The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1883-04-17
Charming Bette.


maid said. Can you ever believe
was pretty
Priscilla opened her mouth 10 peak
but Miss Bette did not walt To hea
her.
Yes, was pretty once, and | Wa
called Charming BETTE. My hail
was always curly, and nv eyes usec
to be very bright. My cheeks were
red-so red, they accused me OF paint
ing many time, and nv teeth white
and even. and my figure round aud
trim"
She had her snug brown house,
with its pretty oid-fashioned garden.
her birds and her flowers. and her
white kitten; but she must at times,
Priscilla fancied, be very lonely in
spite of it all.
Priscilla could picture her in
the long winter evenings, sitting In
the little dim lamp-lighted parlor.
knittirg-knitting.
"Miss Bette" she said. gently,
after little, who called you that
Charming Bette Y'
"Who? Oh, a good many. He
called me SO first, and then they all
got to calling me that. [ never told
any one yet. But, sometimes, | think
it would do me good to speak about
it. | get tired of only thinking
think so much" with a little sigh,
and the knitting lying idly in her
lap.
"His name was David Allyn"
Mics Bette said rather TREMENDOUSLY.
"David AlIyn-Lawyer Allyn ?"
Priscilla cried. her dark eyes large
with intense surprise.
The spinster nodded.
Il nave a picture of him, taken
when be vas young" she said, and
she got up and went TO little shelf,
and took it down. ''He was a hand
some boy" she went on, handing the
faded daguerreotype to the girl, ''and
he was as good as he was handsome.
The beardless boyish face, with its
irregular uniformed features, and rath-
er sunken black eyes did not strike
Priscilla as being at all handsome.
"Did you meet him here in R."
she asked.
"Yes. at a dance at one of the
ne.ghbors'. He was young lawyer,
had just graduated, and hadn't hung
out his single. But he was uncom-
monty bright and smart, even then.
He is our leading lawyer now. YOU
know" the spinster added, with no
little pride.
sit seems so strange to think ne
was your lover" Priscilla exclaim-
ed.
Eyes, it does seem strange bow,
after all these years" Miss Bette
said, with another little sigh "but
it seemed very natural then. We
met very often after the night of the
dance, and we grew to know these
country roads near here by heart. for
many were the long walks we took
together. There is one road-that
one that leads by the HilIman cottage,
] never care to 60 now. 1t was there,
on that road, just about dark, one
October evening, that he told me he
loved me. There had been fine
sunset, and the sky had been bright
fame-color. As the glow faded. and
the meadows grew dark, and little
mist began to shut out the hills. We
turned to come home. Lean on my
arm, dear he said, and when / did so,
trembling a little, he said: How
would you like a young fellows strong
arm to lean on always? | didn't say
right then. he took me so
by surprise; and presently he went on
and told me how pretty he thought
vas, and he said, with laugh, and
giving my arm little pinch 81 am
going to name you Charming Bette.
So after that he always called ire
that. and soon nearly every one in R
began calling me it, too. We were
never engaged to each other, although
| wear the little ring he gave me. in
of our love, yet" Miss
Bette said, and held out one thin
hand, on which shone, in the freight,
1 worn band of gold. There was
ust this understanding between u;
'ome day when he had got a nice
start in the law and had little home Z
IF his own to take me to, then | was
to be his vie. We were young, and
were content to wait and ,one day he
vent away to the city to go into part
,ership with an old-established law !,
II, a friend of his fathers 1t was
grand chance, fine opening for him,
md We both knew it, and rejoiced p
,ver it like children, although We ;,
,.oadad tbo CON. rarios, sNayer mind "