Nevada County picayune., 1890-10-23
CROSSING THE BRIDGE.

"Anstice, 1 do wish you would stay here to meet Stuart. 1 have al idea that you two would be grea friends .''
 Anstice Owen threw bright, ten der look at the lovely old lady wh' had spoken, and soft color waver ed into her delicate, pale cheeks,
 "Thank you, Mrs. Grey" she an swered gently, but l think he would rather not find any stranger here oI this his first evening at home. shall come over again very soon, bu had better run home, now, before the sun sinks any lower. See!"- with a smiling glance through the open window at the lengthening shadows on the lawn-"it will be al most dusk, now, by the time l reach the bridge. And Pm afraid the creek may be swollen after las nights storm"
 "Such a storm." added Mrs. Grey, with little reminiscent shud- der. II don't think l can recall ! more violent one in years. was SC glad 1 had you with me, dear. Well l am sorry you are going, Anstice' as the young girl moved toward the door-but you must visit me again very soon, and when Mss Ira. wis comes 1 intend to have you with us more than ever. A beautiful girl she is, and I'm sure you will think Stuart very fortunate fellow when you see her. l hope the we'd ding will take place soon, now, for l want to keep my boy at home here after. Goodnight, my dear, and don't forget that want you and Stuart to become the best of friends. "
 II sha'n't forget, dear Mrs. Grey. Goodnight .''
 And the next moment Anstice was walking with swift, hght steps down the white gravel paths through the smooth lawn and dark green shrubbery toward rarely-traveled road which lead to her rooms on the further side of the creek of which she had spoken to Mrs. Grey.
 Once out of sight of the house, however, she slackened her rapid pace, and a look of breeding reveriG stole into her deep, star-luminous gray eyes.
 She was thinking of the long-ab- sent one who was returning to his home that night, and of the words his mother had just spoken concern, ing his prospective marriage.
 Anstice had never seen him-this son and hero of whom Mrs. Grey never tired of telling her-but many and many time she had stood be. fore the large portrait of him which hung in the elegant drawing-room oi his home, and with strongly-throb' ping heart studied every line of the handsome pictured face.
 From the first she had known oi his engagement to Miss Ethel Travis and, in all her thoughts of him, she had not the faintest consciousness ol love.
 But she only had the feeling, deeI down in her heart, that Ethel Travis must surely be the happiest girl on earth.
 For, to her mind, no ideal hero could be handsomer than Stuart Grey, and. from all his proud moth CT had told her of him, she was equally certain that no king could be more worthy his fair lady's love.
 Absorbed in her reveries, Anstice did not notice what a tagging pace she had fallen into, nor how the af ternoon light was fading from the sky.
 Moreover, the fears she had ex- pressed just before starting regard ing the condition of the creek be yond were all forgotten.
 It was not until the voices of two laboring men, passing her on thelI way from work, came abruptly t( her hearing that she thought of th' matter at all.
 Its a good thing" one of then was saying, that there's so pre- cious little travel on this short GU nowadays, for that rip-roaring ole creek is so high just now that tn bridge is hardly safe to bear man weight, let alone horse or vehicle Shouldn't be s'prised if the who'll thing 'ud be goner before mid
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