Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1891-08-16


bor without some trouble. She tried
worry hard 10 make me confess that tne
intarest which took in Jack Longneid
was not of purely friendly oroer' sue
rambIed of into long history aoous sno
pressure that had been brought 10 pear
mon her. and the many excuses tnat
she had for discarding her first love-
Int in the end | induced her to say tnat'
since n was a question of life or deatn,
T might give him her best wishes anu
l,indest remembrances. As that seemed
IN he sufficient took my leave, and, al
the risk OF appearing preJudiced, L mus
remark that she struck me as oeing
silly and selfish little creature. -.
On nv return home l had the gratln-
cation of finding my patient decidediy
inn nroved in health, though restless ana
| somewhat excited. he made no secret
of his anxiety to be of. Indeed wnen
Mrs. Robertson had dropped asleep
after dinner, as she always does ne
asked me whether should think him
rude II he departed on the morrow. DE
really ought to be in London, he said.
81 shall not think you in the least
rude" l replied, land quite agree with
Won that the sooner you go up TO Lon
don the better. That is If you can OBJ
tain leave from DR.. Bowles. BY the way,
Lady Sutton gave me a message for
YOU. Her klndest remembrances, L
think it was"
81 didn't know you were acquainted
with Lady Sutton" he said flushing
suddenly.
81 was not until to-day" I replied,
"and to confess the truth, l shouldn't
have been now II hadn't forced my ac-
ouaintance upon her. You must try to
forgive me for having taken such
liberty. The responsibility really rests
with the doctor, who gave me to under
stand that unless / could comfort you
with some good news you would very
likely fret yourself into a dangerous
Illness"
/ then made such explanations as ap-
peared to be needful, while he listened
to me shamefacedly. 1t was easy to d.
vine what his sensations were. de had
certainly made love to me, aud, being
gentleman, he naturally felt little I'M
comfortable at the thought that |, OF all
people, should be instrumental in secur-
Ing for him happiness of which he had
despaired. However, spared him as
much as / could, and he thanked me for
my kindness, without looking at me,
and speedily made mis- escape. l am
sure il was quite as great relief 10 me
as it was to him to say good night.
But when the post came in on the fol-
lowing morning, received letter from
Lady Sutton which astonished me great
". and the contents Of which | had no
choice but to communicate TO Mr.. Long
field
'Dear Miss Selby," she wrote, sit Is
most painful to me TO have to tell you of
something which l had hoped to keep
secret for many months TO come, but
after you had left me to-day felt that,
In Justice to poor Jack, | ought not to
conceal the truth. l will leave IL TO
your kindness and good sense to decide
whether he had better be told at once or
not, only please do not let him come
here. know / must seem to have been
faithless to him; still there is differ
ence between the sort of boy-and-girl
Irritation that he and had once upon a
time and the love of ripper years. Be-
sides, | quite thought that ne had for
gotten me.
II am afraid that you will be rather
diSpleased to hear that / am engaged to
| Mr.. Maitland, and that we are TO be
married in about years time; although,
as you yourself no longer care for him,
| don't know why you should mind.
Knowing him as well as you do, am
sure YOU will believe that he scrupu-
pulously refrained from telling me what
his true feelings were until you had set
him free"
The letter was q tolerably long one;
but there is no occasion to quote more
than the above passages from it. In
deed, the remainder did not greatly in
terest me. The question was whether
IL would be safe TO tell Mr.. Longtield
all, and had by no means made UP my
mind that would do so when he came,
with a very serious face, TO inform me
that DR.. Bowles had sanctioned his i'm
mediate departure for London. How
ever, need scarcely say that L found
half measures impossible. | tried to
dissuade him from attempting to see
Lady Sutton on the ground of her re-
cent bereavement, and l tried TO hint
very gently that there was chance OF
her being no longer quite Of the same
mind as she had been before her mar
rage, but these subterfuges were OF no
avail.
"You are keeping back something
from me, Miss Selby," he said at length.
"Plese don't do that, because 1t isn't
kind or friendly TO deceive me, al
though know you mean to be BOTH"
So then blurted out the truth clum-
silly enough, and l must say that the
effect which it produced upon him was
startling I'm the highest degree. Up to
that moment l had firmly believed
Jack Longfield to be modest and even
somewhat timid young man; certainly
l had imagined that he was good deal
in awe OF me. But these Illusions were
J rudely dispeled when l found myself
being kissed and embraced without so
much as a preliminary word OF warn
ing, and when he did speak, the asser-
ton that he made was characterized by
anything rather than modesty.
Il knew all all along that you loved
me-" he declared unblushingly, "bnt
you felt that you were bound In honor
to that fellow. and when heard that
old Sir Edward was dead l felt much
the same thing with regard to Lady SUIT
ton. How can we ever thank them
enough for having taken fancy to each
otherl"
pointed ont to Jack that his case
was far from being upon all fours with
mine. had never pretended to be in
love with Granville man with whom
II was preposterous TO imagine
that anybody could fall in love
whereas he had undoubted-
" been enamored of woman much
vounper and prettier than I was. We'll.