McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-11-08

many o day, and experience had taugnt
Him that he would fall in love with her,
and that if he proposed she would re-
fuse him.
The last days of his stay arrived, and
he was very sad. In the afternoon he
deserted the men, who were out shoot
ing, and went intt, the drawing room,
where he found all the young ladies in
a state Of gayety winch young ladies
sometimes indulge in. They had been
pulling the, men to pieces in their alb
sence, and laughing at them; poor old
Mr.. Frere, whom any one of them might
have had for a lover, had just had his
turn. He was given to making passion
ate speeches whenever he coulo get the
chance; and some of the girls on COM
pairing notes found that he used the
Identical words to each. In fact, he
did somewhat lack Imagination. This
amused the girls immensely, and they
were laughing over it when he came in.
They Immediately began to tease him,
and while they asked him a hundred
questions all at once, he stood smiling,
fattered, and perfectly happy in their
midst. Confused by the presence of so
much beauty, he made speech, which
most of those who heard it regarded as
absolute nonsense.
"Ladies," he said, 81 am going away
tomorrow. 1t is dreadful to 60 and
leave you. I don't think 1 have the
courage to do it, unless one of you will
consent to console me. Which of. you
ladies will marry meP My wife will
have the late Mrs. Frere's diamonds,
and they are not to he despised."
He spoke as if purely in joke, and
laughed as he said it. But his eyes
looked eagerly and anxiously round
the merry circle to see if any face
looked thoughtful.
81 will, Mr.. Frere," said the beauty,
diamonds suit me and I adore them"
The others looked in amazement, and
then burst into peals of laughter. The
idea of the beauty sacrificing herself for
a set of diamonds she who, it, was sup
posed, might wear a coronet if she
chose! But Lady Rose knew her own
position better than any one else. She
had been out several seasons, and had
had no offer worth accepting, and her
mother would not let her have the man
she loved. A rich old man, who, as
she fully determined, should be her
slave, and set of diamonds for her
very own, which were fortune in
themselves-theset thing were well worth
thinking about.
The whole thing was treated as joke
at the time by every one present. But
in the evening Mr.. Frere came quietly
to Lady Rose and sat down by her.
ssLady Rose," he said, ''if you are
willing to hold to the bargain we made
to-day, 1 will keep my part of it,
She raised her eyes and looked coldly
into his.
eff you meant it, she said, $50 did
I. AS [ said, diamonds suit me, and 1
have none."
81 will give you the late Mrs. Freer's
on your wedding-day,' he answered.
'The jewel-case which contains them
shall be opened by you for the first time
since she herself shut it,
In due time the marriage was an
nouced and the details were settled.
The wedding was fixed for an early
date. Lady Rose, having made the
bargain, was not difident about fulfill
ing it. She wanted the diamonds; not
only for their beauty, but because when
they were once in her hands she would
be rich in her own right for the first
time in her life. She was avaricious
because she was unhappy; and she de-
termined that if Mr.. Freer proved in
tolerable, and wanted to be her master
instead of her slave, she would, like the
late Mrs. Frere, run away; but she
would not commit the fatal mistake of
leaving the diamonds behind.
At last the wedding-day came, and
there was no doubt about one thing
Lady Rose was the handsomest bride of
the whole year. And yet she was so
pale as to look like the ghost of herself.
The diamonds she wore were the envy
and admiration of her friends. They
were magnificent; her white neck and
arms blazed with their beauty.
When Mr.. Frere brought her the jew
ell case and the key, sort of a shudder
came upon her at the recollection of
who had last opened it. She felt, for a
moment, sorry for poor, fral Mrs.
Frere, who had left all behind her, her
home, her reputation and her dia-
monds.
But before long she made a discovery
which chilled her blood and made her
face as white as that of ghost. The
diamonds were paste! Before her
flight the runaway had had the set of
jewels exactly initiated by dexterous
dweller in the Palais Royal, and none
but an expert could have told the differ
ence. It was on the proceeds of the sale
of the real stones that, after her flight,
the lady and her cousin lived luxurious
ly in Paris.
Lady Rose never felt sorry for the
late Mrs. Frere again. London World.