Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-08-17

SOhACtuliiD NC Is ItdulHH dlouu- Al
sure of meeting in her glance an appre-
citation as keen rs his own-which is
indescribably iiattering.
Going one morning into his room
with fresh flowers to I'll the vases
(Howard is sitting in the porch below
reading his maiD, she accidentally
pushes small pOcket-album from the
table. She stoops to replace il, and n
picture which has fallen out of il arrests
her attention.
II is a very pretty face which she sees,
and Bittie wonders if it is sister; he
has never mentioned having sister.
Then she sees at the bottom of the
card the words, written in fine. girl
ish hand: Yours sincerely, Grace Ran
dolph." She turns the card over and
reads on the back, in handwriting She
has become tOlerably familiar with, of
late:
my Darling. October %. IS"
Evidently not sister; and Bittie re-
places the picture in the album, which
contains no other woman's face except
an elderly one, which she gucsses. from
its resemblance to Howard's TO be his
mothers, and goes on with her work;
trying TO experience the feeling of sat
isfaction she knows she ought TO have
in the knowledge that she will be spared
all persecution from this once muche
dreaded John Howard. 1t is not quite
so pleasant TO think of as she had i'm
agined, somehow; still Bittie tells her
self il is rs il should be, and she will let
papa and mamma know it right away,
and she hopes it will cure them OF
matchmaking.
Some two weeks later, at the close on
n July afternoon. Bittie stands at the
gate bidding goodbye TO Ella Manning,
who has been spending the day with
her. Bittie's usually merry. Spirited
face wears 4 thoughtful, snbdued ex-
preston which puzzles her friend; but
she has not mentioned the subject which
formed the chief topic of conversation
during Elias previous visit.
81 Judge life With your Beast has not
been an altogether unbcarablc affair
after all, says Ella at last. Il like
him immensely, notwithstanding your
gloomy predictions; he j. 50 entertain
ing and distingue, and and all thai. ;"
she ends vaguely.
ooh yes, he's very entertaining >"
listle>sly
well, you're not enthusiastic, cer-
tainly; but that could hardly be expect
ed, considering what 'come-dov n
you have had from the lofty stand You
were going.to take with him. Actually,
1t Is as good as play to see him con
troll you, without any appearance of do
ing so
our imagination is running away
with YOU. rctOrts Bittie. tiushiuu
anGrily, her EstleSsness all gone. q"
! don't know why You should think of
such thing; | am sure neither of us
has the least desire to control the other
in any way. / wish you wouldn't talk
like that; rs If two people could not he
good friends without all that nonScnSc,n
Ion, dom get angry; I'll take II all
back. j suppose it's only good friend
I ship which makes him follow Won all
/ over the room with those gray ewes of
his, with n look in them that is so very
different from the cool. busincss-like
glance with which he regards other PEG
! pie. | suppose il is good friend. hip
/ which makes his whole face lirht IN
when YOU come into the room, and oct
very dull again when YOU 90 out Of it.
i suppose it is friendship which make:
the tears come in your eyes when he
sings In the Cleaning, though must
say the never used to when Raw SAM
it. suppose it is friendship which
made YOU blush SO furiously when you
pinned that rose in his buttonhole,
though | have seen YOU do it scores ~
| times for other men without"
ELLA, for mercy's sake, do stop. ard
do. please, understand that Mr.. John
/ Howard 5 affections are the property of
/ another, and your Imagination IN.
/ played Won false, as il has way of
I doing breaks i'm Bittie, trying to speak
/ lightly; aud, feeling that She must set
matters right. she tell her friend of the
discovery of the picture
Ella is puzzled, but not entirely cen
/ WINGED. "Oh, there's some mistake
about it, I'm sure" she SAYS. and zoe.
away, dcvoutly hoping there is. rs she
had been coming to the conclusion all
day that john Howard was =. Just made
/ for Bittic"
As for Bittic. she watches her friend
out of sight, leaning her head YEARLY
on the gatepost. and listener. living on
Il bench behind the lilac bushes, he lrs
u long. quivcring sob, and the words:
J thought was going to hate him,
and OH wish l hadn'
Yes, go back TO work next week.
ana before go wish to tell you some
/ thing
Howard speaks in his most matter-of-
fact tone. and looks absentlv at the
clouds on the horizon, as if his thoughts
were very far away. They have been
taking a long walk. and have stopped
NJ Bittie's corner 60 rest.
Bittie turns little pale and looks as
If she would like to run away. She has
J no wish to hear his condolences; but She
has lost of late al the tact and readi-
ness with which she was wont To waive
/ disagreeablc subjects. and she ha,
\ learned some time since not TO try he,
| small girlish deceits on this man. He
/ has n way ut such times of oDcnino
! those penetrating eyes Of his, so prac-
/ ticed in the reading of counienanccs far
more impenetrable than hers and turn
ing them full upon her, while his dim
! pies deepen suspiciouslv, until she has
been unable to sustain the qnizzica'
gaze, and taken refuge i'm truth.
- | am going To be- married this fall :
/ he goes ON coollv. She has been pre-
Iiuhing herself for this. but the blunt
statement makes her Vince.
Yes. l saw her picture in your room
one day; she is very pretty" she says,
hurriedly, trying to appear self-pos
scsSed
VERY. very pretty. is nv little
! love, with n mischicvous twinkle n
his eyes, which she does not see lie.
cause she is not looking az him. -
- wanted TO ask you if you thought
your parents would be willing to have
me bring my wife here next summer
Bittie has endured without n sign the
tender, carcssing tone in which he saws
my little love-" and the air of pride
with which he says my WIFE but this
demand is more than she can bear. and.
springing to her feet with white lin
and blazing eyes, she cNelaims:
No! She SHAH never come here
Then feeling chat slpe had betrayed her.