, 1886-05-28
A LAKESIDE MUSING.
a PRETTY ROOM 1T WAS, WARM AND
RICH IN ITS coLORlNGS.

Present., There Came to Arthur Aims
IeIgh's Ear the Soft Frou-Frou of a
wonnn'- Dress--He Said, In Tones
.Hu-.y with Horror" Etc.
Natalie. my darling, Arthur is here
The girl, a tall, lissome creature. with
great violet eyes in whose dusky depths
many man had sought to read his fate,
rose quickly from the fauteuil on which
she had been lying when her mother
spoke, and paused for n IN ere he
entered the apartment where Arthur
Ainsleigh was pacing n~ervously to and fro.
y pretty room 1t was, warm all rich in
all Its colorings. and as n great shaft OF
sunshine streaned through the oriel win
dow its golden brilliancy was so softened
and mellowed by the tinted glass that II
fell in subduel radiance on statue and
vase. on painting and drapery, seeming Mt
last To lose itself In gentle blending with
the bright hues OF an oriental rug which
lay in front Of the fireplace.
To the westward, where in summer
stretched away in vernal beauty the lawn
that was such an attractive feature of Cy-
clone grange, there was little to be seen
save "A great expanse Ct snow, across which
a pleasant woman. with Il bundle of fngots,
gathered in the neigtboring copse, on her
back, YEARLY trudged. A broker saw
buck that stood out gaunt and haggard
against an IMPLYING sky was the only
Jarring chord in an otherwise perfect
symphony.
Presently there came to Arthur Aims
leigh's of ear tile soft ron -frou OF n
woman's dress, and an instant later
Natilie Neversink, tall and stately as n
lily, in all the virgin beauty of her bud
ding womanhooi, stood beside the only
man in all the wide wide world that she
had ever loved, and with a tender grace
that was beyond compar gave to him
with the wine-red lips that o'erhung her
dropping. sensitive mouth n rapturous,
clinging, do-not-m ove-or- you-wil break
your-haltcr kiss that came like n reyela-
ton TO this man, vino had spent nearly all
of his life in Boston.
And then the girl, placing her soft, white
arm carcssingly about Arthur's neck,
looked up to him with pleading eyes in
which the mists Of sorrow were fast gath
ering, and ere he could speak there glist-
ened Oh her dnmask cheek a tegr-the salt
and silent emblem of a CHASTITY horror that
wal haunting her life and that had Gov
cred the erstwhilc rose-tinted horizon OF
her girlhood with the black pail of an over
whelming sorrow.
81 had such a terrible dream last night,
darling, she snid, seeing in his eyes the
thoughts thnt his lips had not uttered
such weird, eeric dream, that ever since
it anne to me / have thought of nothing
else
what is its' he asks, drawing her more
closely to him and fondling in lover fashion
the coronal Of fluffy hair that nestles SO
~coniidinsly against the upper left-hand
pocket of his vest.
Il dreamed the girl continued, "that
while | was sitting here in the parlor
one bitterly cold day in the winterr
when the wind WINS SpnopiGo.a orar
o and through wol'snons ~ "a cbar. y
monody for the scG,,Iis of tbose whose lives
us neIce ciiia'iiaces had taken away, there
n"'e 'e@n.e n cupid fat and rosy as 1 had
g seen him depicted. but wearing
about him a curious garment. 1t was n
linen buster, and, %strangest of all, 1t was
trimmed with fur, while in his hand the
little god held ~jauntily n silk hat. He
spoke no word to me, and when | asked
him why he was SO queerly dressed |
awoke. Was ii not strange. Arthur"
Yes the mar replied, and the vision
bodies you no good. 1t Is an ancient belief
that when Il maid sees Cupid in her dreams
he will in some measure assume the out
ward appearance of the maj whom she
will wed. Dost believe this. NatalieS"
A convulsive shudder and a closer clasp
ing of his hand was her only answer.
"Mcthinks | cum interpret the vision"
he continued. .
ID So was the reply.
lyon say that Cupid wore a dusterSn
yes"
"A linen dusterf"
~