The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-04-01

and comfortably, and TO grow rich in
time but will you be willing to live
here with me?
.Wil you come out to me under safe
protection. and spend years of your
young life in this strange place? Thinl
it over, darling. The case stands just
thus; IL you refuse l will return, but }
shall then have no prospects; no means
whatever. A penniless man. who must
take any position that offers, will be
your betrothed husband in that case.
The choice is in your hands; or. per
haps. it would be honorable in me to
set you free. The thought almost breaks
my heart. Dear Nellie, what shall ]
saya think l could make you happy
even here. If you are willing to come.
write to me. If you desire that / should
return and seek my fortune in our ma
tive land. write that frankly: but if you
desire your freedom-do not write at
all; let silence be my answer. 1 con-
feSs that | have hope that sven under
my altered circumstances you will still
be true"
More followed lovers talk with
which we have nothing TO do; and Nell
lie cried over the letter and was very
sorry. but she wrote at once. and the
last words of her letter were these:
Il VA ,ome whenever you Q for
TO-"
The post-bag was nearly ready at the
post-ofice, which was also the principal
shop in the village. Grandfather Pear
son stopped his gig at the door at that
moment.
..Hallo" cried he. ''here's another
letter for ye. My niece has written to
Melbourne, and you've got to lend
that"
The postmaster laughed and took tho
missiye, stamped it properly, and the
two old men fell to talking politics.
while Nellie's letter was carried toward
the post-bag by the clerk. Only to-
ward il, for the train was not yet due.
and Miss Candor wanted four pounds Of
lump sugar crushed in a great hurry.
The letter was put down on the coun-
ter. and the sugar weighed. The clerk
pushed the parcel toward Miss Candor.
and pushed the letter with it. There
was a wide crack between the top and
tho side of the counter, and into that
the letter slipped unseen. Other things
hal slipped down the same crevice be-
lore-pence. and hairpins, skeins Of
silk. and pieces of tape-but no n
knew it. As for this letter, the clerk
never remembered it again. The post
master believed il TO be in the bag, and
Grandfather Pearson went home and
told Nellie that he'd seen her sweet
heart's letter safely off. with no idea
that he was not telling the honest truth.
Leonard waited at the a~ntipodes for
his letter in vain, and Nellie waited TO
be sent for. Any other two. friends.
relatives, strangers, would have written
again, but lovers are always ready TO be
suspicious, TO doubt, to fear they are
deserted and forgotten, and with the
world between them, these two pinned
for each other, grieved, grew angry,
never forgot, and never wrote again.
.'She has broken our engagement"
said he.
He wanted to break our engage
ment,n said she.
And soon all the village began to
know that Nellie Pearson was not 60
ing to marry Leonard Harding.
Nellie married nobody. She refused
all her offers, and lived on with her
grandfather. Aunt Martha died. Bes-
sic married. Nellie kept house for the
old man still. She was not young any
longer. Girls called her an old maid.
She had left off caring much about her
dress, though she was now a rich wo-
man; for the father she was almost .
strangerto had left her an heiress. when
he died in a far-of land.
The farmhouse wa prettier and more
tasteful, and she had one or WI friends.
but her life was woefully quiet, and over
her heart she wore a locket with Leon
ard Harding's hair in it, and under tho
locket lay a regret too deep for utter
ance. One saw 1t, sometimes, in her
heavy eyes, or guessed it from the one
of her voice, that was all.
1t was a bright autumn day twelve
years from that or which Grandfather
Pearson had carried the lost letter to the
post-office.
The bag was being made up again.
and the carpenter was at work at the
counter.
.'Hellow cried he.
"Wellp' replied the postmaster.
you seem to have been hiding things
here said the carpenter. ave .
mind to keep all 1 find. See herel what's
been dropped into the cracks! You
needed a new counter bad"
$50 we did-so we did," said the
postmaster, putting on his glasses.
..Well, 1 want to know. Cake OF bees
wax, paper of pins, hair-pins, sheet Of
stickin' plaster-hallo! a letter. HereI
put this in the bag-its stamped; some
one has left it on the counter. Helloi
let's see what else you've foundr'
He tossed the letter to his little grand
son. This time it went into the post
bay-this time, after lying in the dark
for twelve years. it was really on its way
to Australia.
A man of forty, with his hair already
silvering, reading his letters in the Office
of the great Melbourne warehouse.
These were mostly business missives
instructions from his senior partners,
replies to letters he had written concern
ing sales and purchases; q h%ighly-pcr-
fumod note. bearing a monogram and
a coat Of arms, from a cousin who wrote
occasionally to borrow money. a new
paper, - magazine. and last. but not
least. o dirty. timo-yollowcd envelopes
with a corner bitten off by q hungry
mouse, with the superscription half
obliterated. A thrill ran through Leon
ard Harding's frame as he looked at the
handwriting. He tore it open; within
lay a letter, fresh as though written an
hour before, dated September 4th, 1866,
and ending thus:
"a will come whenever you send for
me-"
Leonard Harding read it, understood
what had happened. though not how i,
had happened; and leaving his letters
to take care of themselves, rushed to his
office, and there indicted a strange, in
coherent letter to one who, for all no
knew, might be dead, or married to an
other-but who must know the truth II
she lived.
And so, months later. Nellie sat in