The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-07-14


the snowy backward where she could
intercept her lover ut the curve Of the
road.
Jack Jack I" she cried, piteously.
"I've lost il Your ring Oh. Jack.
do say something to comfort mel i
am SO unhappy.
Mr.. Jefferson drew up his steed and
faced Esther with . scornful light in
his eyes which she had never seen be-
fore.
YES" said he, calmly; "I knew
you had lost il. / know how you lost
it. know to whom you have given
it,"
Essie stood dumb before the cruel
emphasis OF his words.
81 was at the Sugar Camp IN hour
ago." said he. "Some one told me
you had gone there, and / was going
To bring you home. And l saw your
ring on Leonidss Striker watch guard.
Wasn't that rather soon to transfer
your last lovers gift to your old swain
Would il not have been better taste OF
him to display your pledge little
less publicly?"
Jack, Jack !" pleaded Essie, hold
ing up her hands, as If every word
were q blow.
'I need detain you no longer" he
said, as he bowed frigidly and touched
the neck OF his horse with his whip.
lash, and the next minute he Was gone.
Poor Essie dragged herself back to
the house, the tears freezing on hei
cheek and her heart colder still. Was
she the victim of enchsntmentp What
did all this mean?
Tea Was over Mt least, but Esther
Elmford did not know whether she
had eaten hot biscuit or cold, hasty
pudding. She had listened, with q
vague, unmeAning smile, TO Mrs. Nor.
ris's prolonged account Of little
Tommy's last siege of diphtheria and
Miss Adelgiths's proposed visit to New
York. II was almost as il brain and
nerve were benumbed, when Jesss-
mine Strikers clear, sweet voice struck
across the current of her hopeless
apathy and she found herself in a con.
fidential corner of the best bedroom
upstairs, with Jessamine eagerly hsr-
arguing her.
"The strsngest thing!" cried Jessa-
mine. "He found it in the maple
sugar kettle. Alice had made some
flannel cakes, and he dipped out a
dipperful of the hot sirup for us to
eat with il, and Leon came within one
of swallowing the ring. Whose ia
it?' said he. why, Essie Elmford's,
of course, said /. Didn't / see the
sparkle of il when she took of her
mitten to unfasten the lid of the bas-
ket that held Uncle Peters crullers ?
And it must have slipped of her
finger, said he, when she went TO stir
the sugar in the kettle SO he hung
it on his watch-chain for safokeeping
until we came home, and here IL Is. D"
Esther murmured word or two OF
thanks.
81 WAS very careless, said she.
But even after Jessamine was gone,
she sat staring at the pretty trinket
which had so nearly been boiled down
into maple sugar. What was the use
of il now? What was the use OF any
thing?"
Esther Esther ~ her father
called up the narrow wooden stairway.
Here's Mr.. Jefferson wants to speak
to you"
How strangely all these things
seemed to succeed one another, like
the dull lspses of dream. She knew
not how, but she was standing, with
Jacks arm around her, her troubled
eyes looking up into his.
my own darling" he whispered,
"can you ever forgive me for being
such brute' / have just seen that
Striker fellow. He's not such bad
lot, after all, and everything Is ex-
planned. Sweetheart, say that you
forgive mel / never shall forgive
myself.
And all the horrid nightmare feel
ing was over, and the engagement was
secret no longer, and poor little
Esther Elmford was happy again.
"But don't think, said she, that
/ shall ever want 10 taste maple sugar
again. Not just yet, at all events !"
New York Ledger.