The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-02
SAVANNAH, GA, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY ,. 1890.

cruel / never thought you would be 80
unkind.n
~ did not mean to bs unkiai, +" said jess.
Then put your hands on my shoulders
so, while I kneel before you, and say:
George Eastwood, / love you as you love
me- VIII you. darling,n
She paused for q moment and then did
exactly as he desired.
George Eastwood, l love you-as you
love me, she repeated, and with a sudden
passionate outbreak of ali that had been
pent mp in her nature ever since she came to
womanhood, she added: "Onlv hundred
thousand times more At which George
was enrapured.
And thus they plighted their troth
George behaved with delicacy and dis
erection. Even in the first dor OF his
love, he did not attempt to treat her less re-
specially than he would have treated IA
duchess who had promised him her hand.
Or, to put it in less conventional language
he behaved to her as if she had been Diana
Helmont
And jess liked treatment of this kind:
she took to it as naturally as a duck takes
to the water. There was nothing coarse or
violent about her, as George assured himself
hundred times; she was innately gentle
and refined, and her roughness was but on
the surface With very little education,
very little training, she would be fit to
take her place in any society. So he said,
SO he hoped; but 50 he did not actually be-
lieve.
The hours that she passed with him now
changed their character. He did not paint
her portrait any more, or makes studies of
the shades in her hair. The attendance of
Mrs. Fogg was dispensed with. AS soon as
she came to the studio, Eastwood made her
sit in mis- great carved oak-chair and estab-
lished himself reverentiailY on cushion at
hass l.. A.Jf- 4 4
her, sang to her. He had vague notion
that in all this be was improving her mind
| Certainly he put new thoughts there, new
visions, and new hopes She understood
| comparatively little of what he read, but
she enjoyed it. Sometimes he would ask
her how she liked this or that Browniug's
Last Ride Together" for instance, or Ten
| nys0n's Princess 80, it's lovelyn she
would say. with a great sigh of satisfaction,
and then ne would kiss her hands and lips
and thank the gods for revealing to him a
| woman whose mind was as beautiful as her
| face. But poor jess had not been thinking
OF the words he read, her mind had fingered
only on the tones of his musical voice. She
| loved its every intonation, and what did it
matter about the words when he was only
reading from a printed bookf
So things drifted on, until that day in
| early summer when George in obedience to
I .
went down to WEXFORD. He knew that he
was in difficulty. He knew that his uncle
expected him to propose to Diana, and that
| it was possible that by refusing to do so he
might lose all chance of inheriting the
| Eastwood property. But he was determined
to be true to Jess. He could not tell his
uncle yet; he could not acknowledge her as
| his wife, even if he made her his wife, at
present; but he hoped that things would be
| easier for him by-and-by--he did not saw to
himself how. He did not like to say that
he was calculating on the chances of Col.
Eastwood's speedy death. And SO it hap
pened, that on the evening Of the day OF
which Diana had so generously shielded
him from his uncle's wrath, he walked
| straight into Mrs. Ftint's room, and beheld
as he had never beheld before, tho squalor
the misery, the glaring poverty, in the midst
of which jess Armstrong lived.
He had come straight to her from Diana
and the contrast of circumstances between
the two girls cut him to the heart
II can't stand this, " he said, putting his
hands into his pockets, and looking at jess
with something very like frown. Child,
is this how you livel There is no way out
of it; we will not put it of any longer-you
must be my wife as soon as possible, and
then can take you away from this abomi-
| nable hole.n
| ITO BE CONTINUED