Alpena argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1893-1909, 1893-01-11


fly like me, whose feet are her
wings"
"You have wings" he said, "but
they are angels wings. Oh, never
spread them to leave my arms"
And how he loved her, or seemed
to love her! He would have lavish
ed the world upon her; jewels and
all costly things, but her cousin
Margaret would let her have none
of them, and so instead he filled the
house every day with flowers. But
her dancing days were over. "Af-
ter that night" said he, II can
never dance again. You cannot re-
peat heaven" For could he ever
see her thus in the arms of anoth-
err.
Ignorant of the crown that Rose
had bestowed on his rival, Hayden
Roth still devoted himself to her
with the ardor that comes from love
and hope. And Gordon was jealous
Of the wind that touched her, be-
came uneasy and sometimes spoke
scornfully of him. Sometimes he
spoke stormingly, and once he went
out having forbidden Rose to recog-
nize the persistent fellow when next
she met him.
But Rose did not mind. "Of
course he did not mean it," she said,
when up in her room with Margaret,
as she combed out her long lovely
hair-hair like spun gold. "He
couldn't mean anything so unkind
as that. Don't you see how he is
reforming me, Cousin Margaret?
| shall some day be as much of a
saint as you are. He says | am an
angel now! Oh, no, he will come
in next time very likely arm in arm
with Hayden Roth"
1 "He is coming to take us to the
opera tonight, Cousin Margaret
she said, coming into the drawing
room after luncheon. "Oh, how
happy am! / am so happy that ]
feel as if something were going to
happen! But suppose" she added,
"tbat it is only because l don't de-
serve him! He is so great and good
and fine and noble and And
then with her hands elapsed above
, her head, she was off all alone by
! herself, swimming down the room
in waltz to the tune of her own
caroling. And suddenly a strong
arm had stolen around her, a hand
had grasped one of hers, and Hay
don Roth, who had been shown i'll
by the butler, was waltzing down
the room with her.
Then all at once she sprang after
something that rolled away, anC
, cried in a piercing voice: "Oh
( Margaret! my ring! my ring! II
is broken-it has come off-the
stone is gone! Oh, what am | tc
: do? Oh, it was his mother's!" she
: cried, forgetting all about Haydon's
E presence. He said it was sacred
q | mustn't tell him; he will think
took no care of it. And | was dane
ingw And she was moving every
thing, looking everywhere, searching
L in vain for the stone and the broken
. fragment of the fragile setting with
it.
ut is of no use," thought Mar
garet. II won't have the child suf-
, fer so for the few hundred dollars
another stone would cost" And
she came down and handed the
broken ring to Hydon Roth, asking
him to leave it at the jewelers. and
have it repaired, and the stone re-
placed at any price before the next
noon.
Rose descended dressed for the
opera when her lover came that
night. There was time only for
, Gorden to note a singular agi-
tation with heightened color about
her, while she wept and laughed at
the music in a half hysterical way,
and trembled as he handed her up
the steps at last.
"Oh," she said, nesting a mo-
ment in his embrace as they parted
in the dim dining room, nothing
could ever let you leave off loving
me?"
mo power in all the universe,
he answered her.
III shall have to tell him tomor-
row." said Rose tearfully after he
had gone.
"Oh, tomorrow we may find it,
said Cousin Margaret, land afford to
laugh about the whole thing"
A half hour afterward, as her
maid was taking down the great
coils of hair, something bright as
any star was seen to hang fixed in
the meshes. 1t was the diamond