The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-10-16
TEN YEARS LATER.
$50 he has come again"

bled from hand to foot as she glanced
at his card.
"'Tell him." she said to the servant.
chat / will be down in ten minutes
for" said Nettie to herself, II cannot
go down like this-I must calm myself
down to ordinary GOODNESS"
Woman-like, she first went to the
mirror, and, in spite of her agitation,
noticed thatsh looked unusually well.
Then, with her hands Clasped tightly
before her, paced rapidly up and down
the room q number of times.
Nettie was by no means a vain
woman, although she was q remark
ably pretty one, and the half-anxiOus
glance she had given her reflection in
the mirror was rather OF inquiry than
vanity.
1t was ten years, at least, since she
had met the gentleman awaiting
her below, and at that time he was
her accepted lover; so Nettie, with all
a woman's consciousness that beauty
carries its weight, had first OF all asked
herself the very feminine but natural
question:
"Will he think me changed?"
The mirror told her, as he did, ten
minutes later, that she had not. So
there was but one thing to be done,
and that was to still the tumultuous
beating of her foolish little heart, and
go down.
Poor, pretty Nettie! She loved him
still, although she had not seen him
mall these years, and he, as well as
herself, had married-another.
Self-control, ever one of her charac-
'teristics, soon came back, and in less
than the prescribed ten minutes her
face was steadily set into an express
sion of friendship, and she was de-
scending the stairs.
But, alas for human efforts and hui
man resolves, they often melt away
before other instincts nor deeply hui
man! And the pleasant greeting rest
ing so firmly on her lips, and themodi-
fled phrase SO carefully planned on his,
vanished into thin air when they met.
Harry"
'tNettie!'
And the two, SO long parted, gazed
with happy freedom into each %her's
eye.
A hundred questions they asked and
answered. The dead, the married and
gone were all talked over, and old
scenes and old occurrences recalled.
Then a thought cameto Nettie, bear
ing with it a sickening dread, a miser-
able, crushed feeling about her heart.
Harry was, after all, not the Harry
of old, though, heaven help herl she
loved him as tenderiy as ever.
The question on his part-"Nettie,
will you now tell me about YOURSELF"
had awakened her from the delicious
dream. AS In the darling light of a
single fash of lightning Innumerable
sobjects can be clearly discerned, so in
that one painful instant the hopeless
mess, the unfathomable depth, the very
s~infulness of his love came before her.
The sight of his dear face had chased
away every otherfeeling, but she could,
she would, crush it now, now and for
ever.
Her face grew a shade paler, and the
curves Of her delicate mouth grew
stern, as she answered the man who
had been the one love of her life, and
who she knew had seen that she loved
him still.
You ask me, Harry" said she, ito
bell you about myself. Shall / begin
where we left off ten years agoi''
"If you will" he answered, In q
troubled voice, avoiding her eye
~ viii be brief, them she replied,
but astouch of passion trembled on
the would-be tones of ice. "You re-
member the night we parted, ten years
ago last July-yes2 Then, of course,
yot remember the rest-how you said
unkind words to me and that stung
me to the quick. / babe you 90, and
forever. Iknewnot what else to say,
or how else TO punish you. But you,
taking me ct my word went, and, oh,
Harry, neve returned When | said
what I did that might, my heart was
breaking, and when / saw your mar
riase twomonths later in the papersit
lad me at deaths door. For many,
many weeks my life hung ON d thread,
and never since have for a single day
been my old self again."
ssNottie, Nettie,n he interrupted,
nvou know / tried several times to see
you and to explain, but always miss
cd YOU
sYes; / knew, andavoidedyou. How
could you explain or ! listen, and you
married to another woman?"
tBut you. too. married, and were
happy, we're YOU not2"
marricd-what else could | do?
..4I.%AA.x 80 &I~&A~A 49,
than dead TO me But I was hevei
happy. Arthur Deyereaux loved M
dearly. but your image was ever be
forepe. haunting my thoughts by day
snd my dreams by night Happy