Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-03-19
Continued from yesterday
BEAUTIFUL JIM.
By JOHN sTRA EGE WINTER
CHAPTER Ill

CHAPTER Ill
DEAR LITTLE woNAS.
For 9 moment Nancy Earle felt - II
ale was going to choke Then mist
came in front Of her eyes, and carriage,
goodman. footnan. Lady Margaret, and
everything began 10 turn elowiy round
Those few minutes seemed like hours, yet
they could o.iy have been minutes, and
very few Of them, for when she came TO
her right senses again, Lady Margaret
was talking placidly On, and Beautiful
Jim was the subject Of conversation
- really a general fayorite.
she wound up, and Nancy filed in tho
blank as best she could. and made haste
to reply.
Yes, lie seemed very pleasant and
nice" she said. trying hard to steady her
shaking voice. and succeeding very badly.
II an glad that Stuart viii be In the same
regiment with him; he looks steady and
reliable | shouldn't have called him
ugly, though" she ended, making reso-
Int stand in her own mind for her first
impression Of lin.
They were not very long in reaching
the Deanezy, and Nancy was truly thank
ful fJr the skortness of the journey. She
wanted TO be alone to think over the
awful thing which had La. pered-to
think over what would be tie lest for
her TO do
As in duty bound, she crept ir-o Al
leen's darkened room to inquire how the
poor head was. but, happily. Aileen was
fast asleep. SO Nancy crepi softly out
again, closing the door behird her and
holding up q warning finger to Lady Mar
garet who had come on the same GRAND,
,a "a ka u-hi
Then it is all right" Lady Margaret
whispered back When once Aileen
falls asleep the headache is cured.
Then they parted-the lady of the house
going to her own room, the guest to hers
She turned the key in the lock and sat
down by the open window TO think. Tho
evening sunshine streamed down upon
the great elms in the Deanery close: tho
jackdaws flying about the tail towers OF
THE Parish" las they called the cathe-
dral in khamptonl called necessarily
.Jak, Jak;" the voices Of some children
PLAYING on the sward below rose up to
her. and little further on there were
two dogs snarling over . bone.
Generally Nancy Earle watched chill
dren and dogs and iackdaws with de-
light, but on that evening she took no
heed of them at all. Her mind was fully
taken up by trying to remember what
she had said. and in trying to think what
she should do
1t was but little use trying to lessen
the enormity Of her idiotic blunder, in
trying to minimize the meaning of her
words. They seemed TO stand out before
her in letters of fire Aileen tells me he
is too charming, and that the name suits
him well III spite OF his being so ugly"
Yes, that was what she had said-''in
spite of his being so ugly" What fool
she had been to say it. What fool
and how i'll bred to say such thing OF
one officer of = regiment to another!
Why. supposing that his name really had
been Paunceforth, and Beautiful jim
quite another person, still he might have
been his best friend, in which case he
would have resented it far worse than he
had done for himself Oh. fool. fool,
that she had been
And what should she do now? What in
the world should she, nay, could she do?
For It was not only herself whom she had
involved by her stupid and thoughtless
blunder, but also her friend, Aieen Adair.
Oh what must she do for the best?
She did not find the question by any
means an easy one to solve, and while She
was trying to do so. she perhaps not IN
naturally found herself thinking about
beautiful Jim" himself How well he
had taken it, how pleasantly he had passed
it of. and how delicately he had conveyed
to her that if she did not like to meet him
afterward she could just send him a post
card to say he was not to come to tho
tennis party on the following Saturday.
What fine fellow he was in every way.
and how fervently did she wish that an
unlucky fate had never led her into max
ing those unfortunate remarks. However,
dinner time came, and still she had not
solved the problem of getting over the
difficulty of meeting him again.
| Il must, she said. when she found her
self back in her room for the night, 81
must do something-yet what"
At last, however. she decided that 1t
would be best to write to him-and-and
say-wcll, to be accurate. she did not
know exactly what But she thought she
would do it before she slept, or tried to
sleep SO she got out her writing case
and began to write-which was quite easy
at first, Tor she got as far as Blankhamp-
ton Deauery, July 5.-hly dear Mr. Beres-
ford" without any difficulty whatever
But after that she came to astandstill and
did not know what to say next, What
could she sayf She tried ut least dozen
sentences, but, somehow. none of them
either looked right or graceful, and she
wanted her letter to be both.
At last. however, she completed letter
which she thought would do. 1t ran
thus:
My DEAR Mr. BEREsFoTD-I feel
must write you line to say how sorry
am for the stupid mistake made today
II it was not that, b. my thoughtless
ness. have involved Miss Adair in my
folly, should just go home by the earli
est train tomorrow. But | can't go away
and leave her to bear the brunt of my ut
ter i0olishuess; SO can only ask you TO
forgive me, and to try to forget that ever
said what did. | am so sorry. can't
say more. Your very apologize
NANCY EARLE"
Miss Earle read this effuson over, and
thought it would do as well as anything
she would be able to concoct: then, wo
man like. she added postscript, and, wo-
man like. the postscript contained the
whole salt and SAVIOR of the letter
1 "P.S.-After ALL it is pretty good proof
that didn't see much smiss with your
looks. n E."
On reading this production over Miss
Earle thought 1t would do very well, and
was wonderfully comforted by the con.
clusion. Then she went to bed. and after
lying awake for little time thinking it
all overland particularly over his looks
and general air-she fell asleep and slept
as young things do. until the morning
sunshine was streaming through various
chinks and crevices into the room.
When she had read the letter again and
satisfied herself that it would do, she
went down stairs. and cautiously opening
the door which led into the close, Slipped
out of the house and went quickly along
the road to where post box was let into
the wall only few doors away. into this
she por ed her letter and fed back, feel.
ing very guilty and scared, more as if she
had been robbing the box instead of add
Ing to its contents.
Fortunately Tot a soul saw her. and she
was able to put her sailor hat. which she
always wore in the garden, in its custom
AIRY place in the hall before any of the
family came down to breakfast.
Meantime a postman had come along
with bag and had cleared the box, Sc
that it was already one stage further on
its " toward its final destination
In due time it was sorted out from
among its fellows and tossed on to the
heap for the infantry barracks And be-
fore it had waited very long the post
| cnrDoral rs1ade Lis apraarap ra opj oF,o-