St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1890-08-16
the world, after Fred had once doomed

| cisely straight, the answers to tfls ques
! lion might have startled his bride. had her
a ditors chosen to make them. But they
dil not, for just then, Mrs. Fred shook
out the gown designer for the wedding re-
ception, and in viewing its glories Ger, all
| the Roberts and Freds in existence were
utterly forgotten by the babbling group.
Save one. She did not forget. The rea-
son was, that on her finger she wore
Robert Wilev's betrothal ring. And in
! Dora Reeds deepest spirit was solemn
conviction. 81 am not like this volatile
bride, and If have not my dear lovers
true, answering heart, then am lost
and updone forever !"
Forever" is solemn word. Yet 1t Is
such an easy one for young hearts to sigh
| and to sing. Forever is such little time
| when when once life's afternoon is come.
| Robert Wiley sat in his studio, amid the
| chaos that is called artistic. SO many un-
finished pictures would drive an orderly
person into idiocy. So many scattered
| brushes, and squeezed oil-tubes, and I'M
scraped pallets, and newspapers, and
books, and outlandish "duds" called COOS
Tunes" were enough to horrify all the
Aunt Ophelias of New England. Possibly
they might have forgiven him in consid-
Grafton of the young mans piety, in paint
ing so many holy saints that all looked like
one beautiful, dark-eved girl.
The owner of all this chaos was scowling
over a letter. can ANONYMOUS epistle
don't know the handwriting" he said with
a scowl. 81 don't recognize the writing,
but the style of expression all through is
curiously familiar to me. Surely, the let
ter cannot b. meant for me When did l
ever win trusting woman's heart, to toy
| with 1t awhile, and then drop it beneath
my feet9 / never went into that business.
| Should be afraid of getting dropped my
self, never dreamed of but one woman
! in all my life, and she-love-mumble-
| idol-sweet- pearl - humble - queen
humble"
| In such self-communion, the reader
cannot be interested, eloquent though 1t
| He read the letter anew, muttering as
be did SO, My name and address all
rieht-always that battling sense of elu-
sive half recognition-'that pledge of in
nocent troth that cost q dollar'-now what
can that mean for it does mean some
thing-I seem to chase it through far, dim
memory-did / ever in all my born days,
| give girl any thing that cost dollar,
except that second hand ring for which !
snapped my old tennis set and gave dol
lar to boot, when I was sweet on Kit
| Lee 2"
"Kittie Lee u
His scowl was now simply awful.
exit Lee," he erowled, sit can't be that
feather headed firt, can itf ! haven't
seen her this five years-sLe ought to be
married by this time-seems to me our
IL
puppy-or was he old gold ITO whom |
afterwards heard she was engaged:
never dropped her heart under my No.
sixes-don't believe she had any to crop
Lovely creature, though-Titian blonde,
writer of this letter7 Can it be that
witching Kittie up to some lark-or really
a bit sentimental Kittie Lee sentimental
That would be worth seeing. I'm blest If
don't answer the letter. I'll make clean
breast to Dora when she comes back-she
won't care-she's so awful sensible. That
Kit was q beauty can see her this very
minute with those fetching airs-but-
mumble-dove-mum ble-love - humble
birde-mumb bic - humble - nm M
though Kit was awfully fetching"
The very next day, brilliant one In
June, Dora Reed sulked in her chamber.
! Johnny, sent to call her to dinner, came
back with cowed look, and declared that
she had snapped his head off, and was
| having Jolly old howl, and didn't want
any dinner-a lucid description of the sit
uation up stairs, even though not an ele
| CANT one.
Her eyes were red, but her scarlet lips
curled, and her knitted brow BODIED ill to
whoever crossed her path just then.
s"To think ne should answer it !" she
exclaimed. in what Johnny would call q
howl. did not believe he would did
it merely for joke. l intended to tease
him so about his heart broken old love-
and now he has answered it! Boohoo-
case-boohoo - false - boohoo- hateful
men-boohoo y
The weeping besuty did not explain
even to herself, how she could tease false
boohoo," If he had not answered the decoy
letter. There's many madness with no
method in it.
sAbout this time" as the almanacs say,
Dora Reed temper became phenomenally
bad Nobody in the world before had
ever dreamed her such vixen. Johnny
spoke of her, behind her back, as ''a
screamer," and abated his vivacity In her
presence. She wrote of her father once
| or twice, not by the usual petting epithet,
"popsey," but as 'sthe author of my BE-
ing," Her mother was not s'mumsie," but
| ancestral bough;" and it was evident that
| they were to her emissaries Of blacklist
! fate, in bring upon her the curse of life.
But still she went on writing mysteri-
GUS letters, and every day she received
| two In the very same handwriting. One
came decent1y every morning to the front
door. The other she had to take from
the hands of friend in some down town
office.
Her betrothed, Robert Wiley, she had
| not seen for nearly week. He had come
to see her, as in duty bound, Immediately
| upon her arrival home, and once or twice
afterwards. But she had thrown the
vitriol of her temper about her so lavishly
upon each occasion, and had INDUCED in
so many both sly and open stabs into the
| face Of all humanity, and especially into
the fraction of it Immediately before her,
| that he had found discretion better than
valor, and had lately kept away. Dora
| tured and torturing temper was all the
cause of his absence.
She had searched for change in his
| fair, frank conntenance; DINNER ex-
preston when his eye looked into hers; a
faf-off, dreamy look, as If his spirit wan
dered away amid faint, sweet fragrance OF
memory. Even more. The evening he
had told her that she would not see him
the next evening. Because have very
interesting letter to whitehall evening
she had seen flash all over his face, like q
spring tima aurora, glow of inexpres
sible tenderness that conscience told her