Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-02-13

apparently been made for some body
else.
81 shall be delighted" she said, IN
her most cordial tone. ''Where are you
going, and what are you going to do to
improve me-"
"Oh, it's an expedition down salt
mine. We shall have to take you down
in a bucket. You won't mind, will
you2" urged the weak-eyed young man
eagerly.
"Not at all, if you will insure the
rope not breaking"
But, all the same, when Thursday
arrived, and Lena found herself alone at
the railway station-for Sir James had a
committee meeting that morning, and
could only join her later ir the day
she felt somewhat depressed at the
prospect before her. There was large
and somewhat weird-looking crowd on
the platform. A slight drizzle was fall
ing, and the ladies of the party had
unanimously elected to appear in bag
like waterproof garments, though, to be
sure, their male kind ran them hard in
the matter Of curious raiment. Most Of
the travellers had invested in paper bags
full of Bath buns, for an expedition
with the British Association is generally
fraught with peril in the matter of sup
plies. The weak-eyed young man was
in a state of excitement bordering on
delirium. Lady Loveday sighed as her
eye ran over the mass of pushing, per-
spring, be-mackintoshed human beings
on the platform.
"There isn't soul here that want to
speak to-" she thought, settling into the
comfortable corner place which the
youthful professor had secured for her;
and then, as her eye caught the square
shouldered back of a check-coated man
in the distance, she added, mentally:
is cut beautifully short, and he's got a
brown neck and properly ironed collar.
He reminds me of poor Dick"
But, directly after, the train steamed
out of the station and Lady Loveday's
"reminiscences came to an end. She had
to make conversation with her cicerone
for the day, and a whole carriageful of
other people. BY the time they had
arrived at the pits mouth and were
waiting their turn to go down, Lena was
not sure that she wanted to engage in
such a perilous experiment.
Only a quarter of the trainful of peo-
pie could be accommodated under the
shed which covered the shaft, the rest
were waiting outside. Finally, however,
she was damned with some seven or
eight other people, including her scienti-
fc admirer. in the recovered bucket,
and was emptied out, after an uncanny
descent through a black void, into the
brown walled cavern at the bottom. The
mine had been decorated with thousands
of candles in honor of the event, and each
visitor was provided with tallow dip
stuck into a wooden handle. Down in
the depths of the mine the Scotch pro-
fessor waxed confidential.
"This man is getting BORE" thought
Lady Loveday; II must really evade him
and with another turn
of the rock she managed to slip away
from him. Candle in hand, she followed
a group of people in front of her. Pres
emily one of the party-the young man
whose back she had seen on the platform
and, with an action which
she rec ognized at once, struck a match,
stopped his head, and lighted cigarette.
"Why, it is Dick!" she murmured;
and just then he turned and saw her.
81 thought you were in-Afghanistan,"
she went on, hurriedly, as he stood gaz-
ing at her.
$50 I have been, for the last two
years. That frontier business took
longer than I thought. And you2"
Lady Loveday blushed and looked
down. Here was an adventure after her
own heart. She was curious mixture
of practical worldliness and theoretical
sentimentality. She had liked him, hand
some, penniless Captain Bramwell, more
than any man she had ever known, and
newell, she was quite aware he had
the very ground she trod on.
But all that was three years ago, and in
three years there are many changes.
81 saw you the other night" he con-
tinued, presently; "you came in an aw-
fully fetching cloak, with white, fluffy
thing round your neck. I've been trying
to find you out ever since, but nobody
that asked could tell me anything about
Miss Gardner"
Lady Loveday smiled He did not
know of her marriage, then? The ca
price took her not to tell him just yet
she wanted, womanlike, to see ii he had
remained faithful all these years.
"Oh, Pm suck an insignificant person
in the midst Of all these bigwigs."
Dick smiled back at her-he had O
smile-and they wandered