Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-09-21
CHAPTER Y.
TIE LAST OF MIR. NELSON

lliL l4ASl VT Mh MEE'ON.
Augusta turned from the old man with
gesture of Impotence not unmiXcd with
disgust. His selfishness was of an order
that rcvolted her,
II suppose" she said to Bill, with an
other blush, that ! must have this will
tattooed upon my shoulders"
Yes, miss; that S it, said Bill You
SEQ, miss, one wants space for a DOGGY
mint If it were II ship or flag, now, or
fancy pictur of your young man, |
might manage it on your arm, but there
must be breadth for Il legal doccymint,
more especially as ! should like to make Il
good job of ii willie is about it. | don't
want none of them lawyers a-turning up
their noses at Bill Jones tattooing"
VERY well, said Augusta, with an in
ward sinking of the heart; Il will go and
get ready
Accordingly She adjourned into the hut
and removed the body Of her dress and
turned down the flannel garment under
meath il III such Il fashion as to leave us
much of her neck and shoulders bare rs is
to be seen when II lady has on Il moder-
atcly low dress. Then She came out
AGAIN, dressed, or rather undressed for
tie sacrifice Meanwhile Bill had drawn
| out the ink bag of the cutie, had pre-
pared little round fragment of wood
| which he sharpened like pencil by run
| ming it against Il stone, and had put a
| keen edge on to long white fish bone
| that he had selected
Now, Mr.. Bill, | am ready" said Au-
! gusta, seating herself resOlutcly upon II
flat stone and setting her teeth.
My word, miss but you have a beau
tiful pair of shouldersl' said the sailor
contemplating the snowy eXpanse of skin
with the eye of an artist II never had
such bit of material to work on aforc
| Hang me if it amt almost n pity to mark
| en-! Not but that high class tattooing is
an ornimnt to anybody, from princess
! down; and in that you are fortunit, miss,
| for | larnt tattooing from them as cun
| tattoo, did"
Augusta bit her lip aad the tears came
into her gray eyes. She was only a wo-
man and had a woman's little weakness,
and, though she had never appeared in a
low dress in her lie, she knew that her
bust was one of her greatest beauties and
was proud of il. 1t was hard to think
| that she would be marked all her life with
| this ridiculous Will-that is, ii she escaped
| and, what was moro, for the benefit of
"a young man who had no claim upon her
at all.
That was V hat she said to herself, bat
as she said ii something in her told l., =
! that ii was not true. Something told her
that this young Mr.. Eustacc MCcson had
Il claim upon Acr-the highest claim that
/ a man can have upon IL woman, for the
! truth must out-shc loved him. 1t seemed
| - havc Coi-.e home to her quite clearly
| here in this dreadful, desolate place, here
III tie very shadow of an awful deal h,
that she did love him, truly and deeply,
A.,.l 1,.,t
been what she was-a gentle naturcd, de
voted woman--had she not at heart re-
joiced at this opportunity of self sacrifice,
oven though that self sacrifice was of the
hardest sort, seeing that it involved what
| all women hate--the endurance of Il ridicu-
lOus position. For love can do all things;
it can even make it's votares brave ridi-
culc.
60 on" she said, sharply, ''and let us
| get it over as soon as possible
very well, miss What is it t,.Aa, old
gentleman? Cut it short you know"
Il leave all my property to Eustace II.
MeesOn; that's as short as | can get it,
and, if properly witnessed, | think that it
will cover everything" said Mr.. Meeson,
with feeble air of triumph. "Anyhow,
never heard of will that is to carry
about two millions being got into nine
hOIuS DclOTt.
Bill poised his fish bone, and, next sec
ond, Augusta gave a start and little
shrek, for the operation had begun.
"Never mind, miss said Bill, consol-
ingly; you'll soon get used to it
After that Augusta set her teeth and
endured in silencs though it really hurt
her very much for Bill was more care
full of the artistic effect and the per-
manence of the work than of tho feelings
Of the subject Fiat cxpcrimentum in
corpora viii, he would have said had he
been convcrsant with the classics, with
out much consideration for the corpus
yilum. So he pricked and dug away with
his fish bone, which he dipped continually
in the cutie ink, and with the sharp piece
of wood, till Augusta began to feel per
fectly sick,
For three hours the work continued
and at the end of that time the body Of
the will was inished-for Bill was IA rapid
worker-being written in medium sized
letters right across her ivory shoulders.
| But the signatures remained to be affixed.
Bill asked her if she would like TO let
them stand over till the morrow, but this,
although she felt faint with the pain, she
declined " do She was marked now.