The Forrest City times., 1893-11-24


 lainous mongrcl with one ear bitten
 through were wreaking vengeance | upon white bull terrier
 My six feet of authority, armed with
 a stout stic,s, speedily dispersed the dogs assailants. They retreated in con | fusion, employing language so bad a. l to be fortunately unintelligible to my damsel in distress. who was by this time kneeling beside her precious dog. hugging him effusively and trying to wipe away the blood from an injured | leg.
 The dog really had been good deal
 knocked about although I have no
 doubt he richly deserved it; he now,
 feeling himself an object of sympathet ic interest, sat down and refused to
 L:ove any further.
 1 knew something about dogs, and speedily bound mp his paw with my | own handkerchief and that of his
 mistress, which was simply marked Ella"
 Our faces were very close together | over the dogs leg, and one of her tears splashed on to the back of my hand. Ella blnshed, laughed and apologized. never saw lovelier blush or heard a
 sweeter laugh in my life.
 Seeing that the beast was resolved not to walk, I carried him. He was a tremendous weight, and fidgeted l abominably. But with Ella beside me. | and her sweet, white hand. from which she had withdrawn the glove, con- stantly stroking the brute'sneck, trod
 on enchanted ground The maid
 brought up the rear. giggling good
 deal. but, as she constantly dragged be- hind to stare at soldiers, her presence did not in any way hamper us. The accident took place near the White Lodge, and we had to pass out ] by the Star and Garter gates. Long be- | fore we reached them l was madly in l love with Ella, and had already in- | formed her that this was the happiest
 hour of my life, when to my dismay I | learned that she was Miss Ella Earring ton, eldest daughter of "Barrington's
 Starch, as we called him at the bank, 1 where he lodged a portion of the wealth
 he had acquired in the manufacture of
 that commodity.
 l 'Barrington's Starch lived in q brand new stucco palace he had built ] for himself, near Richmond Hill; and,
 although he was not exactly "Perkyn l Middlewick. could never understand
 how he could be the father of so re-
 fined and lovely and fairy like being | as Ella.
 Before the gates of Harrington hall, l as he called his brick and mortar mon-
 strosity, we paused. We were friends,
 dear old friends, by this time. l knew
 that she was nineteen. and that she l loved nothing in the world so much as her bull terrier pup. except her father
 and her brother Bob. and she knew
 every detail of my uneventful life of | seven and-twenty summers. i She asked me to come in; papa would
 want to thank me, she said. I found papa genial enough. albeit
 somewhat condescending. 'The young | man from the bank" l afterwards | found he called me, although my name, | Ernest Wynter. was known to him, and 1 he himself had begun life as mill hand at six shillings week. Still l l was allowed to visit at Harrington hall. ! and to play tennis with the girls, and | every day grew more abjectly in love ' with Ella, whose unaffected charm of manner no parvenu surroundings could impair.
 | Of course dared not to speak of my
 love to her. In my position, that was
 out of the question. l could only try
 to kiss the dogs head. just after her lovely lips had rested there, and to de
 tain her hand as long as possible in | nd rortinr from, bar | Yet she must have guessed something
 of what I felt; for she took me one day | into the kitchen-garden away from the children, and there. looking at me with | lovely, tear-dimmed eyes, she suddenly remarked:
 'I am so unhappy, Mir. Wynter. Papa 1 wants me to marry Alderman Sir John
 Westbury. He is a nice old thing. and
 papa says shall be lady mayoress But think he IS quite as fond of my sister Bertha as he is,of me, and--l am in love with some one else" I The look with which she accompanied l her last words was a revelation. She | grew very red the next moment and
 began rapidly talking of something 1 else, while l. like fool, stood and
 stared at her until her wretched young
 brother Bob came bawling down the garden after her, and so took my
 chance of speaking from me. | For the rest of the afternoon Ella
 avoided me, and. cursing my own stu l pidity, I went home and wrote her the l following letter:
 MY DEAR Mss HARRINGTON: dontknow | whe ther you will think me the most conceited | ass alive for supposing that a few words of yours today encourage me 10 tell you what meant to keep secret-that ever since I first