The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1894-02-09

me for you. I had on your red cloak,
you know, and he had left his glasses
at home, and / ran away, and he tum-
bled down in the watermelon patch,
and he's been trying to explain ever
since, and he"--
"What under the blue canopy do you
mean, sister Persist" said Victorine.
"Who is her"
"Mr. Summers loves you, and you
only, Victorine," I went on.
She put her handkerchief to her eyes.
II never doubted it," she said.
"Then what does your conduct
mean?'' I inquired.
Can you ask?" she responded re-
proachfully, when a man has been pay
ing devoted attention to a lady and sud-
denly, from pure ~fickleness, proposes to
her sister? Could that sister, if pos
sessed of a spark of loyalty, do anything
but break with the whole family at any
cost to herself?"
but he did not, Victorine," I said.
sit was a mistake"
"Sister, I am compelled to defend
myself" said Victorine. colder, plain
er, less attractive than you, doing, |
VOW, nothing to bring it about, never
~fancying that I could charm SO young
a man as Harry Summers and glad to
believe that he loved you, fancy my
horror when l discovered that it was
he who had knelt beside my chair and
kissed my hand-he and not the one of
! whom l dreamed. When I arose from
my chair, a letter which he had placed
there fell from my lap. Since you
fancy me the victim Of my magma
ton, read it." And Victorine put forth
her arm, drew her letter case, which
lay upon the table, toward her and ex-
tracing an envelope handed it to me.
A moment more and I was reading this,
in Harry's handwriting:
DEAREST, Most BEAUTIFUL-How often have
I tried to speak. but l grow a coward on the
instant, and l grow tongue tied. You are so
dear to me, so dear-you know that, / am sure,
but I do not know your heart, and SO I shall
find opportunity this evening to give you this
Iote. Will you be my wife, angel? Will you
write me just a little word to tell me that I have
Ady - AoAoS AASPSos "a - =
have I could bear to hear it thus far better
than to read it in your eyes. Yours forever, no
matter what may come, HARRY SUMMERS.
And what did you reply?"I que
ried.
"Simply this, said Victorine. "'You
are both presuming and ridiculous.
Miss Carlton And of course that was
an end of everything between me and
that rascal's estimable parent" said
Victorine, rising and pacing the floor.
"You are a devoted sister, Victo-
rine," I said.
Then I ran out of the room, and in
my " went off into wild and gleeful
Mysteries, for of course I knew that let
ter was written to me and no other, and
that Harry, supposing as his father did
that the red cloaked lady in the garden
was sister Victorine, had assumed in
the faint freight that the person asleep
in the rocking chair, yelled in my
shawl, was myself, and so gone through
with the kneeling, the hand kissing and
the delivery Of his letter to the wrong
individual, while his father was per-
forming the same absurd prank in the
garden. However, I felt that l could
not undertake to explain matters to
Victorine, and finally I Enclosed Harry's
billet doux in a letter, telling the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the
truth, and sent it to him by Aunt EN-
lily.
Our little tragedy was fast turning
into a comedy of errors, and I felt that
we should all be happy in the last act.
Il X y 4 II Il
81 dunno which of my ladies makes
the prettiest BRIDE ~ said Aunt Emily
one day as she surveyed us standing