Middletown transcript., 1894-01-27

would lose his little love altogether.
Accordingly he smoked a pipe o
cogitation, and then penned the fol
lowing
DEAREST NARY
Why risk our happiness for a trife'
Let US drop the matter. And to pre-
vent its coming up again, let us bt
married at once, say next week al
Caconna, If you write you will fine
80 reasons for delay. So just telegraph
one word, 'tCome,'' if you want me
If | do not hear from you by Satnr-
day, | shall leave for Vancouver
where l shall apply to be exchanged
into the North Pacific Squadron.
DeVotedly,
Address, 2074 Corvette street, Chicago.
There" said he, folding the letter,
and knocking the ashes out of his
pipe, II think that will produce the
desired effect.''
1t did.
Women like masterful manner. By
some intricate train of reasoning, toe
subtle for the masculine intellect to
grasp, they construe it into com.
pliment.
This letter was put into Mary's hand
on the landing at Caconna, just as she
was setting out with friend for trip
up the Saguenay. She read it on the
deck of the steamer.
stDear old Jack, ''said she musingIy,
she is quite right. We have both
been very silly. 1 will telegraph from
Chicoutimi." And she pressed the
letter to her lips again and again. This
wanton waste OF tenderness was put to
an end by the letter itself slipping from
her hand and falling into the water.
'Never mindI'' said she resignedly,
it is written hereI'' At the same time
putting her hand ever the spot where
the chief organ of circulation is located.
Perhaps it was written there. I don't
pretend to deny it, for I never contra
dict a lady. All that have to say is,
it would much better have been writ
ten on paper.
The sun was sinking in the west as
the boat swung out from the long pier
at Riviere du Loup. The Laurentides,
which all the afternoon had been a
mass Of pale blue melting into the
horizon, now began to take deeper and
richer tints. Violet and pink and
pansy purple, they cut the sky sharply,
and at their feet, asleep in the deep
shadow, lay the lower shore, like the
black dragon at the glowing gates of
the Hesperides. And then the river,
the glorious st. Lawrence, a sheet of
FURNISHED gold fiecked with orange,
where the tiny rosy clouds were reflect
ed in it, and changing to pale, lus-
trous green; where the sky above was
blue.
All these glorified tints Of fanciful
nature were taken as a matter of course
by the little woman leaning over the
rail. Why shouldn't Nature put on
holiday attire2 Wasn't that ugly
quarrel at an end, and wasn't Jack
coming on next week to make her his
own little wife? Dear Jackl he wasn't
half SO much to blame as she, after all,
But it had taught her lesson, never,
never to let another cloud come be-
tween them. And so she went on in
her happy day-dream, building gor-
geous castles in the air, till the golden
sunset paled and died out before their
superior brilliancy,
The green-sashed seminary boys who
were going up to Chicoutimi for the
term, had been smoking like small
Fnceladi on deck. Driven indoors by
the chilly wind, they crowded around
the saloon piano, and sang like white
winged seraphs. The passengers ex-
pressed great surprise to find such mar
yefieus execution in so remote lnca-
lity. Mary alone was unmoved.
Why shouldn't those DEAR, brown
eyed boys sing and play to perfection?
Everything was perfection on that
wonderful river! Wasn't Jack coming
next week to put an end to that hide
GUS misunderstanding, etc.? When
woman gets into this state of mind,
the only thing to do is to wait patiently
till she gets out Of 1t.
I. Unfortunately for Mary this consum-
nation devoutly to be deprecated was
only too near at hand. The morning
dull and desolate, The
fay at the wharf at Chicou-
timi. At last the captain said it was
Chicoutimi. IT he had said Constan-
there would have been no
ocular evidence to disprove his state
ment, SO persistently did the landscape
hide itself In the thick gray fog.
Even more dismal and desolate than
her surroundings was the heart of our
little woman. In her transport Of the
night before she had paid but scanty
attention to the address given In Jacks
letter. It was only in the morning. :.
when she realized that she had COM
pletely forgotten Il, that its importance
upon her. 70 the hopeful
suggealions of hsr friend abe answered
stonily:
a dispatch simply addressed to bis
name inC Chicago would never reach him,
He win b gone before ! can write 10
the Commandant. No, e is too late.
/ have tried to think for hQura and
/ can'k