Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1888-02-24
CHAPTER VII.
LOVES YOUNG DREAM.

SlStcl " SIT IHlSSeu. Will " Speak W you.
CHAPTER VII.
LOVES YOUNG DREAM
After waiting q few minutes jess said
GOOD night" and went straight to Bessie's
room. Her sister had undressed and was sit
ting on her bed wrapped in blue dressing
gown that suited her fair complexion adj
mirably, and with a very desponding ex-
preston on her beautiful face. Bessie was
one of those people who are easily elated and
easily cast down.
jess came up to her and kissed her.
"What is it, lover she said, Her sister
would never have OWNED the gnawing anx-
iety that was eating at her heart as she said it.
'Oh, jess, I'm so glad that you have come.
I do so want you to advise me; that is, to tell
me what you think" and she paused.
"You must tell me what it is all about first,
Bessie DEAR" she said, sitting down opposite
to her in such a position that her face was
shaded from the light. Bessie tapped her
naked foot against the mating with which
the little room was carpeted. 1t was an ex-
ceedingly pretty foot.
"Well, dear old girl, 1t Is just this-Franl
Muller has been here to ask me to marry
him."
"Oh," said jess, with sigh of relief, $50
that was alll" She felt as though a ton
weight had been lifted from her heart. She
had expected that bit Of news for some time
HE wanted me to marry him, and when
said would not he behaved like-like"-
"Like Boer," suggested Jess
"Like a BRUTE" went ON Bessie, with en-
phasis
$50 you don't like Frank Mullerp
ct i1yo hip,t tba <l,o
know how loathe him, with his handsome,
bad face and his cruel eyes. I always loathed
him, and now I hate him, too But I will
tell you oil about it; :" and she did, with many
feminine comments and interpretations
jess sat quite still and waited till she had
finished.
swell, dear" she said, at last, ~ ou are not
going to marry him, and SO there is an end of
it. You can't detest the man more than l do.
have watched him for years." she went ON,
with rising anger, "and tell you that Frank
Muller is a liar and q traitor That man
would betray his own father if he thought it
to his own interest to dos He hates uncle
am sure he does, although he pretends to
be SO fond of him. am sure that he has
tried often and often to stir up the Beers
against him. Old Hans Coetzee told me that
he denounced him to the Weld Cornet as an
'uitlander' and a 'verdomde Engelsmann'
about two years before the annexation and
tried to get him to persuade the Landdrost to
report him as a law breaker to the Rad:
while all the time he was pretending to be so
friendly. TEen in the Sikukuni war it was
Frank Muller who caused them to commander
uncle's two best wagons and the spans He
gave none himself, nothing but q couple
Of bags Of meal. He is q wicked fellow,
Bessie, and dangerous fellow; but he has
moro brains and more power about him than
any man in the Transvaal, and you will have
to be very careful, or he will do us all bad
turn"
@Ah!" said Bessie; "well. he can't do much
now that the country Is English"
u am not SO sure Of that am not SO
sure that the country is going to stop
English. You laugh at me for reading the
home papers, but I see things there that
neke me doubtful The other people are in
power now in England, and one does not
know what thew NAV do: Won heard what
uncle said tonight They might give us up
to the Beers. You must remember that we
Tar away people are only the counters with
which they play their game"
"Nonsense, jess" said Bessie indignantly.
@Englishmen are not like that. When they
say thing they stick to it."
"They used to, you mean," answered jess
with q shrug, and got up from her chair to 60
to bed.
Bessie began to fidget her white feet over
one another.
"Stop bit, Jess DEAR" she said II want to
speak to you about something else"
Jess sat, or rather dropped, back into her
chair, and her pale face turned paler than
ever. but Bessie blushed rosy red and hest
tated
ut is about Capt Niel,n she said at length
@Oh," answered jess with little laugh, and
her voice sounded strange and cold in her
own ears. "Has he been following Frank
Muller's example and proposing to you, tooF
"sNo-o," said Bessie, ''but"-and here she
rose, and, sitting ON q stool by her elder sis
! ter's chair, rested her foreheadAgainst her
knee-''but I love him and believe that he
loves me- This morning he told me that
was the prettlest woman he had seen at home
Or abroad, and the sweetest, too; and do you
| KNOW" she snid, looking up and giving q
happy little laugh II think he meant Il, too n
"Are You joking, Bessie, or are you really
In earnesatr
not ashamed to say it I fell in love with
A>ASA "AAcA4 eAAub CNSh
He looked so strong and savage as he fought
with it It is a fine thing to see o man put
| out all his strength. And then he is such O
| gentlemanl-so different from tho men we
see round here. Oh, yes, I fell in love with
him at once. and have got deeper and
| deeper In love with him ever since. and il he
| does not marry me think that it will break
my heart. There, that's the truth, Jess
dear, 7" and she dropped her golden head ON to
her sisters knees, and she began to cry,
softly, at the thought.
And the sister sat there ON the chair, her
hand hanging idly by her side, her white
face Get and impossive as that of an Egyptian
sphinx, and the large eyes gazing far away
through the window, against which the rain
was beating-far away out into the night
and the storm. She heard the surging Of the
, storm, she heard her sisters weeping, her
eyes perceived the dark square of the window
through which they appeared to look, she could
feel Besie's head upon her knees-yes she
could see and hear and feel, and yet it seemed
| to her that she was dead. The lightning had
fallen on her soul - 1t fell on the pillar of
111!zzI[Fll