The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1883-07-19


younger children clustered around tina
story-teller of the family, who lust then
was RECALLING them with thorough de-
scrlptlon OF fight with "Iniuns."
Come IN Bob!' cord tally invited Rich.
who, had he ever had the honor of 4
presentation to the late prince consul.
would have called him ZAP on their
second encounter.
Erica, busy with the homely task of
patching W;ilie's coat, looked up With
swift compression of her lips and held
him out her hand. Bertha rose half
eagerly. shyly from her chair and came
little forward to meet her lover. She
was looking. verv graceful and slender.
and stately in her picturesque dress OF
anIl Venetian RED, with the quaint
broe ROGET Of tawny gold at her throat.
don't mind" murmured Rich in genial
abstraction, his thought still with Celes.
tine.
ihey were not CeremonIous a; the
Braithwood's. The twins paused q mo-
ment to stare at the newcomer, and then
resumed their interrupted performance
with an energy which threatened to
shake every petal form the Last Rose
OF Summer" The sensational narrator
adOwn the room suspended his recital
in the middle OF startling sentence,
And the toma-," waiting long enough
to run the curiosity of his listeners up to
tever-heat before he concluded, "hawk
tellp'
Thanks, no! Sutherland replied. II
don't smoke. Let me move that lamp
for you, Miss Braithwood--so. Well
excuse you." with nod to Rich; "go on
with your book. I am going to talk to
Bertha"
Thus liberated from the conversational
thralldom, Rick went back to Celestine.
Erica sewed on with brown, bent head
under its merciless manipulation the pi-
ano groaned agonizing crescendi and
sobbed gaspins fortissimi. Once or
twice Erica lifted her eyes and looked
across the room to where Robert Suth-
erland leant above her sisters chair.
lie always talking in his slow. absorbed,
nervous fashion; she listening, her face
luminous.
."what does she see in him?" she
| asked herself desperately, and fell to
plying her needle more rapidly than
before, as though to stitch out an an
swer to her question.
That will do, Dot. Good night,
Dora!'' she said at last to the relentless
musicians. They ceased Immediately.
And on sudden silence came distinctly
from the distant corner the blood-curdi-
ing words t'and Tiger Tommy, pulling
out his revolver, exclaimed"
There was quick, spontaneous shout
OF laughter from the elder people, break
| ing the thin veneer of ice which had
coated their intercourse.
"Tiger Tommy. 20 to bed!" chimed in
Bertha gayly. Looking rather shame
faced. the youngsters scrambled up.
Robert Sutherland rose too.
"What! going, Bob? Where is the hur-
ry? Oh, hang it, you don't, you knowW
cxpostulated Rick, dropping Celestine
| and her sorrows ANONYMOUSLY OH the
ooh, I must! didn't tell you Bertha,
| nieht?"
The girls dark, velvety eyes dilated.
"No," she said slowly, "you did not tell
me-"
He looked mp at her with smile.
cit was such bard luck for me, my
darling. such difficult news for me to tell
naturally deferred its mention as long
as possible. I received telegram to-
! day containing information Of the death
of my uncle in Paris. An uncle only by
marriage. a native born Partisan, he. 1
| must 90 over to protect my cousins in
! those rapacious Gallo lawyers. OF what
| duration my absence Will be can form
| no conjecture. however faint. This only
| | know. However brief, brisk work and
| loving homewa~d thoughts can make it,
it shall be because of-Bertha.
A hot rosy tide came flooding Bertha's
pale cheek. But closer around Erica
heart cold fingers clutched in pre-
monition Of pain.
After that the days went by very mon.
otonously, wholly eventually, at the
Rraithwoods.
Ricl, smoked, and froIicked, and
laughed, 4 kindly presence in the house
as usual; Erica ordered the dinner, and
patched the boys clothes, and took
more than her share Of the domestic
| trusvely as ever Bertha lived only
for the mails from France.
One day in particular, day without a
laugh or a sob. a smile or a frown, very
nonentity OF a day, she listened, listened
all afternoon for the postman's impera-
tive ring. It came at last. She fled to
the door. What dreary, desolate
night! The snow had begun to fall
the first snow of the year.
Only a paper. lie had not time to
write, 50 he sent her this. owgood he
was-he never forgot her!
She took it into the long, dusking par
lor where she and Erica had talked to-
gether that morning more than month
ago. She opened it in the waning light
A column was marked. She read it
through once. Then she took up the
cover and scrutinized the chirography.
Yes, his. She read it slowly over Sec
ond and third time.
| When Erica came softly in few min
utes later she found her sitting in the
little rattan rocker, the French paper
held tightly in her fingers, but she her
self dead to all sense of loss.
| IIurriedly she snatched the sheet and
held it up to the dying daylight, and
read the words which told OF the mar
riage of Robert Sutherland to his cousin,
Stephanie. daughter of the lately deceas-
| ed millionaiar Pierre LIE B!onc.
"Ef1ca! Bertha had risen to her feet
with fierce cry. Erica turned and
went swiftly forward.
my petl'
| "Lookw she cried and pointed shud-
! deringly to the world beyond, weird in
it's pail Of darkness and its shroud O.
snow, "look-it is Winteri"
my own darling," Erica whispered,
there are flowers under the snow"
An Indians Rescue.
The great Indian warrior, Tecumseh,
though by birth and education a "say-
| age" was, nevertheless. mucl, above q