Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-09-27
He colored crimson and paused, for after

He colored crimson and paused, for after
all the girl was his guest.
"To get rid OF mel" Kate suggested, with
apparently unstrained composure.
The Captain disdained reply and left the
room, almost rudely ignoring the hand she
held out to him. Hat he noticed the
dropping eyelid and quivering lip which sud
denly betrayed her deep emotion he might,
by a kind word, have opened the food
gates Of her emotion, but he was blind to
every thing, and burned with a mad rage at
the wrong she had done his boy Harry.
The wrong done his boy Harry Aye,
there was the rub. 1t was but natural that
she should cleave to her own kin and be
true to the associations Of her childhood
nay, the Captain could ven forgive her
treason TO the Union; for women, he argued,
are emotional creatures, and 9 always side
with the under-dog in the fightn-but that
she should turn from him and his TO the pro-
lection of Alphonse Lecroix was an outrage
beyond his powers of silence endurance.
Alphonse Lecroixl He detested this AL
phonse Lecroix with an aversion which
knew no bounds of reason; not that he had,
when he came TO analyse the situation, any
Just grounds for such strong antipathy
against the young man, but he bHndly based
his contempt for him on general principles.
Alphonse Lecroix, who was stirring such
a torrent of luminosity in the Captains
heart, was a young French Canadian, re-
siding in a neighboring village across the
river, possessed Of a small fortune which
he had inherited from a%-penurious father.
Fortune had beeR fairly generous to him,
and nature had been more than prodigal in
her favors. His was the ideal of a school
girls type OF manly beauty-black, curly
hair; large, luminous dark eyes; regular
features; teeth. which a Duchess might have
envied; a soft, musical voice; a ten
der, sympathetic name with women,
and a 1.-the, active figure, whose
every movement was grace itself.
Then, his doting father had given him a
college education, and, though his accom-
plishments were of the veriest veneer, he
had acquired the art of making the most of
the little he had learned-surely not such
an Objectionable parsonage after all. But
his volatile manner clashed with Daniel
Winthrop's staid views Of life, and in the
best of times, when Lecroix had beer adj
mitted at the Orchard House as a frequent
guest, he had set HIM down as q ''frivolous
~iackanapes :" but when the young man let
slip indiscreet expressions of sympathy for
the seceeders and evinced a too warm APP
probation OF Miss Frobisham's society, his
wrath knew no bounds, and he had ordered
his women-friends to close the door on 'the
internal young copperhead."
Therefore, when from his retreat in the
pilot-house he saw the Frenchman drive to
his door and bear away the young lady, he
might be forgiven the storm Of impreca
tions which rose to his lips. One thing com
forted him neither his wife nor daughter
appeared on the threshold to bid God-speed
to the departing guest.
And Harry was coming home that night,
too. How could he meet his boy with this
tale of sorrowl He would rather face the
worst storm that ever ragged on Lake Michi-
gan than tell the poor lad that the girl he
loved had been false to him.
Nevertheless, in the gloam Of the evening
he went forth to meet his boy, intercepting
him in the big meadow, where years ago he
had taught him to fly his kite and shoot
reed birds. As tho buggy approached, he
stopped the driver and said:
SECT down, Harry, and walk with me
to the house. l have something to say to
you"
Well might the father be proud of such a
son-tall, erect, the picture Of animal
strength, with a frank expression in his
handsome face which would be his passport