Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-23

low happy I should be if I could only
1es YOU were In good hands. Believe
me, dear, she is a most sweet THING
with fondest love, your own Lettie."
James Grafton had always had a fair
n rather delicate complexion. II was
not much the worse for wear. It turned
a vivid scarlet as he read the last part
OF his sisters note.
Chow on earth could she have
guessedp What have I said or lone to
suggest such an idea? Believe me
dear, she is a most sweet thing I
knew that well enough without Iettie's
telling me. I'm fond of her; so are
you.' And in spite of having lost
a first love ''whom the angels calf Lee
nore," or some other delicious name.
James Cation, this bachelor of forty
years, sighed with almost youthful fer
vor for his second. "'She likes you; 1
am sure of st. Aye, there's the rub!
Llkes-ikes-likes me-" he repeated,
"but perhaps still loves some one on the
other side of the world. Does sheP
Why shouldn't 1 knowP'"
He read Lettie's note through again:
it was singularly inspiring; never be-
tore had the case been put before him
SO clearly, never had he dared, even in
his inmost thoughts, to put it so clearly
to himself. He opened his eyes widely.
"Have 1 been a fool, I Won
derP I must have been or 1 should
have. But here he was roughly in
terrupted. Mrs. Charles's girls and
Mrs. Harry's boys, who always had the
greatest contempt for each other, had
come to blows, and now burst into the
library crying and sobbing, and making
the house resound with their clamorous
demands for instant justice. The moth
ers. who had been marrying each other
until frail human nature could stand it
no longer, rushed to the rescue. The
noise became terrific. Mrs. Charles de-
manded the immediate expulsion of
shat woman and her ill-mannered chill
dren." Mrs. Harry returned the COM
pliment with vigor. James Grafton,
unused to such scenes, fled in dismay.
They followed him to the shrubbery, and
when they had driven him thence they
tracked him to the poultry-yard, where,
rendered desperate by sheer despair, he
would not re-enter the house until both
LOU 1CAU As 1ucF0 WIS SOIu6UQlQO 80
resolute in the way in which he sat
down on some logs by the pump, as if
he would stay there forever sooner than
yield, that, knowing further resistance
was useless, the widows departed. For
many hours afterward James Grafton
felt that he was the greatest brute in
the world. He was, as regarded women
and children, Ia most tender-hearted
creature. He hated himself for his
harshness; it made him feel degraded
and unworthy even to WOO so sweet a
being as Eunice Bell. It was far in the
next day before his %self-respect re-
turned.
James Grafton's house was pleasant
~ situated on the slope of 8 hill,
not many miles from London.
Eunice Bell lived with a married
sister in Tuliptree-lane, within an
easy walk of the bachelors residence.
James Grafton, being on intimate terms
with the family, knew, as, indeed, all
the n%eighborhood knew, that about two
years ago Miss Bell had been engaged
to be married. Then there had been a
quarrel, and arrangement. He, the
lover, had gone abroad; she-why one
day she caught sight of her own face in
the looking-glass, and repeated to her.
self:
Charlotte, when she saw her lover
Borne before her on q shutter,