Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1895-02-13

4 ubteily lOFeiy w oeooliUe' ShAo pno
Vennors SO very rich. Hugh?"
"Then che is going to be married?"
he exclaimed, gnawing fercely at his
lower lip. "Myrtle Vennor-I could
not have believed it. And never to
tell me"
Alice Amadine laughed softly.
"Dear me, Hugh" said she. Gas
if a girl confded that sort of her Sc
crets to her miscellaneous gentlemen
friends! And Mrytle Vennor always
belonged to the secretive kind, you
know"
"Who is he?" he asked, hoarsely.
''The man, mean?"
"How am I to know?" said Alice,
artlessly. "Colonel Fitz Urse has
been staying at the Grange all the
autumn, and Doctor Fenimore, from
New York, comes there often; and
there's Mr.. Atwater, and those two
young Yale collegians. and-oh, dear,
Myrtle is very gay this year !"
Hugh sat silently looking into the
fire. The poisoned arrow had sped to
its destination, as Alice Amadine well
knew. All the life and animation had
gone out of him that night; and when
he had departed to his room in the
central round-tower, where the win
dows looked out on the surging tops
CT the cedar grove, Alice laughed
exultantly.
'Dear auntie," said she, "do not
look 30 grave! It isn't pleasant to
take dose of quinine, but one feels
so much better after 1t. Well, this
news is dose of quinine to poor, dear
Hugh!"
'sAlice," said the old lady, edo you
think we have done right? Isis not
this like deceit?"
"Where is the deceit?" lightly ques-
toned Miss Amadine. 81 did see the
wedding dress, didn't /? The very
one that Myrtle's mother wore when
she was married, and that Myrtle her
self is to wear next New Years week.
Auntie, you know as well as I do that
Hugh never would have been happy
with that silly, frivolous little Myrtle
Vennor.
"No." said Mrs. Keppel, slowly, 81
do not believe that he would. Oh,
Alice, it is my hope and my prayer
that he may marry you'll"
"Wait!" said Alice, composedlY
smoothing the plush table cover.
"Don't you remember the old Spanish
proverb-'that all things come to those
who know how to waltz Only have q
little patience, auntie. There is moth
ing in all the world SO easy to catch as
heart in the rebound.
And in the meantime, sweet Myrtle
Vennor secretly devoured her own
heart, and wondered why Hugh Kep-
pei never came to the Grange.
"Can it be that he has forgotten
me?' she asked herself, CATER all
that he has looked and spoken-after
the flowers he gave me, and the little,
old fashioned ring with the black pearl,
that be placed on my finger? Do mems
hearts change in such tickle fashion
as that?"
Myrtle Venner was rs unlike Alice
Amadine as a sweet English rose is
unlike vivid cactus bloom.
She was fair and delicate, with a
complexion like pink and pearl /; bright
hair shot with golden threads, and
blue, deep eyes, full OF wistful, ap
pealing light; and her nature, too,
was dissimilar to that of the willy
brunette.
| 1t was, therefore, her first impulse
to go to Hugh Keppel, and ask him
what dark shadow had come between
them.
But Myrtle had all woman's pride,
aud SO she kept within her own heart
the secret of her grief.
And Alice Amadine was well pleased
at the success of her subtle scheme,
feeling, as she did, that Hugh WAS
drifting slowly and aimless!y into her
tolls.
"Why should I not?" he asked him.
self. "One woman vii! be very much
the same to me as another, now that I
have lost confidence in Myrtle. My
mother is fond of Alice, and I think
Alice will not be unwilling to be the
mistress of Keppel Towers.
And he made up his mind one chill,
bright day, when the hard frozen
snow cleaned white i'll the valleys and
the hemlocks were weighted down
with feathery fringes OF pearl to set
tie the matter definitely that self-sume
evening.
"It will make my mother happy, "
he thought. "And as for myself, what
avails it?"
Yet, nevertheless, a pang came
through his breast Us he stood there,
under the shadow of the giant forest
oak trees, where, last year, he and
Myrtle had gathered mistletoe to
adorn the great saloon at Vennor
Grange.
"Neyer again!" he muttered be-
tween his teeth. ''My lost Myrtle,
never again!"
A slight step on the cracking snow,
the CLEAN of scarlet cloak, disturbed
the melancholy thread of his medita-
tions, and, turning, he saw that Myr-
tie Vennor herself had merged from
the evergreen thicket on her way
across the glen, and stood there, with
cheeks glowing with exercise, and
large, startled eyes.
"Mr. Keppel!" she exclaimed.
"Myrtle!" he responded, taken by
surprise.
I'll did not know that you were
here" said she, in hurried accents.
81 hope you are quite well. We are
having lovely winter weather. Good
morning!"
And she would have gone had he not
put forth his hand to check her flying
footsteps.
"Do not go, MYRTLE" he said.
| RI, II