Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-01-08
ast few veeks-as a proof Of her

regret to own that she found If nncom-
monty dull, and there were moment.
when she would have relansed ;nto
former iniquities had not both her lovers
been safely out of her reach. and a lonn
rainy spell kept others from c]allino
At last there came bright. beaTt;f,,
weather in the early autumn. M Mar;.
weather was reading his morning naner
This was always a lengthy ooci7,i p"Hea
consisting Of an absorbed perusai of the
editorial columns, a business-like inves-
tigation OF extracts from other papers,
and letters of correspondents, and at
the last a by no means Indifferent review
OF the advertisements.
Argyle, who had presided at the head
OF his table ever since she had been left
a motherless child of ten years old. and
poured out his coffee for him, watched
his proceedings this morning with an
interest quite new in her pretty
ladyship. Usually she protested q
supreme Indifference to the news
papers and their contents, and
If she did not receive an azure or rose
tinted missive of daintiest size from one
OF her own correspondents-which was
a rare occurrence-as she was herself
incorrigibly lazy about answering her
letters, her occupations, after finishing
her W breakfast, consisted in feeding
the two brown settlers, Dash and Dare,
and gathering flowers to in the
sitting-room. 1t was a very lax house.
hold in its ways, but Argyle, to do her
justice, was fond of early rising, and en-
joyed the fresh cool air of dawn, and
the run in the garden for the fruits for
the breakfast, which was the meal her
father preferred above all others, while
the dew was still fresh upon them. She
had generally aired and busted both
rooms; superintendent the making of
the coffee and the preparation of some
appctizing little side dish, Mr.. Meri-
weather being decidedly an epicure, and
had eaten her own simpler meal before
her father appeared.
He was the most absent-minded and
unobscrvant of men, but this morning
even his attention seemed to be awaE-
ened by Argyle's remaining at the table,
and by her rather uneasy glance toward
his paper. He pushed up his gold spec
tacles and looked at her with an amused
smile.
"Well, Argyle, are you expecting any
special news from the papers to-day?"
"Yc-os-no, papa, no news specially
to-day" she answered, hesitating and
blushing u little under her fathers
amused scrutiny.
perhaps you would like to hear the
results of the last English c%lectionsp" in
a sarcastic tone.
mo, thank you, papa"
Cor the present value of gold on Wall
| street?"
"Oh, no, papa, indeed, I would much
rather not" with an expression of such
unfeigned horror that MI. Meriweather,
with an amused laugh, turned again to
tho last paragraph Of an editorial col
umn. AS he turned over the page, he
uttered an exclamation. "Argyle!!" he
said, in q brisker tone than usual, as he
looked up from the sheet, ''by the way, 1
have found an item that NAV interest
YOU"
"What is it, papa?" quickly.
"Some news about one of your ac-
quaintances," laying down the paper,
THAT young officer from Louisiana-Du
Dull forget his NAME. found him
seemed to think him rather entertain
ing"
dupont was his name, papa" an
swered Argyle-after nervously intent
upon pulling out the fringe of her red
fruit napkin. ."But isn't his name men,
toned in the paper? Didn't you say
there was an item about him?"
eyes, of course" replied the old gen.
tleman, in a somewhat guilty tone, as
he searched the columns of his open
page diligently. II am afraid l am a
little absented-minded, Argyle-that is,
about tritles. Yes, my dear, you arc
right, of course, his name must have
been mentioned"
> Argyle waited with ill-concealed inn
patience while her father slowly and de-
1iberately read aloud the heading of each
| separate paragraph: "'Letter From AL
bemarle County, Account of Grand
| Military Review in Richmond 'Discov-
| ery'-no, that's not it. Murder or Sui
eide of q Stranger"
"Oh, papa, that is too horriblc!" ex-
claimed the young girl, the tears rising
to her eyes and her checks growing sud-
denly pale. ''He was SO gay and full of
| spirits-I can not bear to think of such
a fate"-and her tears began to fall
quickly.
"Why, my love. what's the matterg"
calculated her father, looking up in as
tonisAment. "Or were you only jest
ing about his sad fate? There is moth
ing here about Dupont except a descrip-
ton of his wedding, and, by the way, it
seems to have been a very brilliant and
fashionable affair"
.His wodding!" repeated Argyle, in a
tone of inexprcssiblc surprise, and then
as the truth slowly dawned on her in all
it's ludicrousness-for having failed to
receive one of Captain Dupont's ardent
and gloomy cpistles for the last three
weeks, she had been haunted by fears
for his safety-shc broke into a silvery
peal of laughter.
"Dear papa, how you did alarm me!
YOU read the Suicide of a stranger SO
fmpressivcly-as if that were the very
item you were looking for. And SO
Captain Dupont is really married!'
laughing again with such an abandon OF
mirfh and amusement that her father,
bewildcred by her rapid transition from
tears to gaity, remarked rather Grossly: