The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1890-09-17
MRS. DRESDEN'S CLEVERNESS.

|
Kathleen Alistone is lovely, Arthur.
Why will you refuse to meet herP If
you two were to fall in love everything
would be so satisfactory"
As she spoke, tiny pucker of dis
| content gathered between Mrs. Lena
Dresden's brows.
Her brother laughed easily, but his
| own smooth forehead wore a slight
| froWn.
'I'll accept no wife, at living hands
or dead" he said, carelessly MY
uncle never prepared me for such an
act, on his part, or he should have un-
stood that his nephew was not quite
fool enough to value wealth beyond
freedom. Enough, my dear! Let us
ask our friends to visit us here-let us
make merry for the two months during
which am to be master here and
then the deluger'
THE deluge." " indeed, it would be
for Arthur Bancroft; for, from luxury
and idleness, he would 90 forth to pov-
erty and labor.
But the dead uncle, who had brought
him up as the heir of Heath, had left
SO strange will-had made him mas
ter of it all but for year. At the
end of that time, if he had not won
the promise of Miss Kathleen Alistone
to be his wife-even though he asked
her and she declined-he was to hand
over all to her. and 60 forth empty
handed.
who is Miss Kathleen Alistone?" he
had asked lsll his Is 4sistegi4 rrro unry wuru,ru
our uncle ever loved" she told him. Il
have met her-a bright, sunny girl
She is to be in our party at Cliffs in
September"
Then cross my name from the party
list" the young man said. curtly. Il
have no wish to see the lady, and you
may tell her that on the 1st of August
next she shall take peaceable posses
sion of Heath"
Nothing that Lena could do or say
had the least weight with him; he
would not, and did not once come
face to face with the girl whom he
declined to WOO, and now it was the
latter part of May-so near the end of
the year.
Lena, after she had entered the
house, stood at one of the windows,
looking out at him as he smoked on
the lawn.
'It is a thousand pities" she cried.
impatiently. is there no way to set
this tangle straight Let me think
again"
She watched the straight tall figure,
| the lifted head, the clear-cut, naughty
face; then her eyes left them. and went
over the lawn, sloping down to the
river, the stately trees the broad and
fruitful lands, the smoking mills, the
| grazing herds-all to be lost to Arthur
now so soon, unless
"Ah!n she breathed, at last; ''why
did l not think of that before? I'll try
it."
She hurried to the library, and wa:
still busy at desk there when Arthur
entered half an hour later.
You are writing to invite guests
are you not?" he asked, carelessly
Let us have merry party. What IL
the listP"
Martin Lawton and wife" she said
rather confusedly, gathering up ano
folding the sheets on which she ha'
written, Mrs. Gale and her daughter
Rowland Dree and his sister, Jacl
Wilde, Maud Varcoe, young Towers
and-a girl 1 do not think you know
Miss Kittie Stone"
"Rittie Stone! l never heard tn
name. The rest know; but pray dc
scribe Miss Stone"
Tall, slight, pale, with silvery
brown hair, and gray eyes tiecked wit
brown, dainty, laughing, merry CIR
! whose face and nature are all sunlight
How hope she'll comen'
docs she ride?n
''She does all things"
= 1t was a week later that the guest
began to arrive, and one evening, 6
Arthur stood in the long hall. he hear
light football on the stairs above, an
looked up.
He never forgot that first glanc
into pair of starry, sunny eyes-th;
first view of a girlish, smiling, Lowell
face.
! She was clad in some gossamer thlni
as pale azure as the evening sky, an
her slight figure moved toward him
gracefully as though to music.
=, Lena, who was beside him, 1ntr
duced the two, and he wondered wi
the fair, colorless face grew transient
hot with bushes. then dimpled In
= such roguish smiles.
, After that. as the warm June day
T. went by, how he thanked heav'
that no bond was on him when th'
met.
Yet how his pulses throbbed rebeI
10 u against the bare, bleak future, a.
tb tb, injustice done him by the dead.
ye loved Kittie Stone; he wooed h
bv q very act, in every word, yet
Knew in his soul that when Heath W
no longer his she would be beyond
She was too fair flower to feel
! | bliGht of poverty; the tarnish OF pa
fui Thought or care. For few br,
g weeks sue would bloom near him. al
= that-ay, truly, the deluge, ALL
/ 1t was over, the season OF ATtn
Bancroft7s prosperity, and OF his no
shin at Heath On the following q
= his puests would depart.
And as he stood in the summer nj!
= w ith the girl whose loss would be mi
r., him than the loss of fortune or pc
tion. a sudden impulse moved hlm
tell her the whole story-to let her kn
how strongly, yet how hopelessly,
man loved her, and what new