Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-04-03

appreciated or remembered during that ten
der period. This wa not from lack Of feel
ing or affection. It came of that reserve and
repression of all external Ssgns of emotion
bred In the bone way back through I know
not how many generations Of Puritan and
Roundhead ancestry, until not only had out
ward Sign Of emotion been considered as
bordering on IN improperly, but the very
ability to manifest it had been destroyed. 1t
was a turning of the softer side Of human
nature inward and the harder outward, and
the fruitage was harshness and austerity; not
Intentional, but the natural growth of I'M
natural lives.
left the house, wondering IL it was In the
natural order of events that proofs Of affec-
ton, parental and otherwise, must come, at
the last moment, like the best dish at dinner
being placed before ono for a second and
then snatched away.
In a few hours I was in New York. Taking
a room at a hotel I shut myself therein, and
opened the packet received from Blanche. It
contained bills to the amount Of $500 and the
following note: E
~ desire you to accept this money from mo
as a loan, with interest at Z per cent, for
three years. This is business, you know. I'm
glad for your sake you did not go on the Ann
Mary Ann. You will go now to California as
a gentleman should. Mind you take a cabin
passage. Don't go in the Storage to save
dollars. It doesn't save them at all. There
was q Providence in that pig, and Pell, too.
pigs both-to take you out OF the ship. Shut
up on board Of her for Ave Of six months,
eating their coarse food and lead0g their
coarse life, would have put you back as many
years. When you got to California you
would probably have done a. five-sixths Of
them will do-strike for the hardest and
coarsest wayof making . fortune, by digging
and grubbing-the very way not to make IT.
Il there is gold thare, mind you, it's not tor
those who dig for It, unless they dig With
their brains, and you can't dig with your
brains and work like a .hod carrier and live
on bod carriers fare. So, my dear boy, live
like a gentleman and you will AVE a gentle
mans luck. BLANCHE"
So this was the promise I had made-to
accept a pecuniary favor of a woman. The
unwritten code of the time held this as
hardly. the correct thing, unless you married
the. woman, when everything she had be-
came yours, and the favor, If such, ceased
almost to be one. q
Blanche had a few years previous been
left a few thousand dollars by an eccentric
uncle, who, possibly recognizing something
of her independent spirit, said, when closely
| questioned by some o~ver-anxious relatives
as to his reason for SO doing, that he be-
lieved Blanche was a girl who could use her
own money for herself, and he wanted to
/ give her a chance. He didn't think, he
/ added, it was the fair thing that a girls
/ capital should be sailed down until some
lazy loafer of q husband came along to use
1 "a ~-l a,.,,~oII 11ao 81 IL lSl~fk on-n
what she did with her money, SO that she
used it for her own pleasure in any and
| every possible way except that of handing
it over to a husband. II give it to you"
| he remarked, mot to the man who, not
content with robbing you Of your name,
wants your money along with it. Lend
it, spend it, scatter it, do anything with 1t,
except bring it, like a good little girl, to
the chuckle-head who van to marry you
for it"
Uncle John Seton was q nondescript in
| opinion, aud seemed to take pleasure in hold
ing none that were popular. He had been a
privateelsman-some said also a SLAYER, and
others a ~pirate-carried a bullet in one leg,
the mark of which he was fond Of showing
without much regard to time, place or fitness.
Iresolved to use the money. She had been
diplomatic In not Offering it as a gift, and In
putting the transaction o. a business footing.
To refuse it under the present circumstances
would result, 1 felt, in putting q great barrier
between myself and Blanche. 1t seemed as If
she said to me-: II am in this giving you the
opportunity you need. You are no man II
you quarrel with the instrument pat in your
hands because it does not come exactly in the
manner you would have it."
I could see in imagination, as clearly as
though she stood before me, the way In which
Blanche would AVE taken back from me her
gift. saw her calmly listening to my state
ment and as calmly receiving from me the
notes, and then continuing conversation on
general topics as if the whole affair had not
a feathers weight in her mind. But under
all that seeming indifference I knew there
would lie Indignation. disappointment and
worse-the deliberate laying aside Of a feel
ing for Inc, something which l hoped to be
more than interest-more than mere regard.
l have said farther back that Blanche Sef.
ton loved me. But I felt that her love, ii
once gained, could not be laid on the Shelf, te
be taken on and off at pleasure, with the Ger.
tainty of always finding it there. No. II
was a love only to I've held by constant
effort.
thought, the next day, my cabin ticket TO,
San Francisco via the IsthmuS.