Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-10
GENES CASE.

In the fall of 49,, after they had had
such gay times and so much company at
their country home, Mrs. Afford began to
look over her box of homeopathic rem
edies for something that would suit
Genie's case"
BY degrees she made the girl take
upon her tongue or in two glasses of
water, alternately crossed by the spoon
If one made no mistake, samples of most
Of her nice white medicines. But some
how Genie kept on looking pale and
growing thin and being depressed, and
that unmistakable symptom of having
red eyelids of q morning continued.
! "Genie always used to look so fresh
when she came to breakfast" Mrs. AL.
ford said. "And I give you my word,
her face was quite swollen yesterday
when went to call her."
It never occurred to Mrs. Afford that
the mysterious symptom Of pink eyelids
in the morning might be occasioned by
shedding tears during the night.
"Why on earth should Genie weep?'
she would have said had this been sug-
gested. She had no trouble. But even
mothers do not always know everything,
and "Genie's case" was really this.
/ William Ritchie, their next door
neighbor's son, with whom Genie had
always been Every friendly" who had
walked to school, and gathered nuts
with her, and pulled her about on his
sled, and skated with her on the pond
in their childhood, had, after two
years absence from home, returned to
find Genie quite grown up and wonder
fully pretty. For her part she saw in
him the pink and perfection of man
hood, and their eyes confessed their
mutual admiration. No one else dreamed
of any change of feeling between the
lifelong friends. But it was not long
before William said things to Genie that
made her happy when she thought of
them, and had rejoiced her soul by gifts
of flowers and volumes of poetry and all
manner of delicate attentions, and at
last had proposed to her and been ac-
cepted.
They had not made the fact public
yet, however, when Major Standish came
to them from the west to pay them a
visit and brought his daughter with
him..
The major had married Mrs. Affords
sister years before, and Cora was their
only child.
She was belle in army society, and
If there is anything calculated to in
crease young lady's satisfaction with
herself it is that.
She made no secret of her conquests,
but spoke openly of the bleeding hearts
she left behind her. She might if she
chose be Mrs. General That, or Mrs.
Colonel This. Captain So-and-so was
ready to die for her sake, and she had
long string of lieutenants to laugh about
even the chaplain was really very far
gone.
With all these adorers watching for
her return to the fort it seemed hard to
Genie that she should instantly make
dead set at William Ritchie and know
no peace until she had stolen her one
eve lamb from her. But this is just
what Cora did, and it seemed to Genie
that William met her half way.
Innocent Genie had never seen fine,
well managed, genuine Irritation before.
Her wonder was almost as great as her
grief to find man so treacherous, and
one evening, when there was gay par
ty at the house and Cora and William
seemed to have vanished mysteriously,
she hid herself in the honeysuckle arbor
"a place just then plunged in deepest
Shadow-and flung herself down on
corner Of the bench to indulge unseen in
q few tears.
And while she fingered there Cora
and William came softly in, and sitting
down where the moonlight drifted in
upon their faces began q most senti-
mental and dramatic conversation.
he compared her to rose and a
nightingale. He told her what a star
tling effect she had upon his heart when
first he saw her, and he alluded mys-
teriously to ''bonds that bound" him
and to what he would do were he free.
But honor! honorl He would break
no sweet girls heart.
"Never for my sake" Cora declared.
"Better that I should suffer than one in
nocent."
1t was quite like chapter from SEN
sational novel. She gave him her hand
to kiss, neither of them guessing that
the deep shadow in the corner was
Genie, and he quoted poetry by the
yard. They evidently considered them
selves very notse and self sacrificing,
wonderful, suffering, glorious beings.
And how the little maiden sat quietly
two feet from them until they rose and
went away arm in arm she never knew,
neither how she lived through the night.
But the next day found her very strong.
Early in the morning she went to the
garden fence and beckoned William
Ritchie to come to her, and took his arm
with laugh, and made him walk with
her out of hearing. Then she said:
Don't you think that when people
have made a great mistake the best
thing possible is to confess it?"
And when he answered, "I suppose
so." she simply took her ring from her
hnger and gave it back to him. Then
she left him and walked away, and oh,
how gay she was all that day! She had
never believed that she could act so
well. Her heart was full of burning
pain, and she wished that she were dead.
But her pride upheld her, and no one
guessed how she suffered.
She was SO glad that she had never