The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-09-12

ner white Swiss muslin dress, looked
suddenly up.
"Whop" she said.
Mr. Heriot, the new heir to the
Abbey-old Judge Wild's nephew, You
know, condescendngly explained Miss
Hempsted -four yards, did you sayP
And now, Miss Hopper, | will show you
the latest things in jabotS,"
1t was on the day before Miss Heath's
summer vacation expired. Fortunately,
thought Ethel. For if Mr.. Heriot ever
knew that she had been unmadenly
enough thus to challenge him on his
own ground, she believed that she
should die of modification and shame.
The moon hung low over the wild and
restless resonance of the Sea--there was
slight, scarcely perceptible chill in
the afr, suggestive of the coming frosts
when Ethel Heath came out upon
the moss-carpeted plateau Of Wild Rock
with a cluster of dark-green mistetoe
in her hand-a trophy which she had
secretly taken from its resting-place in
the hollow of an ancient beech tree in
the very deepest depths of all the woods
and a bit Of blue ribbon bound its
stems together
An instant she stood in the weird,
level light of the sinking moon, her fair
head bent over the polished leaves.
Goodbye, pretty crown, y she whis-
pered. Il have won you, but ! must
not wear vou And the first one who
finds you floating on the surface OF the
waves will never know what u history
clngs TO your green loyelness!'
She pressed her Inns to the cluster,
and then advanced to toss it into the
foaming waters below, when hand fell,
with OBTAINING pressure, on her arm,
Ethel a deep voice spoke, Miss
Health
She started with low cry;
Mr. Heriot!'
Little criminal he said archly.
80 have caught you at last ! knew
that King Lear's crown would, sooner
or later, come back to King Lear And
| have kept vigil on these rocks ever
since the mistletoe was so mystcriously
spirited away, No, don't throw it
away, Ethel! 1t has been too dearly
won for that. But tell me--did YOU
really get it yoursef?'
'Yes, acknowledged Ethel, with
dropping head and cheeks suflused with
crimson. "But--but did not know
that Wild Abbey belonged to you,'
ETHEL" said Mr.. Heriot grayely,
1.-TWO years ago | learned to love you.
| had fully determined to ask you to be
my wife, But when returned from q
brief absence at Washington, | found
that you had gone, my sister did not
know whittier. She herSelfwas starting
for Bermuda-the household was all
broken up. What could think, Ethel,
but that you had purposely severed the
link between usP'
"And |, toe" said Ethel, with deeply
dyed cheeks "did you think that had
no womanly prideP Oh, Mr.. Heriot,
how difficult it is for men to compre-
bend the working OF woman's heart.
But now, Ethel Sweet Ethel you
have gathered King Lear's crown, and
now you are 10 be my wife, 1t is the
very finger of Fate, pointing to our flu
ture, sweetheart, For, unless lmetyou
again, | should have lived and died an
old bachelor, to the end of my days
But may throw the mis!letoe into
the sea9" pleaded Ethel "oh, ! should
be so mortified to have any one know
that had been such childish romp as
to climb that tree, all for an unconsider-
ed caprice,
But Mr.. Heriot held the mistletoe
firmly in his grasp.
Il will never again part with King
Lear's crown, he said; lit has brought
me the most precious gift life had to
bestow-my Ethel.
So they were married, and lived
happy ever after, as the old stories go.
Mrs Colonel May comes TO Wild Abbey
sometimes, and processes herself de.
lighed at her brothers marriage with
Miss Heath But Ethel never feels that
she can quite trust her,
As for King Lear's Crown, it lies in
a satin-lined box in Mrs. Heriot's own
boudoir, under lock and key, a bunch
of withered leaves and to this day no
one in all the neighborhood knows how
or when the old monarch lost his kingly
diadem
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