The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-02-13

. N~@ANA eA0 III AlANOLG 20
IN the post office was not usually very
extensive, he gave q surprised little
whistle.
The first letter he took up was in ar
unfamiliar hand, and he read as follows
Mr.. Herbert Raymond:
SIR reply at once to the proposal received
from you No, sir. So slight an acquaintance
as ours j~ustifies nothing of the sort and Won
will pardon me If | stigmatize it as bordering
on the impertinent. My father allows no Wis.
TORS at our house save those whom he himself
invites, and fear would be very angry were ]
10 show him your letter. / beg, therefore, tina
you will drop the matter. / assure you it il
not a very pleasant one to me.
Yours, coldly,
CATHERINE NORTH"
Much mystiied, and not a little net.
tied, Herbert laid down the letter and
took up the next, which ran:
SMY DEAR Mr.. R~AYMoND:-So you have 4
curiosity to experience the sensation of being
refused; Well, my dear child, you have come
70 the right place this time; as uncle Remus
says, I've done had my dose OF matrimony;
and not even your youth, beauty and ~inexperi
ence would tempt me-, j have refused dozeni
OF men in my time, and shall probably contin.
ue to do 30 till l die. A friend of mine says ]
am like Mrs. Bedding in The Bread-Winners.
who, after the demise of her spouse, had tive
closets TO hang up her dresses in instead OF
one, and never saw a man again that she liked
well enough to give up that luxury for. I like
occasional visitors, but don't like TO see toe
much Of the sterner sex. Ifyour feelings were
more entangled than suspect they are / might
Deseech you not to hang, shoot, or drown your.
self; but l fancy the danger is very
trifing. Indeed, / have seen so many
broken-hearted men recover and grow
stout that l have becoms skeptical about
the nl-effects Of a rebuff. Doubtless you WOULD
like me to say how deeply my feelings were
touched by your offer, how it kept me awak,
at night, and all that sort Of thing; but l am .
good sleeper. So, my dear child, my answer
is no. Sometimes / think a colossal forum,
might tempt me, Il love to be Graded in tn
lap OF luxury,l but again / am sure that ever
that would be in vain. Doubtless there al,
half a dozen maidens signing and dyj7g for you
my advice is to go to them and be .soled.
Yours, sincerely,
'LAv1N1A PETo."
Herbert finished, and then burst lnts
a laugh as he recalled a certain evening
Mary, Kate and he had spent together
Here. then, was the explanation. But
surely that was Mrs. Peto's handwrit.
ing. Had those mischievous girls really
let her into the secret? How was ht
to find out? How pay them back il
their own coin9 He then glanced over
his business documents, and finally tool
up the last letter. How had it escaped
him that it was Mary's writing? Fl,
hesitated, and held it a moment ere
opening it.
DEAR HERBERT" began Mary),-'I am 81
sorry, and so afraid of hurting your feelings
II was ever 80 kind OF you to want me, but
butt do hate to say no, but / don't see how
can help it Please forgive me, and let us b,
as good friends as ever-won't you? / CAM
bear to say no to one / like so much as / d.
| you. Oh, / Inn so sorry! Do let me be Away
| your friend. ''MARY NEALE."
"I1l never take mo- for an answer
from you sweetheart" was his unspok.
en- thought as he laid down the letter
strange to say, o little panied, ever
though he realized it was but a Joke
He hastily finished his breakfast, an6
taking q pen scrubbed off a reply to the
last. The others he would settle with
Kate, whom he felt to be the real au
thor, later.
DEAREST MARY, 1T is with q feeling OF
g~rievous disappointment undertake to reply
to your epistle. My trembling hands almost
refused to perform their office when, with {
mingled sense of hope and fear, / tore the
covering from your anxiously expected
tale of the sleepless hours and the
alternate extremes of joy and despair that I OK.
perienced. 1t matters not You have erushee
q faithful heart; and though oceans and con.
tinents may lie between US, as presently they
will, yet undying affection for you will evei
reign in my bosom. Farewell, then, adoreG
one. and may You never feel a hundreth par
IF afroh enprny ne yn1r 0r11al words have 0aI1e-
ed. HERBERT
With some satisfaction he read over
his note, and resolved on the policy OF
silence; he would not even go to see
them for a while. That would be more
a~ggrayating, he knew, than any revenge
he could devise. 1t would be, and was,
a hard thing te carry out, but he stuck
to it manfully, though never had the
days seemed so long, or the evenings Sc
hard to dispose of. Meanwhile the con
spirators waited, and Kate at least en-.
joyed her own little joke very much
Then came Herbert's letter to Mary
which both shared and laughed over.
But as day after day passed and M
Herbert appeared, Mary began to feel
seriously troubled. and even got to the
point of shedding a few secret tears.
Could it possibly be that he "a
really hurt at anything she had
said? Really taken it serious
ly? And oh, dreadful possibility
ii by any chance he were going away
without saying good-by! This last idea
was too much, and she could no longer
resist the temptation which prompted
her to write to him:
ssHERBERT, IF you care for ne one particle
come back I don't know what / have said on
done to hurt you, but I can't bear your silence
and absence. MARY"
A little startled, but overwhelmed
with q sudden rush of joyful feelings,
he answered the m In person.
He did not wait for persuasion, outlook
=: LIZ &C cha xlidad into fha