The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-16


hum of cheerful, active life around him
could overcome, although he had fled to
that throbbing center of gay post-prandial
life to escape the gloom of his own rehec-
tons, and the bitter reflections which
gnawed at his heart.
AS he reviewed the situation under the
soothing influences of his cigar and his
coffee he treasured himself that he had
most excellent grounds for repining, if
not. indeed, for despairing altogether.
CHANGING backward few months he saw
himself returning to his native land after
many long years of selfdenial and hard
ship in the mining districts of India and
South Africa, with cnfeebled health, few
hundred pounds, good reputation for
honesty in business of some tempta-
tons, and ripe experience in mining
matters
Then, in his retrospect amid the hum OF
cheerful humanity around him, he saw
the fairest face in Scotland smiling on
him, he saw an obdurate old Scottish
laird who utterly refused to let his daugh-
ter be engaged To "penniIess mining fell
low" and after long siege by soft per-
sistent womanhood's irresistible arms, he
saw the grim old borderer yield so far as
TO say that If he, Gaskell, could satisfy
him before he started for Norway in July,
that he had means to maintain his daugh-
ter suitably he would then be willing to
consider the propriety of an engagement,
on the clear, mutual understanding, how
ever, that Gaskeil must sheer off for good
If he were unable to satisfy the old man
within the three months which he allowed
him.
This had been most despairing deci-
sion to the mining expert, who termed it
the offer of "a ninety day option on the
women love, with impossible conditions,
and the wreck of two lives as a forfeit
But Madge, the lady of his hearts affec-
tions, had declared everything was pos
sible of achievement to true love within
three months; and how his stern face soft
ened as he recalled the bright, hopeful,
loyal look with which she had dispatched
him to London to take counsel with her
uncle, her dead mothers favorite brother.
lie remembered how the uncle had OBJ
tanned him commission to examine an
American gold mine. as a step toward find
ing, on his own account, while in the min
ing districts of the United States, some
good property suitable for the British
market.
eff you find such a mine," he had said.
al will do my best to place it for you, and
you can honestly add 100000 to ITS price
as discoverer, if it is large enough and
provided the terms on which you obtain
the control will justify it. That is the
only way that occurs to me in which you
can honestly comply with the old curmud-
geon's absurd conditions within the time"
The face of the silent and absorbed man
grew dark as he recalled how, in the exc
cution of his commission, he had arrived
in New York only to learn that the prop
erty he came TO examine had been with
drawn from the market.
The fact was that the gentleman who
had offered the property in London, and
who had accompanied him across the
ocean to introduce him to the proprietors
bad taken his measure accurately during
the voyage, and had reported to his col
leagues and Joint owners that he was quite