The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-08-09
THE TREASURE CASKET.
tChicago Tribune. ]
" "Avaunt, villain I"

into those OF o. the girl who stood be-
fore him in all the regal splendor of
her peerless beauty of face and figure,
started back with convulsive, shud-
dering movement, from the effects
of which his frame seemed to writhe as
If in mortal agony; and then, recover
ing the self-pcssession which had
momentari'y deserted him, placed an
arm in such position that it prevented
the outlines of his face from being
plainly seen, and stood there like lion
at bay.
Two years before our story begins
solitary horse mackerel might have
been seen swimming leisurely across
the Atlantic ocean to open the summer
season at Newport. And what sum-
mer it proved to be for Violet Caryll!
Coming there in all the freshness of
her youthful bea1ty, she had seemed. in
contrast to the habitues OF the
place, like a lily growing white
and pure and stately in bed of
roses from which the early splendor
of freshness had forever fed. With
heart unfettered, mind of unusual
vigor, and soul as pure and stainless
as the life record of girl who has
never learned to play the piano, Violet
Caryll had met at Newport the man in
whose presence she felt for the first
time that indefnable sensation of Joy
that thrill of supersensitive emotion
which marks the beginning of an epoch
in the life of every girl-an epoch
which in the future shall be looked
back upon as time when all the world
seemed filed with sunshine, when every
day that died upon the horizons purple
rim seemed crowned with the stars of
joy-that festal time when love,
warm-lippel and glowing, sits en-
throned upon the cloud-tipped summit
of soul whose corridors are lighted
for the first time by the glorious sum
burst of changeless affection, and whose
parching thirst for kisses, and caresses,
and low-spok words of tenderness is
forever quenched by the limpid, pur-
ling stream OF a passion that can never
die
It was at fete champetre that Nio-
let Caryll first saw rupert J. Hether-
ington She was standing near por-
there through which the chicken salad
and nickel-size sandwiches were soon
to be brought, when suddenly her
escort, BERTHE Cecil-a young man who
hoped to be promoted to the ribbon
counter the following winter-observed
what seemed to him like blush pass
gu ckly over her face, and, looking in
the direction indicated by her eyes, it
did not take him long to discover that
Violet was gazirg earnestly at Rupert
Hetherington.
Would you like to know him 2" he
asked.
Violet moved her head slightly in
assent, and moment later the intro
duction had taken place.
"You are from Cincinnati, l believe"
said Rupert, after they had conversed
moment upon ordinary topics.
"Yes, answered Violet.
81 hen we shall surely be friends. I
once knew man who lived in Dayton"
"Ah, indeed!'
Then Rupert excused himself, but as
he walked away Violet knew, by that
subtle instinct which enables women to
tell that there is fly in the butter even
before they have entered the din ng-
room that no other man would er
possess her heart so completely. And
SO when they met again she was very
cordial. 1t was the old. old hump
backed and gray-headed story of friend
ship that grows into love, and before
the Newport season was ended Violet
Caryll and Rupert Hetherington had
plighted their troth.
Why they had quarreled nobody
seemed to know. 1t was simply given
out that the engagement had been
broken, and soon alter this came the
news that Rupert Hetherington' i'm
mense fortune had been engulfed in the
maelstrom of tree-for-all pacing
laee. Then he drifted out of Violet's
world altogether, and for nearly two
years she had been living at Rosebud
Villa, her fathers country-seat. AL
ways fearless of personal danger, she
was accustomed to take long walks
about the place in the soft June even.
ings, and during one of them had dis
covering a man forcing his way into
that part of the house where the silver
and jewels were kept. It was this man
to whom she had spoken the ords
with which tn $ chapter opens.
He stood there for moment, and
then suddenly dropped his arm SO that
his face became visible.
"lou know me, suppose" he said.
The girl looked at him intently for
an instant, and her face became white
as marble.
l"Great Cod!" she cried. 1T is
Rupert Hetherington
"1e5," he answered, rupert j.
Hetherington, once your promised
groom. 1t IS all true. l am a COM
mon burglar. l must steal or starve."
For an instant the girl did not speak.
Then she simply said: You say that
you are poor; that with wealth once
more in your possession you would be
honest. To you mean this?'
Il d."
Then follow me-" and walking be-
fore him the girl lei the way to hot
house which stood near by. ntering
it, she soon returned and placed in the
man hand small package Take
that" she sad. "You can sell it for
enough to again place you beyond the
rea Ii of want, and waving him away
with TN imper;ous gesture she turned
and uttered the house. Rupert hastily
opened the box, and as he saw its con-
tents great wave of JOY swept over his
soul. "God bless Eer!" lie murmured.
he has, indeed, redeemed her
promise, and with what | shall recei,e 9
for the contents of this bo may live
all my life in luyury."