Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1883-08-18

said grimly;
Certainly not" was the very grave
''H'} Then you've refused him, Lnoyy'
with humiliating eagerness. 81
guessed you would"
Mr.. Beauclere has not done me the
honor OF asking me-"
"Ah r. and Georges face fell percep-
tibly. I" But you will refuse him, Loo,
won't you?" he continued. g He told
me he was going to propose this very
day. in Q savage whisper. nnnsit sitl
"Then perhaps he will inform you sf
my reply in due course" and she looked
mp with droll twinkle in her bright
hazel eyes. "Now,s George, if you're
not coming in to have some tea, let me
pass, please" IOi iSni ll9l ,ik
4 "But you don't care about him, Loo,
do you?" he whispered, with very
penitent glance. ipi ~ 'lh' 1e'V 2"
Pardon me, like Mr.. Beauclere very
much, indeed. Why shouldn't I? and
!! thought, George, you and he were
George turned away with an excla-
nation that sounded like "Confound
him, and Lucy returned to the house,
serenely smiling under her broad
brimmed hat.
The drawing-room was empty, but in
little snuggery beyond, which her aunt
called her boudoir. there was muffled
hum of voices, and Lucy smiled more
comically than ever as she went up
stairs to change her dress for dinner.
Both George Leslie and Mr.. Mark Beau
clere were to dine at ''The Nest" and
Lucy, brimful of mischief, resolved to
tease George thoroughly before she put
him out of his misery. rrnffTnf
So she donned fresh muslin gown,
and fastened crimson rose in her hair,
and then went down and took her seat
near the drawing-room window, which
commanded the entrance to the front
garden, and with very demure smile
awaited the course of events.
Presently she was joined by her aunt,
looking gravely important, and bristling
all over with secret. Miss Hester was
a tall, slender, keen-eyed, thin1ipped
lady of as near 40 as possible, with
smooth dark hair, regular features, and
a stately, not to say commanding, pres
ence; she had very beautiful white
hands, and she used them a good deal
in majestic way. When dinner was
announced it was by wave of them she
signified to her niece that she meant to
proceed at once to the dining-room.
Lucy followed her with suppressed
amusement beaming from every feature
of her face. She guessed pretty accu-
rately what her aunt's secret was,
though, till Miss He3ter opened the
subject, she would not breathe even a
hint of it. AS the dinner progressed in
impressive silence, she found herself
wondering why George did not come.
Later on, as she sat at the piano in the
twilight, and played over her favorite
songs, singing snatches of them, wander
ing almlessly from "Auld Lang Syne"
to the Glass of Richmond HILL" and
then to Home, Sweet Home" she lit
tie thought who was listening to her on
the other side of the lilac tree that
shaded the drawing room window.
There, in safe obscurity, George Leslie
listened, till he heard the piano closed
with just the suspicion of a bang, and
saw Lucy's slight white-robed figure
cross the room and approach the open
window, then he stole away noiselessly
with something between II sob aud a
sigh. There was even suspicious and
Illuminating moisture in the poor fell
lows eyes as he hurried across the
fields in the direction Of the railway
station.
"She's treated me very badly-but,
for all that, hope she may be happy.
Heaven bless her he said, as he caught
q glimpse of 1.-The Nest" as the train
shrieked past.
Then he shrank back into his corner
and gave himself mp to the bitterest re-
Election. He found it difficult to realize
that he was rejected; yet Beauclere had
told him distinctly that he had proposed
to Miss Armstrong that afternoon, and
had been accepted. There was no fur
Their reason for his staying at Westwater;
and he was going to ask his uncle, of the
firm of Leslie e. Longhampton, to send
him on confidential mission to the ex-
treme end of the earth, where they were
supposed to do business. George could
not be philosophical enough to look at
happiness Through another mans
eyes" so he determined to get complete
ly out of the way of Mark Beanclere; and
he could not even summon up courage
to congratulate Lucy OF say good-by;
but he wrote her nice little letter, in
which good deal of real feeling was
hidden under some stiff, formal phrases
and through it all peeped very sore,
bruised, affronted, but still faithful,
love
Lucy laughed at it first, and then
cried over it, then wiped her eyes, and
wrote an explanatory and affectionate
reply; but, alas George was gone on
the confidential mission. His letter said
that he was on the eve of starting for
China and hore the Southamntnn nost-