Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-12-21

h8dlIsI Il negative lcplJ sue Udut Nun
sit up by the ire and warm himself
while she ran upstairs and put herself
in more ~presentable attire.
Before he could utter a word she had
gone. singing with girlish abandon 4
snatch of the La Guiana waltz.
Rupert marveled. To him she had
always been lightsome, but never so
excessively so. He heard her light step
in the room above, and fancied he saw
her flushed face and pleasant eyes, an
t~icipatiug the pleasure her words would
convey to him when she returned. AS
he vas discounting numerous revela-
tons she was about to diyulge, his eyes
wandered TO the mantel, upon which
the letter from the pardoned convict
had been left. Quick as lightning it
flashed across his mind that this was
the solution. There was some love
mystery in the letter. His curiosity
was piqued, and he jumped hastily from
his seat. Had he scrutinized the faded
superscription he would have seen hat
it was not addressed to her, but being
struck with a shaft of the green-eyed
monster, which ranked in his heart, he
threw discretion to the winds and
tremblingly opened the tear-spattered
sheet.
He had read only a few lines when
he became painfully aware of his error,
but he had read enough to account fol
the buoyancy OF the girl overhead.
He had solved the riddle of the
sphinx, and IL had been slain. He re.
turned the letter carefully to its place,
with a decidedly troubled look upoA his
tlre-warmed face.
Her father was a criminal, and he
about to propose to her." These words
were printed in fiery brands upon his
brain. He drew himself up with frigid
hauteur; al the pride of his nature re-
asserted itself, alternating him from the
humble cottage in which he stood, and
in thought he only knew Marcy as a
beautiful girl whom he had once loved,
but who had passed forever from his
heart.
He bit his lips until the blood started.
He thought at first TO slip out quietly;
but that would be unmanly. He would
breach his discovery as ~delicately as
possible, and endeayor TO say farewell
with as good grace as he could muster.
He thought how others would have
done-how they would have laughed
the whole world to scorn. True love
is invulnerable. But such was not the
case with Rupert Johnson-he was in.
deed proud-he could not have with
stood the slightest innuendo of society
lit would have had a whitening effect.
As he was turning these cruel
thoughts over in his mind, and making
them Excuses for his forthcoming con
duct, Marcy entered the room, a pict-
ure of happiness and contentment. She
drew a cushion beside him and grasped
his reluctant hand with warm affection.
1t lay so limp and lifeless in hers that
she was shocked as much as If she had
grasped a galvanic battery.
''Why, Rupe, what makes you look
so palep" she Intercepted, as darts OF
pain sped through her breast. Your
hand is so cold; are you ailingP"
Then she drew herself partially
around, so that their eyes met. His
cold. ~unmeaning stare cut her like a
knife. She Embossed the hand that held
his and raised herself before him, thrust.
ing her underlip between her teeth with
an embarrassed. ANNOYED eAprassion.
Then, turning her back upon him. she
rushed to a sofa, and burying her face
in her hands gave way to pitiful lamcn'
t~ations.
He arose sullenly, made a motion as
II to fly to her side, but feeling that the
crisis had been reached checked the inn.
pulse. Drawing himself up with APP.
parent distress. he spoke words thai
almost chilled the blood of the weeping
girl.
Marcy, / came to tell you tonight
that a acquaintance must cease
This was said low and deliberately,
without the slightest quaver in his
voice. He had thought it best to make
. clean breast of the accidental finding
of the letter, but his heart failed him,
'Why / have come TO this conclusion
you win probably know some other
day."
His words seemed drawn from him,
they were 80 strange. 50 wild. 20 mer
CHESS. Yet he felt 1t his duty to end Il
there and then.
A convulsive burst ~ofSsorrow Wa al
that broke the emphatic silence tina,
followed.