Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-07-25

try to WIN and wear the MaISucIlto Cun'
is the one flower in the world for me?"
She did not answer for moment. She
was only seventeen, and with Robert
Lindsay, at least, she was curiously shy
And then, before she could speak, he
caught her hands in his.
"Don't answer, dear" he said; II had
no right to ask. I will not bind you by
a single word. Only give me a flower
for old times sake. It pledges you to
nothing, but may be glad to have it If ]
come back some day and find no daisies
here"
"One daisy will be there" said Meta
softly-so softly that perhaps he did not
hear; or perhaps would not. Robin Lind.
say had no fortune but his profession,
but he was q Scotchman, and as proud
as he was poor. It seemed to him q
baseness to try to win pledge from this
fair young cousin of his, whose mother
naturally looked so much higher for her,
and to whom an engagement to himself
could only bring years of indefinite
waiting.
The waiting and the burden of separa-
ton and doubt and anxiety should be
his, and not hers, he told himself, and
80 he went away and left her free, not
withstanding that her freedom was a
heavier burden than them all.
He only wrote once, formal letter to
Lady Mary, acknowledging her hospital
ity, that somehow found its way among
Metals treasures; but every year there
came a Christmas card adorned with
white Marguerite daisies, and bearing an
Indian postmark and the initials R. L.
That was all; just such Christmas cards
as any one might have sent, pretty to-
kens of cousinly remembrance, that
might be the emptiest of compliments;
but Meta flushed into trembling delight
over them, and hid them away as miser
hides his gold.
And Lady Mary, looking kindly at her
daughter, with the unexpected acqumen
which otherwise foolish women some.
times display in matters of the heart,
thought to herself that if Meta had not
been such child when Robin Lindsay
went away, she might have fancied there
had been some nonsense" between the
cousins when they wandered so long in
the garden those soft June evenings five
long years ago.
1t was only passing thought, dismiss
ed the next instant as too unlikely for
serious reflection, but it came back to
Lady Mary with startling vividness this
fair June morning, as she went out into
the garden in search of Meta, and found
her standing by the daisies with eyes that
were luminous, and tender, and sad. The
golden bosses, surrounded with pearly
shafts of white, suddenly recalled the
Chritmas cards that had borne them in
every variety of dainty device. And
when Lady Mary looked at her daughter
with unconscious appeal and questioning
she knew, with thrill of unwelcome
conviction, that the girls eyes fell before
her own. Was this it-tkis-that Meta,
her proud, urapproachable Meta, was
only proud and unapproachable because
she was already won, and won either
clandestinely or unwooed?
Either superstition seemed a desecra-
ton to Metals mother, with Meta stand
ing before her in her proud young
beauty; only the daisies made q back
ground to her thoughts, an unacknowl-
edged arriere. pe,asee that had it's share in
determining her speech.
"Do you know that Lord Castleman is
coming for his answer this morning?"
she asked, with an attempt at severity of
demeanor that was not too successful.
What are you going to say to him, my
dear?"
won't you see him, mamma? You
will say No 80 much more gracionsly
than I should"
"But need it be No. Meta?"
what else can it be?" said Meta
rather drearily.
The daisies were an unconscious back
ground to her thoughts also. The dai.
sizes that had brought only happy men,
cries and golden dreams to the girl in
her teens, had come to have quite other
for the woman of twenty-five.
Five years! Was it likely that the
fve-year-old story could seem anything |
but boy-and-girl romance to Robin
Lindsey now2 That was the question |
that the daisies had been asking Mar
garet Hazelwood this morning, that they
had already asked her more than once
as the empty years went by, and Robin
Lindsey gave no sign of claiming "the |
one flower in the world for him."
Need it be No. Metaf" said her
mother once more. "Lord Castleman is !
well-born, distinguished, a polished gen.
tleman, and an upright man. What fault
can you lind in him?"
"None," said Meta, YEARLY. She
thought that life would have been easier
to her if her sutton had been q little less
"Then. nv dear, WHY do you not &C
oept him? Do you know, Meta, what is
the natural conclusion when q girl be-
hsves as you dor"
"Yes," said Meta, hastily. "The nat
1rsl conclusion-the only concluaion-is
hat she likes her home and her mother
70 well to wish to leave them"
Lady Mary put aside the fattery with
ofty indifference.
"The natural conclusion is that there
g some one she likes better-or fancies
,he does" said the mother, considerably
:hanging the form of expression as she
,aw the sudden fame in Meta's cheek.
It faded as quickly as it had come, and
Meta said, steadily:
THAT is not the case with me, man.
ma"
It vas not . willful untruth. Her
communings with the daisies
had brought home TIE conviction that
Robin Lindsay had forgotten her, o.
:ho0ght Of her only q . cousin, and
nothing could, therefore, be more evil
lent to Margaret Lakewood than that
her own feelings must have undergone .