The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-01-13
MARRIED AFTER ALL.

] as unlike as we well can be, for while
she is decidedly fair in the face" she
is an heiress as well. AS to disposition.
there we differ too; for, while / am
! full of spirits and have an opinion of
my own which is frequently asserted,
she is yielding. gentle-amiability it
self
/ viii relate little incident. Once
we were invited to visit together an old
| uncle who had lived in solitary bachel-
orhood up to the advanced age of eighty
! years.
Joan, what would you do with mon
| ey if it were left to you?' he asked me
| one day.
..Why, spend it, of courser' Ireplied,
without hesitation.
Now, nothing had been further from
my thoughts than disrespect; but that
answer certainly cost me the fortune
which only six months later came to
Ethel
That happened two years ago, and
since then Ethel has had and refused
five offers of marriage, although she has
but just passed her eighteenth birthday.
/ am twenty, and have had as yet not
one single proposal.
s'You are too sarcastic, Joan,n Ethel
says. Gentlemen do not like critical
young ladies'
Then they should not lay themselves
open to criticism | reply promptly.
'sIt isn't that, cousin mine; it's because
I'm plain, and beside you | look even
palmer stiIl.''
Ethel smiles a little consciously as she
says:
Now, Joan, you know you're talk
ing nonsense. Only the other day Hart
Holman told me he thought your eyes
were glorious
'.Oh, Hart Holman-he doesn't
countr' say lightly.
Ethel shakes her yellow ringlets at
me.
You are incorrigible, Joanr' Then
her face suddenly grows sober. ''Cous-
in" she says, 81 want to ask you
something. How do you like Mr.. De-
VereP''
Not one bitr' 1 answer concisely.
''But whyP'' she asks. s.Surely you
cannot deny that he is very handsome
and entertaining.
just as open my lips to reply an ell
egant equipage draws up at the gate,
and the veritable individual under dis
cussion alights. He has come to take
my cousin for a ride.
] watch them drive off with a sensa-
ton of discomfort strong in my mind.
Not because | am jealous of her supe-
rior attraetiveness-a thousand times
no! / love my cousin and am prouder
of her beauty than she is herselfi but
because something tells me that of all
her admirers Ethel likes him the best,
and that he is not the true good man to
whose keeping she could resign her
sweet self and be sure of the happiness
her tender loving heart deserves.
Seeking Auntie pour out my trouble
into her sympathizing ear.
Don't worry. Joan dear" she says
flor you know that you
are both my wards, and neither of you
can marry without my sanction before
you are twenty-one. Three years is
good while. If Mr.. DeVere is what you
think him, Ethel viii surely find it out
before that time.n
am comforted, for although she does
not say so, / can see that iauntie shares
my views and that Mr. Raoul DeVere
has found no more favor with her than
with me.
A month rolls by. During that time
happens, something surpris-
have proposal.
Il love you, JOAN Hart Holman
says. You have never given me the
slightest encouragement-ind you
have been very cruel oftentimes; but, |
nevertheless, / love you and have loved |
Tou ever since first knew you.p
That's impossible ! say, flor I |
was an infant in arms Auntie has oft
an told me what friends our mothers
we're, and how frequently they used to |
yisit each other and compare their ba-
,ies.''
But he disregards my f1ippancy.
Don't try to evade an answer, Jo-
In" he says. Il love you dearly-do
Tou not like me the least bit?''
His tone is so earnest, that as | look
Up into his frank wistful blue eyes, /
help but feel thrill of compunc-
ion for all my unkindness, past and
present. After all. it is not unpleasant
o be loved so truly even if one cannot
eturn it.
Certainly like you." l hasten to
ay. Haven't we always been friends,
.lmost as near as any brother and sister
ould beP'
His frank face clouds.
That's the trouble he exclaims
Joan, don't want you to think of me
S brother, am not your brother, and
ONE day / want to be. something
lsen
/ rise.
81 wish you would not tease me,
Iart,n I CRY. 81 don't dislike you,
urely you know it; but please stop
alking of love-"
Dignity is becoming to Hart; as he
raws himself up with an offended ex-
ression, the thought strikes me for the
rst time how very (not handsome
ir. DeVere with his swapping black