Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-02-01


] the old negress hobbled IN with melon
cut in slices and powdered over with
sugar; and before Mr.. Cleve knew it
the clock was striking eleven.
He walked home in the moonlight
with the tumultuous rush Of the rising
tide in his ears, while Mrs. Yorke's
French ballads echoed unsteady in
his brain, and her luminous blue eyes
and FURNISHED coils of golden hair
haunted his recollection.
at is the strangest, sweetest face L
ever saw" he muttered. 81 believe |
am more than half in love with her. If
only that dilapidated old piece of south
ern chivalry, the judge, would die, [
should like to make that woman my
wife!"
And then he smiled, out there in the
moonlight, at the fantastic improba-
bility of the idea.
| By the next mornings sunrise, he
was up and out on the glorious reach
of sparkling sand. with the sea-wind
tanning his face and whole battery
of electricity tingling through his pull
ses.
Nothing seemed too much or too
difficult to achieve. He climbed dizzy
peaks; he walked miles; he stood on
solitary pr0montories, where guile flew
shrieking around his ears-until at
length be found himself on a level
stretch of sand, not far from the old
| Yorke mansion.
"Eureka" he exclaimed to himself,
as he stopped to pick UP an exquisite
shell, rose-tinted and convulvated in
rare curves, which lay blushing at his
feet.
At the same moment, boat, con-
tanning tall figure, wrapped in an old
black serge cloak, came rocking around
the point, and a voice cried out
sharply:
"Halt, there Hands of ! You are
trespassing on the Yorke Beach
Put down that shell, or I'll shoot p
And the barrel of revolver glisten-
ed in the sunshine.
"I beg your pardon - stammered
Mr.. Cleve, promptly dropping the shell.
II wasn't aware that
The Lorelli of the tides uttered q
cry.
ats Mr.. CIeve !" said she.
"And it's Mrs. Yorke !" retorted our
hero.
The golden-tressed beauty put down
| the revolver in the stern of the boat,
sprang lightly over its ganwale, and
came up the beach, with her cheeks
all mantled with bushes.
eyes," said she, sit is I. l believe
you are a gentleman, and | may as
well be frank with you. We are starv
ing genteely at the house. Ali the in
come we have is derived from the sale
of these rare shells, which [ pick up
myself, for we have no servant but old
Cardiac, and she is too stiff and old to
come here. My father-ip-law has never
been quite himself since nay husband
was killed in a railroad accident, three
years ago"
"Your husband p repeated Cleve.
"Killed Then you are not--Judge
YOrke's wife ?"
"Ip' cried the blue-eyed enchantress
81 the wife of that old man !"
And then, with the crimson flush of
her unpalatable confession still on her
cheeks, Mrs. Yorke broke into peal
of girlish laughter.
Cieve took the basket from her arm.
''Let me help you," said he. 81 am
a judge of these beauties. am gath
ering shells to illustrate g. new volume
op the subject of paleontology. And
I want all the rare specimens which
can be found along these coasts"
And the landlord of the "Fisherman's
Retreat" could not imagine what made
his guest so late to breakfast upon that
particular morning, and so distrdit
when at last he did come.
As for beautiful Mrs. Yorke, she
went home with new light in her
eyes, surveyed herself critically in the
glass, and, after she had fastened up
the braids of hair in new fashion, set
herself to work to repair the damages
in her afternoon dress.
because live in this lonely spot, .
) said she, "there is no reason that
should be a semi-savage. But there
has been so little worth existing for, Of
late !"
And she sang soft. glad little rounde-
J lays to herself, like q robin, as she
sewed.
The judge looked sleepily at his
daughter in-law, across the Unbeatable
odd that very agreeable gentleman
come for those shells, Cissy ?" said he
; "We gathered them together" said
: Cecilia Yorke, smiling. "Here are ten
dollars that he paid me. We are to &C
, again, tomorrow, if it is pleasant. He
is a great paleontologist, papa"
lis he, indeed ?" said the judge, his
, dim old eyes frightening at the sight
of the gold coins. "Then, perhaps oul
beach may turn out mine of wealth
!, yet -eh, Cissy?"
Mrs. Yorke smiled, and patted the
wrinkled, white old hand.
''[ think. papa" she said; "Tm not
certain, but think, there are gooC
times in store for me yet"
, The judge said he was glad 10 heal
! it. And then he fell mildly asleep ii
his chair.
When Mr.. Cleve proposed to Cecilis
, Yorke she made no scruple to confess
that she liked him.
"But there is papa" she said gently
but firmly, 81 can never leave him
promised my dead husband always
to be true daughter to papa"
> And honor you for 1t my love,
said the paleontoiogist. "He shall b.
an honored guest Ia our city home al
7 winter; and in the summers we vii
come out here and drink in the sal
g breath of the Atlantic"
5 But the very next night the oil