St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-04

Die udQ Speut IOuK Giilic d9 AoI
toilet, putting on and taking off one
gown after another. This was too SIM
pie; she must be well dressed in defer
was too fuSsy, and might be concerned
by the critical taste of Partisan.
At last she fixed on a modest gray
silk, and with a bundle Of white and
pink flowers at her throat, and her color
coming and going with every passing
thought, her glass told her that she
looked her best.
Wearied with the heat and morn
ing spent among the poor OF the village,
Mrs. Grayley lay back in her armchair
and slumbered; while Eta, having adj
ministered few dainty touches to her
geraniumS in the epergne and the Orna-
ments on the table. picked up book to
while away the time.
But it dropped from her fingers as if
it had sting in it, for on the tltle-page
she saw the name of the donor -Adolph
Ernstein. During this week of excite
ment she had sedulously banished him
from her thoughts; why could she not
do so now?
Against her will she found herself
comparing the two men who loved her,
and she trembled as she did so. How
little she knew of Albert MontmOrency
how many instances she could recall OF
Dolph ErnStein's integrity and nobility
of character!
Such an adventure as this would
never have Happened to him. Was it
because he had no tendency to romance.
or because be would never induce a
young girl whom he loved and respected
to transgress the rules society lays down
for her guidance, and deceive her
mother?
That dear mother. What would she
say when she learned that her child had
been meeting a stranger, not once only,
but day after day, and permitting him
by his looks, his gestures, his bursts OF
pOetical quotations, to tell her he loved
her.
Eta wrung her hands.
1T has been wrOng-all wrong. l
feel degraded in my own eyes: what
shall be in those of mamma and his re-
latiOns?'
But she was spared the ordeal she now
dreaded intensely, for the ComteSSe de
Trouville never came.
At first Eta made excuses for her.
She might have been detained at Paris,
or she might have felt too much IA
tigued with her journey to be equal to
another.
Yet, whatever might have been the
cause of her nOn-appearance, why did
not her nephew come or write? Nj.
MontmOrency did neither: and Eta,
ashamed and miserable, ceased at last
to expect it.
At times she assured herself that
some dreadful accident must have be-
fallen him; or his relatives, finding she
was neither wealthy nor well born, bad
inteIfered; and then she pitied herself
and enacted the part of Mariana in the
"MOated Grange" growing paler and
more hOllow-eyed with her fasting and
moping, till DOlph Ernstein, alarmed
for her health. aroused Mrs. Grayley to
sense of the danger of letting this con-
tinue.
The now anxious mother carried her,
much against her will, to London and to
physician, who prescribed cheerful
society and a simple tonic.
Ashamed of the uneaSiness she had
caused her mother. Eta endeavOred to
atone for it. She could not bring her
self to confess the cause; it was her
the one sweet yet SOrrOWful romance of
her yOuth-and no one must know that
i'm her soul she would cherish for aye
the memory of Albert MOntmorency's
alteration.
Her favorite songs were still ''SOme
Day" and '.He Will Return, l know He
WILL" and she sang them with pathCs
very puZZling to DOlph ErnStein, who
had made her indispOsitiOn an excuse
for renewing his visits, and whose eyes
often told her that she was still dear to
him.
Partly to avoid him, Eta started one
morning to do some errandS for her
mother. There was the physicians
prescription to be made up at the chem
lists, not far off, and thither she bent
her way. The shopman handed her
chair. and she was counting the list of
purchases she had to make while he
was concocting the draught, when a
door opened, and against her will she
became the auditress of half-whis-
pered conversation.
''Oh, here you are at last! What
time it has taken you to go as far as -
street! But / suppose, Master Bert,
You stopped to t1irt with my lady's
maid.''
''Psha! I've better game in view
than a red-headed coquette," was the
reply.
be your mother, might be persuaded to
marry you: and so you thought when
you borrowed my best suit of clothes to
90 counting ViscOunt Grayley's pretty
relative-and what came OF it?''
Didn't tell you that was duped in
that affair; and didn't | give it up as
soon as | found the dear child was pen
niless? Heigho! How she idolized me,
to be Sure!'
Ssh. there's some one in the shop
waiting for this draught; give it to her,
will yOu?"
And the next moment the delicately
white hands of Albert Montmorency
were rendering to Eta the neat little
parcel.
"Can we do anything else for you,
madam? Allow me to show you some of
our perfumes: we pride ourselves on
the excellence and variety of our per-
fumery."
But here he stopped, for Eta flew out
of the shop, leaving her tonic behind
her, thankful that the thick veil she,
wore had prevented recognition.
The rstthing she did on reaching
home was to burn half dozen withered
flowers and a portrait from memory of
the adOred one. Oh, that she could
have effaced at the same time all rec
objection of the credulity that now
made her Jingle with shame and long to
hide herself from every eye!
Mrs. Grayley has never learned what
has brought about such a pleasant
change in her daughter, making her as
sensible and unaffected as of old but
into the ears of Dolph Ernstein, when
he once more asked Eta to be his wife,
a confession was poured he will always
hold sacred.
He knows that she has at last learned
to value his patient devotion, and sur
she will be the best of wives; and he
can afford to forgive and help her
forget the girlish folly that has cured
her of sentiment and romance forever.