The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1883-05-24
MAGNOLIA, MISSISSIPPI, THURSDAY, MAY Pa 1883.

him in that wrapper? 1t strikes me that
your toilette is calculated to shock any
well-regulated young man out of all
sentiment
g How you love to tease, father,
said Louise, laughing merrily. "You
know very well that nothing would in
duce me to appear before Harry in such
state as this" and she glanced down
at her dress, an old woollen wrapper,
faded, worn, soiled, and bearing the
marks of various ink stains. ~ have a
new blue dress to wear. Blue is his
favorite COLOR
MIR. Harrison smiled and left the
room, and Louise, only waiting to put
HaTy's letter safely away in the top
drawer of her bureau, ran down stairs
and into the library to search for the
papers.
Never had her appearance been less
attractive. 1t amply justified her fathers
remark, and would have given her
aunt, could she have seen it, the heart
ache for week. The soiled wrapper
was minus a belt, and hung loosely
about her; her hair gathered in an un-
tidy knot at the back of her head, was
held in place by broken comb, and u
dilapidated ruche surrounded her
slender neck. She wore no cuffs, no
pin at her throat, and the braid which
should have bound her dark petticoat
trailed on the floor for nearly a yard
behind her. A pair of black slippers,
worn at the toes, and run down at the
heels, completed her costume.
While searching in the library closet
for the papers, she came across a book
on subject which had interested her
deeply, and forgetting everything else
she threw herself into chair which
stood before the open CRATE fire and be-
gan to read.
So completely absorbed did she be-
come that she did not mark how time
was flying. Her slippers fell off, and
her feet, clothed in dark stockings, sad
ly in need of darning, rested conspicu-
ously on the fender. But she needed
nothing, had thought for nothing but
the book which so fascinated her. She
was unaware that the library door had
opened, and that a young man stood
upon the threshold, regarding her with
eyes in which astonishment and disgust
could be plainly read.
Nothing was lost to his view. The
soiled, ink-stained wrapper, the untidy
hair, the dilapidated ruche, the slipshod
slippers and tattered hose made up the
details of a costume such as he had
never seen before, and which he fer
yently hoped he might never see again.
"Louiseri
Harryr'
With face suffused with bushes,
Louise sprang to her feet, letting the
book fall with crash to the floor.
81 found that could get off day
sooner than | supposed when wrote
you two days ago, said the young
man, in voice so stern that the Girl
scarcely recognized it as that of her
lover, land did not telegraph, think
ing to give you surprise. l fear, how
ever, that it is an unpleasant one for us
both, and without another word, and
unmindful of the look of entreaty in the
eyes of his betrothed, he turned on his
heel and left the house.
Louise cried herself to sleep that
night. She saw that there was but one
course open to her to pursue. The next
day she wrote to Harry, releasing him
from his engagement
His answer was to return to her all
the letters she had written him.
She never saw him again, for her
pride would not permit her to revisit
Briartown, and run the risk of meeting
him there, and she steadfastly declined
the urgent invitations of her aunt, who
would gladly have been instrumental
in bringing the young couple together
again.
Years have passed, and Louise Har-
rison is well known in the literary cir
cles of her native city, and has many
friends who both love and admire her.
But she has never married, and the one
bitter enemy of her life is that dark
March day when her young lover gave
her an unpleasant surprise. Floreacc
B. HdlloaoeH, IN Chicago Standard.