River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-10-23
A MYSTERIOUS LOVE EPISODE.

I first discover If sweet Madge Cralgie
loves me-"
Sweet Madge Craigie, indeed Fan
cy calling her sweet Commend me to a
man for being taken in by q pair of
bright eyes and silly giggle No man
ever knew yet who was his truest friend
Miss Craigie isn't yours. !"
1 my dear cousin, you are prejudiced.
Madge has lived great deal abroad,
and acquired manners which will ac-
/ knowledge do not exactly resemble
/ those you are accustomed to see every
/ day: but she is none the less true and
loyal and womanly on that account,
while she is certainly ten times more
fascinating than most of the people one
meets"
"Humphl" growled Cousin Barbara.
/ Well, those who live the longest will
! see the most"
4 Then there was silence, Trevor Lane,
/ who was an artist, went ON with his
1 painting, and the middie-aged spinster
/ he called Cousin Barbara sewed her
/ white seam with much diligence asshe
! sat in the sunlight on an old settle by
/ the window
Cross. gained though Barbara was,
+ there was one being she loved with a
/ deep, feryent devotion, and that being
1 was Trevor Lane. And so she ought,
. r.. L 1. 1yfn1ac4 IF frfa Ic
/ to her. Left at the age of fifty, without
/ sixpence, Trevor Lane, who was only
her second cousin, had invited her to
4 come and live with him and manage
his house for him. This for the last five
years she had done right Conscientious
4 II, both as regards housekeeping and
/ the giving of such good advice as she
I considered young man required.
Trevor Lane accepted both services
with apparent gratitude, bearing the in
Fiction of constant advice with so much
resignation, even cheerfulness, that he
proved himself to be a thoroughly good
tempered fellow.
The fact was he was truly sorry for
his cousin Barbara, who had, he con-
/ sidered, been soured by bad treatment
in the past; and, though it was no fault
of his, vet he was resolved, if possible,
to make her life fair and happy in the
future. Hence every cross he answered
with caress, every recommendation
that heshould alter his ways with a
promise that he would be circumspect.
And so five years had dawdled on,
and the summer at Heathfield, about
ten miles from London, where Trevor
/ Lanes studio and pretty home were sit
uated. came and went with but few in
cidents to disturb the current of the
cousins ways-till Madge Craigie came.
i This was the evil day for which Cous-
in Barbara had never ceased to look
the dav on which Trevor Lane would
elect to devote to another some portion
of the love she wished to appropriate
wholly to herself
s'Trevor was not yet thirty, how
could she expect it to be otherwise p
she would ask herself, repeatedly
Then she would shake her head and
mutter: eff could only like her; but
this Madge, this Eighty, silly Madge-
to marry my Trevorl All, me-" Cons
in Barbara failed utterly to recognize
that whoever the girl was on whom
Trevor DSSbOMGd HIS SlIC
would consider her Objectionable and
displeasing.
For long while there was no sound
heard in the studio save the flies buzz
Zing on the window panes and the old
clock ticking on the mantel-shelf. Ire
vor himself at last broke the silence.
"Madge is coming here this evening,
Cousin Barbara-you will be civil to
her for nv sake will you not ?"
Miss Barbara looked MP suddenly and
saw the light of love in Trevor's flash
ing eyes, the glow of a deep passion on
his handsome face, and the sight of it
seemed to chill her heart to ice.
She answered coldly: Miss Craigie
wants no warm words from me; since
you can utter them so glibly it is enough
but for the last time | say beware.
Trevor Lane went ON working deliber-
ately at his picture; and Miss Barbara
budding up the white work on which
she was engaged into bundle, escaped
with it into her own apartment.
When this scene took place the after
noon was already pretty far advanced,
very late when the sun finally departed
behind the western hills. Trevor could
no longer see to paint, but he fingered
on in the studio, gazing dreamily at his
picture till it was nearly dark.
At last he shook himself back into
reality, and raising some portieres which
divided the studio from the dwelling
room in which he and Barbara usually
sat. he went in, sturck match and
lighted a lamp which stood on his own
particular writing table.
II wonder il she will GOMEZ almost
hope she will not. Till this prejudice
of cousin Bab's is overruled / must try
andkeep her from the house. / would
not for worlds that she should know
that Bah has taken fancies into her head
about her"
And, half murmming his thoughts
aloud, he proceeded to answer two or
three business letters which had ar
rived during the day. One of them
necessitated reference to some old pa
pers, and, taking key from his pocket,
he unlocked the side drawer of his table
and began to look for the documents he
required.
So absorbed was he in his search, or
the subject that caused it, that for the
time Madge Cralgie and the trouble
with Cousin Barbara was forgotten.
It was not till light hand was laid
on his shoulder and a ripping laugh
fell on his ear that he looked up from
the open drawer into the sweet face OF
the lady who had bewitched him.
is this what you call meeting me by
the garden gate and bringing mein to tea
with Cousin Bab2 Look You, sir. ]
have a mind to be very angry.
Not with me tonight. sweet lady. |
have had much to trouble and vex me
Ia letter here which gives me endless
worry. Beside, Cousin Bah has gone
to bed--she is not we'll.
Gone to bed Oh. then, 1 ought
not to have come, suppose.
"Since you are here, however, you
Will not 60. Let rs chat together for q
Little; later on / will see You home
And lie rolled al easy chair to where
she stood and invited her to sink down
into its softness, for Trevor Lane was
a syIarite III his nome Madge Craigie
obeyed him, AMI, tossing her straw hat
from her head 10 the ground. lay back
among soft cushions her golden, wavy
HAIR and white skin forming a striking
contrast to their crimson hue.
For moment on two he sat and gazed