The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-11-27

wandering from his subject.
"Oh, WE'LL" he said. / might have
known that the news of the Counts
accident had already reached you,
therefore your reason for not caring to
60 to the hop"
al heard of no accident to the
Count" Dorothy returned, lapsiug into
her old state of WEAKNESS, feeling that
when Teddie had mentioned the Counts
name.
Teddie elevated his eyebrows, while
strangely guilty expression crept into
his face.
"The young cub got a ducking this
morning" he said, with almost heartless
indifference; she slipped over the side
of the yacht, and if it hadn't been for
me he might have now reached that
sweet by-and-by.'"
Dorothy made no demonstration of
surprise or regret, for she was uncer-
tam whether the Count had in reality
met with so serious an accident, or
whether il wa3 but fabrication of
Teddie Forrester's jealous brain; for
the Count had the day before invited
her TO a drive behind the spirited
horses, which, though the envy and adj
miration OF not few of the men ut the
Lookout Hotel, were a fear to less
clever driver than the Count. And
now the day had advanced far into the
afternoon, still she had received no
message from the hotel that tie pro-
jected drive had been abandoned.
"Then you positively refuse my invi-
tation," Teddie said.
Positively, this time, Teddie, / do"
Dorothy replied, though she withheld
her reason, which, if not wholly in ig-
norance of, Teddie had acted we'll the
part of feigning.
Dorothy was never surprised at Ted
die Forrester's tyranuical ways, or the
air of proprietorship he was in the
habit of assuming toward her; it had
always been q self-imposed custom of
his ever since she had known him, and
that had been no inconsiderable length
of time; and now, when she had es-
capped from the heated city to spend q
couple of months at Maplewood Cot
tage with her Aunt Joe, she had not
been surprised to hear, O few weeks
later, that Teddie Forester had taken
up his quarters at the Lookout Hotel;
Teddie, whose ample fortune could
give him access to any part of the globe
to spend holiday, but whose generous
allowance of jealousy confined him to
the indifferent accommodation of Look
out Hotel, varied by o drive down the
dusty but picturesque Crabtree road.
He was jealous of this Count Won
VII hnd
found his way to Maplewood Cottage
and there first made the acquaintance
of Aunt Joe and Dorothy. after which
his thoughts were divided between his
great cattle rancho in one of the West
ern Territories, where he spent Six
months of the year, and the fresh
beauty of this naive American girl,
while Dorothy did sometimes acknowl-
edge to herself that the Counts defer
entail ways were often pleasanter than
the free air of proprietorship of Ted
die.
mo: if the Count does not come, and
thinks it not worth his while to send an
excuse, | will not go to the hop to please
Teddie Forester, and don't really be-
lieve / will ever marry him, though /
dare say he will appear in Aunt Joe's
parlor some of these days with priest
and ring, and say, Dorothy, / have
come to marry you and will most
likely say, Yes, you pest, because l
always say yes to Teddie in the end,
and also to he rid of going back to the
city and teaching the young idea how
to shoot"
There is the Count" And Aunt
Joe says that for foreign nobleman
he seems like quite the genuine article,
though he is a trifle vague about the
origin of the genealogical tree.
Dorothy was seated upon the front
porch, waiting impatiently for the
Count to appear down the Crabtree
road. off he shouldn't come at all"
she thought to herself, ait would be
great disappointment; besides Teddie
would so glory in it if he should ever
hear"
The sight of the Counts spirited
horses coming down the Crabtree road,
raising q cloud of dust in their wake
and bearing the Count himself, made
Dorothy's heart beat quickly, and scat
tered the thoughts Of Teddie to the
wind.
1t certainly was much pleasanter
bowling along. if it was only upon
Crabtree road, than waltzing in the
heated parlor of the hotel with Teddie
Forester, admiring every young woman
in the room, but not even limiting that
her white dress or the pink roses were
becoming.
"Ah, Miss Bassett, you cannot
imagine how that bit of rolling land re-
minds me of my ranch; it only wants
an unpretentious house right there,
pointing with his whip, "and you have
the general aspect of my house in the
far West"
A trife dreary, Dorothy thought,
and an Eden scarcely alluring enough
wherein to spend six months out of
ones existence.
Dorothy heard the Counts voice in
her ears, which to her seemed to have
grown painfully matter-o fact, but his
words came to her mdistinct and far
away, for her thoughts had drifted
back to Teddie Forester, and she won
dered what young woman at the hotel
he was favoring with the greatest num-
Der of waltZes.