South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1890-10-17
THEINTELLlGENCER
FRIDAY. oCTo Der IL. 1890.
A Bit OF Strategy.

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her ? Ir you two ere to fall in love.
everything would be so satisfactory
As she spoke a.,iny pucker OF disc
content gathered between Mrs. Lena
Dresden's browe.
Her brother laughed easily. but
his own smooth forehead wore slight
frowp.
'i'll accept M wife. at living hands
or dead, he SAID, carelessiy. My IN.
Gle rever prepared me for such an act
On his par, or be should have an
derstood that his nephew was not
quite fool enough TO value wealth be-
,oud freedom. Euough, my dear |!
Let US ask our friends TO visit Us
here-iet US make merry Tor the two
months during which am 10 be mas.
Ter here, and-the deluge!'
The deIuge' indeed it would be for
Arthur Bancroft, Tor from luxury and
idleness be would go forth TO poverty
and labor.
But the dead uncle, who had
brought him up as the heir Of Heath.
had left so strange a will-had made
him master Of it all but for a year.
At the emf of that time if he rad not
won the promise of Miss Kathleen
Alitone 10 be his wife--even though
he asked her and she declined he
was to hand all over to her and go
orth empty-hsnded.
'who is Miss Kathleen Alis!one P
lie had asked bis sister.
The daughter OF the only woman
our uncle ever loved she told him.
Il have met her-a bright, sunny
girl. She i, TO be in our party at
Cliffs in September.
Then cross my name from the par.
ty lis ; the young man sail CURLY.
Il have no wish to see the lady, and
you may tell her that on The first of
August next she shall take possess.
ion Of Heath
Nothing that Lena could do or say
bad 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 rear the end OF the year.
Lena after she had entered the
house. stood at one of the windows,
looking out at him as he SIM ,ked on
the lawn.
IT is q thousand pi,ies I, she cried,
impatiently. rs there no way to
set this tansle straight Let me think
again
She watched the straight, tall fig
ure, the lifted head, the clear cut,
naughty face; then her eyes lef.
them. and went over the wn to the
river. the stately treas. the broad and
fruitful lands. the smoking mills, the
grazing herds. --all TO be lost 10 Ar
thur now so soon, unless
'Ah,' she breathei at last, why did
l not think OF that before ? I'll try
it anyway.
She hurried to the library. and was
still busy at the desk there when Ar
thur entered half an hour later.
You are writing 10 invite guests
are you no. La asked carelessly. Let
US US have a merry party. What is
the list 2
Marin Lawton and wife, che said
rather confusedly. gathering and fold I.
ing the sheets OH which she had writ
ten, Mrs. Gale and her d lighter.
Rex Howard. Max Dree and his sis
ter, Jack Wilde, Sara Vurcre, Raw
Towers snd-s young lady do
not think you know-Miss Kitty
Stone
kitty Stonel ] never heard the
name. The rest know; bat pray
describe Mise Stone
Tall, slight, pale. with silvery-
brown hair and gray eyes. hecked
with brown, a dainty, laughing, merry
girl, whose face and nature are all
sunlight. How | hope she'll come
Does che ride p
she does all things
II was a week later that the guest g
began to arrive, aud one evening as
Arthur stood 10 the lower end of the
long hall he heard a light foot fall on
the s'airs above, and looked up.
he never forgot that glance into q
pair OF starry, sunny eyes-that first
view Of girlish, smiling, lovely face.
She was clad in some gossamer
thing, as palelY azure as the evening
sky, and her cligbt figure moved to-
ward him as gracefU lly as though to
music.
Lena, who was beside him, intro.
duced the two. and he wondered way
the fair, colOrless face grew transient,
~ hot with bushes, then dimpled into
such roguish smiles.
After that, az the warm June DAYS
went by, how he thanked heaven that
no bond was on bim when they met
Yet how his pulses throbbed rebel.
lion against the bare, bleak future
and the injustice done him by the
dead
lie loved Kittie Stone he woood
her by every act, in every word, vet
! be knew ia his soul that when Heath
was no longer his she would be be.
yond bis reach forever.
She was too fair a flower TO feel
the blight Of poverty, the tarnisb OF
painful thought or care, for a few
brief weeks she would bloom nea,
him after that-aye, truly the del
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