Iron County news. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1890-189?, 1891-01-31
LINK BY LINK.
A THRILLING STORY OF THE
FRANO0-PRUSSIAN WAR.
by MAURICE LEGRAND.
CHAPTER III.
A WEDDING GIFT.
SHE mill was very old.


TSHE mill was very old.
~ The family OF LerouX had occu-
. pied IL for generations past. IL
had come down from father to son sue
cessively, each new owner accepting it
as his birth-right, and bringing to it
the toll and care, and thrift which
slowly and surely brought riches and
comforts in their train.
Pierre Leroux. the present possessor,
had succeeded TO its ownership while
still young. Unlike most of his race
who had been keen, sharp-witted. un-
learned, Woodworking men, he was
fonder OF book-lore than of the market
place and the corn-felds, less sharp in
bargaining than generous in giving,
shy and reserved, but of strictest virtue
and truest charity, a man whom many
misjudged and but few loved.
"A good son and kind MASTER" so
the people said. ''but too much OF
dreamer. and easily outwit'ed; with no
eye for a girls merry smile, and no
care for the passage OF the wine-cup at
the village tavern" Up to 80 years
OF age he had never seemed TO give
thought or glances to woman, but then
suddenly and unexpectedly he had
taken the fever OF love in its worst and
most dangerous form. Ninetta OAK
was the loveliest girl, the archest CO.
quette and the worst match in the viii
lage. She certainly was also the very
last woman in the world any one could
expect to subjugate the quiet reserved
Pierre Leroux. Nevertheless she had
done so with scarce an effort. He
loved her at first sight, and with no
thought OF question as to who she
might be.
The glory OF her beauty dazzed and
intoxicated him, till his sight grew
blind and his brain reeled, and from
that hour he had but one thought, one
resolve left--to win her.
A life once launched on the temptu-
GUS sea of passion. is not one to be en-
We'd. No more was Pierre Leroux's.
He passed through fevers of jealousy.
through fires OF intoxication, through
thorns OF delirious Joy, and restless
pain and sweet idolatry. His very
GOODNESS and Indifference hitherto only
made him an easier and surer captive
his whole life was filed with but
one memory-and dead TO all else.
Ninette at first coquetted with-then
feared-then loved this devoted and
yet timid wooer. His eyes spoke,
even though his lips were dumb-he
scarcely knew himself how much they
betrayed, how plainly their pathetic
entrcaties told of the love consuming
him OF the madness and tumult that
were ut once so mingled and so name
less to his own bewildered brain. In
his strong young manhood, with the
loyal faith, the dauntless courage, the
,, honesty and truth that made his ma
t. ture at once 50 noble and so great, he
lay at this girls mercy as utterly as If
he were reed TO be broken-a straw
on rivers current. She first gloried
in her power, then grew afraid of it.
afraid. because the game begun in
carelessness had turned to such terrible
earnestness-afraid, because she had
hitherto won love without scruple,
and played with 1t as heedlessly as n
child, yet now something of its pain
and Joy and wonder had touched her
too; all that was purest, tenderest, most
generous in her untu,ored nature had
been called forth. and for the first
/ time the worth of great
passion shamed her own un-
worthiness. Had she but known it
this very feeling proved her love TO be
at last true--at last womanly-for II is