his name had not been Des-
mond and his brother had not been q
millionaire, might have been found de-
lightful, watched her proceedings at
first with pain, and then with anger,
and finally with amusement. 1t did
not take him long to find out that,
however deeply Marion was engaged
with Crayshaw, she yet knew every
movement of his own; and that when
she sat with her down-dropped eyes
and folded hands while Mr.. Crayshaw
read to her from his learned book, it
was not Mr.. Crayshaw's voice to which
she listened, but his own, in its gay
badinage or eloquent outburst. Mr..
Desmond began to see what it all
meant, with that instructive wisdom of
lovers; and on the day when Crayshaw
| ignominiously left her for Emily, he
took advantage Of the situation, and
replaced him before Marion could help
herself.
1t was on the occasion Of dance on
the yacht, and no more charming scene
could have been painted than was made
by the masts and cordage, the colored
lanterns stringing every rope and spar,