The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-08-04


proves his intelligence"
you are SO prejudiced, Archie Till
inghast, that if Mime. Parapof predicted
something to you and it came true, you
would say it was all chance" exclaimed
Bessie, Indignantly.
ST am quite sure { should, Bessie, and
am equally sure that it would be- re-
piled Archie.
'Tou are very unsympathetic and
narrow minded young man." said Bessie,
rising to leave the room, land I shall
never again speak to you on this subject.
find Mr.. Hurlstone much more liberal"
II am sorry to hear that; had thought
better of Hurlstone." And Archie opened
the door for his cousin to pass out of the
room. He was genuinely distressed; and
we'll he might be-for when q crotchet
of this sort takes possession Of an idle
persons brain it is hard to uproot it. BE
felt sure that Bessie would become thor
oughly Disguised in time, but when? He
wondered if it could be possible that
Rush was encouraging her in this nom
sense. No, he could not believe that;
but it began to dawn upon his mind that
Rush might have taken his advice about
the prima donna Che hadn't seen him
with her of late) and been devoting him
self to Bessie. He turned pale at the
thought, for it was plain that Bessie liked
him. Why hadn't he let his friend go on
dancing attendance upon the singer?
Why should he have interfered? 1t was
just like him-alw3ys standing in his
own light.
The drawing room door opened, and
he heard Rush's voice saying to the but
Ter, "Tell Miss Archer that am here,
James; she is expecting me-" Then,
upon seeing Archie, 'Ah, you here,
Archie? glad to see you. I've called to
take Miss Archer to see some pictures at
Goupils; won't you so along?"
mo, thanks" replied Archie, some
what coolly; "Pve an engagement down
town, and must say good-by;" which he
did without loss of time. As Rush stood
looking out of the window, he noticed
that Archie turned up, instead of down
town, but he thought nothing of it, ex-
cept that his friend had probably changed
his mind. That he should have regarded
him as a rival in the affections OF Bessie
Archer never occurred to him. In the
first place, he did not suspect the state
of Archie's feelings towards Bessie; and
in the second, he supposed that Archie
was thoroughly aware of his devotion to
Helen Knowlton.
Rush was not altogether happy this
afternoon. 1t was n whole fortnight
since he had spoken a word to Helen.
He had seen her in the meantime in an
old curiosity shop in Broadway, accom-
panied by her aunt and West Hastings
and she seemed to be buying furniture.
What did this mean? Were they actu-
ally engaged and making preparations
for housekeeping? No, they were not; it
was nothing so serious al that. West
Hastings was refurnishing the dining
room in his bachelor quarters. The craze
for old furniture was just then at its be-
ginning, and he had asked Helen and
her aunt to accompany him to this shop
to look at an old French sideboard he
thought of buying. Helen had excel |
lent taste, and she sealed the fate of the
sideboard by pronouncing it beauty.
This episode, as Rush interpreted it,
was depressing enough of itself; but
added to this he had received long and
responding letter from his mother, tell
ing him of the Mutual Dividend Mining !
company. of Col Mortimer's connection
with it, and of the offer he had made to |
John. "Do see John as often as you
can, Rush dear, and keep him under
your eye. You know how T dread the |
influence Of Col Mortimer. He is bad,
unprincipled man, and dear John is SO
easy going that he doesn't believe there
is any harm in him."
John must have been in town for a
week at least and he had not yet made
himself known to Rush. By chance,
however, the brothers met. Rush was
sent to report masked ball at the |
Academy of Music--a thing he felt ut
terly unfit to do. 81 was never at a
masked ball in my Ife," he told the city |
editor.
so much the better" replied the edi-
tor. you will give us fresh views of a
hackneyed subject 1 quite envy you
your new sensations. Get your copy in |
as early as possible, and good luck to
you"
Rush was about the first person to ar
rive at the ball, and the Academy looked |
gloomy enough. He had been told that |
the festivities did not begin until late, Sc
he arrived at o'clock, thinking that |
that would be about the fashionable |
hour. TlNre was not woman In the |
place, and the only men on hand were
the floor managers. He had plenty of
time for reflection before the ball opened,
and for the sake of the associations he
wandered about behind the scenes. The
stage and parquet were boarded over,
but the prima donna's room was undis
turbed He looked in and sighed. A
perfume of violets fingered on the air,
and he sighed again as he recognized it,
and then wandered to the front, where a
room had been reserved for the press.
A large table stood in the center, fur
nished with paper, pens and ink. There
were great many bottles on the table,
but they did not all contain ink, or any
thing that looked like it.
He sat down and took a pen, and
thought to improve the time by writing
to his mother; but, as he could say moth
ing about John, he concluded not to.
Instead, he wrote "Helen Knowlton"
over three or four sheets of foolscap, in
every variety of penmanship, and then
tore the paper into fine bits. But, still
fearful that the name might be discov-
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