Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-02-14

fASns ~ W say.
never expect to marry a stick, Of
any kind, so it doesn't mattor eA
/" Mnoie tree and nothing less"
lime passed, and still Sis kent ~,
ner scornful contempt towards all ber
a~cqnalntances. Few men braved lo,.
vicious wit enough to ask her to marry
them, and they all retired, scathed and
writing, from her merciless sarcasrs
and vowing that she was q fiend in
carnate. Offers she had from men
honest and true, who would have been
good to her all her life. but, as n old
woman said: "her time hadn't come
yet" 'Ne
When she was about twenty, she met
her fate, and then she reaped all that
she had sown, and more. too.
The quiet little village where she had
passed the most of her life, and where
she had paved every day of it with
heavy hearts, witnessed her broken
pride.
One day a stranger left the train at
the little depot, and took board in the
town at a small hotel, which, however.
was the largest there; and after the
manner OF small towns, his appearance,
name and probable business were dis
cussed from one end of the town to the
other, IN less than ten hours after his
arrival.
His name was Wheelock, and he was
an inventor of some important railroad
patents, which made him rich, and he
was an artist by recreation, and in prr.
suit of Nature in her beauty he was
here.
AS soon as Eva saw him she felt that
he was the only mar she could yer
love, and he seemed to have never
noticed her, though she, the proud,
the scornful, passed him repeatedly in
the small village. Whenever she heard
that he was to be in any certain place
for tea or dinner, or at any Of the gath
erings of the village people, Eva would
go, but would never find him there, or
If he was he seemed almost to avoid
her.
This vexed her pride, and she deter
mined that he should recognize her at
fractions; but do all she could, she
could not manage w to gain an intro
duction without absolutely asking for it.,
a thing she would have died sooner
than do.
In vain did she get new costumes
from the city Of surprising beauty; he
saw them. In vain did she wear
simple white muslin; he knew it not.
In vain she was witty, OR sarcastic, or
sang, OF danced; he was utterly obliv-
ious to her presence, let alone her at
fractions.
He was handsome and distinguished;
he was tall, and with wavy blonde hair
and twinkling blue eyes, and a fair
mustache which did not conceal his
handsome mouth, and had, above all,
an air of refinement about him that
showed the young men Of the village in
awkward contrast. But Eva was now as
unhappy..as before Ishe had made others,
all on account of all these attractions.
Time passed on, and at last the girls,
and, in fact, all the people, in spite of
her efforts to conceal her wounded
plide, began to understand, and now
her tongue could not frame answers
fast enough to meet the ill-natured re-
marks of her acquaintance, and Sis
was very unhappy.
One evening she had been to the
postotfice, and was returning, when she
met Mr.. Wheelock directly in the mid
die Of the board walk that led across
the dusty street, and she was for once
taken completely by surprise and I'M
nerved. She dropped the two letters
she was carrying, and hastily stopped
to pick them up, when he handed them
to her. saying: THANK you, very
much"
"What for?" said she quickly, with a
spice of her old naughty pride.
why, for dropping your letters for
me to pick up"
Il did not"
"Oh, didn't you; well I thought you
did, but, it is all the same"
Sis managed to say thank you and
good evening, and reached home with
flaming cheeks.
But, from now on, Mr.. Wheelock al
ways spoke to Sis, wherever they met,
and always in that same knocking way,
always putting her in the wrong, or
making her feel ridiculous, or addressed
or untidy, or something tending to
wound her self-esteem.
There was no flaw that he conld pick
in her appearance, her singing, her
playing, OF her manners, that ne did
not point out. He spoke of ideal beauty,
and set up his standard for both, SO
very different from any charms OF per-