Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-05-10

ting her still fine figure to perfection;
her beautiful brown hair deliberately
dressed by Katie's deft fingers, with a
single heavy dropping rose among the
braids; and surely no eyes could be
brighter than the brown ones that
looked up at her husband, no lips red
der than the ones that smiled at him.
"Why, Belle, what does this mean?"
he said, looking at her in establishment.
"Oh, nothing, only [ have concluded
TO 60 with you tonight, was the reply.
"Will l dop'
eyes, but the children he said,
slowly.
''Oh, nonsense" she said. Struggling
her shoulders. ''It's all foolishness my
staying with them every night when
they have such good nurse. Come!
are you not ready?"
They were greeted with numerous ex-
carnations of delight, as they entered
the already crowded room. But MIR.
Sutherland soon found it was not his
presence that had called them forth,
but that of his wife, who soon found
herself the center of an admiring circle;
while her husband soon found himself,
to use an expressive slang phrase, mo
where" Not even the entrance of his
charmer, the widow, could help him
out, for she of course had an anxiety to
see Mr.. Sutherland's wife, and was soon
standing at her side, having been intro
duced by their mutual FRIEND" Mrs.
Stetson. And Belle, now thoroughly
entering into the spirit of the thing, was
smiling down at her, from her few
superior inches of height, and talking in
her most charming way, while she
mentally decided that the widow was
mot bit pretty after all; green eyes
and red hair! Pah! That She should
even be jealous of that creature. And
the widow, in a secret rage, was Won
dering how on earth some women
kept that wonderful bloom on
their cheeks that was so plainly
not rouge, and how they kept the dark
circles from under their eyes.
Belle could have told her, if she had
cared, that it was early hours and a
clear conscience, the tender caresses Of
little children, and all the sweet de-
lights of home, that did these things for
her. And Mr.. Sutherland, standing a
little to one side, and looking at the
two, could not help comparing them,
and wondering how he could ever have
thought the widow pretty, when he
had SO much fairer type of beauty at
his own fire-side. just then two gen.
tlemen entered. one whom he knew, and
one stranger, and paused almost at
his elbow.
"By JOve!" said the stranger, a very
handsome man with the uniform and
epaulettes of an officer of the United
States Army, ''who is that lady by Mrs.
Stetson?'
"What,'' said his companion, "the
little one in white? That is our belle,
Mrs. Ralston.
"No, no!'' said the officer, impatient
ly. ''Not that little washed-out Great
ure, but the other, that lovely woman
on the right Come and introduce me
Immediately.
And the next moment Arthur had
the pleasure of hearing the handsome
Colonel Ingerton introduced to his wife,
and offer his arm for promenade.
Why was it, although he joined the
widow soon after, and played the de-
voted, ss usual, all the evening, that
the Irritation had lost its zest? Surely
Mr.. Sutherland was not very far gone,
for that one evening was almost his
cure. But when it went on this way for
two weeks, and every evening he saw
the handsome Colonel bending over his
wife or clasping her in waltz, it is no
wonder that when one evening Belle
entered the room, she found him IN her
old position before the fire, his head
sunk modify on his breast.
''Why are you not ready, Arthur"
she said lightly, pausing before him.
1.-The carriage is waiting"
II am not going" he said, without
lifting his head to look at her.
'Brt why?" she said, buttoning her
glove, and trying to speak in careless,
steady voice. though her heart was Oh