Nevada County picayune., 1890-02-19

] "''o "ioO "7 thoiouShll NiShCdl ttuct' . for he was conscious that he had made no progress in his wooing. She treated him civillv, but little more. She kept her aversion under control, but he saw that it still existed.
 He might have taken warning, but he didn't. He avowed his love and met with refusal. It was a gentle rejection, but there was nothing re- gretful about it, and there might have been, for she saw how deeply he suffered.
 Before he had time to leave the house after his refusal, her mother arrived. She was introduced to him, and when her eyes rested upon his face, a startled look came into hers "a surprised wary, suspectful look and it was so marked that he could not have failed to notice it. That deepened the mystery; he felt that if he could penetrale it, and dissipate the cause of it, he might resume his wooing with some hope of success.
 He called the next day. and spoke to Mrs. Warnc about the matter. He told her his position in society, his prospects, his love for her daughter. his rejection, the aversion which she had shown at their first meeting, and which he had not been able to over come.
 What is almost as strange, Mrs. Warne," 7" he said, in conclusion, "is that you greeted me in the same way; not in such pronounced manner, but sufficiently for me to feel it."
 Mrs. Warne heard him to the end, and was pleased with his frankness and his earnest manner.
 Did you ever meet my daughter before you met her here!" she asked.
 Why, of course not" he replied,
 You never heard her name, evcn?'
 Never, Mrs. Warne.
 You never corresponded with her?'
 "Why, no, Upon my honor," he sad, cxplosively. Il cannot divine what all this means. "
 "Wait moment," Mrs. Warne said.
 She went to her room up stairs and returned with q cabinet photograph.
 "Is that your picture?' she asked.
 He looked at it in bewildered way, his companions eyes all the time keenly fixed upon him.
 Ut is," he said. Il remember sitting for it. The photographers card is on the back of it."
 And you live in the same town!" Mrs. Warne asked.
 My parents do," replied Paul. "lt is my home when l am off duty, which is not more than week or two, now and then"
 Did you not send that picture to my daughter?" Mrs, Warne asked.
 He stared at her in surprise.
 No, ma'am," he said. "l did not know her. Inever sent photo graph of myself to any lady"
 His companion could not question his truthfulness.
 "The aversion should no longer exist" she said. ''It is not just to you. Some one has been guilty of a contemptible joke. One autumn, two years ago, my brother shipped some apples from this place. In a girlish freak, for which l afterward scolded her severely, Mildred put q note in one of the barrels, with her name and address, asking the recipi- ent to correspond with her. The barrel in question was purchased by one in your neighborhood, A letter came signed Paul Drayton; Mildred replied; other letters were ex- changed, the correspondent welding most fascinating pen lis letters increased in feryer, and awakened ferver in my child, for she was quite young then. He promised to come, and named the day. made inquiry by letter and learned that he was in every way worthy of her, He did not come; he ceased to write; Will dred saw that she had been duped, and how foolish she had acted, She fretted over it for a time, which sur prised me, for her spirits are very elastic. When you met her she knew you at once, because of your resemblance to the photograph. It is not strange that she manifested