Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1889-05-11

very few of them. for when she came t.
her right senses again, Lady Msrsarc;
was talking placidly on, and Beautiful
Jim was the subject of conversation.
"* really a general favorite.'
she wound up. and Nancy filled in the
blank as best she could. and made haste
to reply.
Eyes, he seemed very pleasant and
NICE" she said. trying hard to steady her
shaking voice. and succeeding very badly
II am glad that Stuart will be in the same
regiment with. him; he looks steady and
reliable shouldn't have called him
ugly. though" she ended. making a rcso-
Lutte stand in her own mind for her first
impression of him.
They were not very long in reaching
the Deanery. and Nancy was truly thank.
full for the shortness Of the journey. She
wanted to be alone to think over the
awful thing which had happened-to
think over what would be the best for
her to do.
As in duty bound. she crept into Al.
leen's darkened room to inquire how tho
poor head was; but. happily. Aileen was
fast asleep. SO Nancy crept softly out
again, closing the door behind her and
garet, who had come on the same err and.
"She is fast asleep" she whispered
'.'Then it is ell 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. The
evening sunshine streamed down upon
the great elms in the Deanery close; the
jackdaws flying about the tail towers Of
''Ths Parish" (as they called the cathe
G-al IN Blankhampton) 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 a bone.
Generally Nancy Earle watched chill.
dren and dogs and jackdaws 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 in spite of his being SO ugly"
Yes, that was what she had said-''in
spite of his being so ugly" What a fool
she had been to say it. What q fool
and how i'll bred to say such q thing Of
one officer of q regiment to another!
Why. supposing that his name really had
been Paunceforth. and Beautiful Jim
quite another person. still he might have
c~s- sx~tS hn
would have resented it far worse than he
had done for himself. Oh, fool. fool.
that she had beenl
And what should she do nowi What in
the world should she. nay, could she dor
For it was not only herself whom she had
involved by her stupid and thoughtless
blunder, but also her friend, Aileen Adair.
Oh! what must she do for the bestf
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 un.
naturally found herself thinking about
Beautiful Jim" himself How we'll he
had taken it. how pleasantly he had passed
1t off. and how delicately he had conveyed
to her that If she did not like to meet him
afterward she could just send him post
card to say he was not to come to the
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, II
must do something-yet whatF"
At last, however, she decided that it
would be best to write to him-and-and
say-well. 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, for she got as far as 'Blankhamp-
ton Deanery. July 5.-My 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 say? She tried at 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. It ran
thus:
my DEAR Mr.. BEREsFoRD-I feel l
muSJ WTlte you ilHe 10 say now sorry !
am for the stupid mistake l made today.
If it was not that, By my thoughtless
ness, have involved Miss Adair in my
folly, should just 60 home by the earli
est train tomorrow. But can't 60 away
and leave her to bear the brunt of my ut
ter foolishness; so can only ask you to
forgive me, and to try to forget that ever
said what did. l am SO sorry. can't
say more. Your very apologetic
NANCY EARLE"
Miss Earle read this effusion 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.
"P.S.--After all, it is pretty good proof
that didn't see much amiss with your
looks. N. E."
On reading this production over, Miss
Earle thought it would do very well, and
was wonderfully comforted by the con-
clusion. Then she went to bed, and after
lying awake for a little time thinking it