The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1895-03-16

a~sserting?' he asked in his most dog.
matte tone.
She shrugged her shoulders.
"How often? Oh, 1 don't know. A
hundred times, l dare say. You look
cross, Charlie.'
Charlie frowned again. There was an
intangible something in Eva's tone and
manner that was not wont to be there,
something that he could neither define
nor understand, though he felt it in
stinctively.
81 am not cross, Eva, but I am
grieved-grieved beyond measure. Your
conduct last night caused me acute pain,
the mora SO as you expressed no regret
for 1t. But ] hope you are in a better
frame Of mind today and ready to say
you are sorry fer what you did. Until
you have done SO | really don't feel |
can kiss you"
Charlie fully expected that this stu
pendous threat would reduce Eva to the
lowest depths of despair and bring her,
figuratively speaking, to ner knees, but
for once was he out in his calculations.
She drew up her slender figure and
pursed up her rosy lips with all air that
made him feel vaguely uneasy. Was it
to defy him? Yes. Her next words
proved that it was so.
II am not sorry" she said. mot a
bit. l am glad. l would do it again."
Charlie gasped. The situation was so
unlocked for that he could not rise to il
all at once.
Gas for kissing me-" Eva went on,
with Il little disdainful move, ''well,
you will never have the chance of doing
that again, SO you need not excite your
SELF
Charlie found his voice then. "You
are talking at random now, Eva" he
said severely, "a bad habit, against
which | have always warned you. Will
you be kind enough TO explain your
self:'
"Oh, certainly" Eva answered. II
can DO it in a very few words. Lord
Dolly proposed to me last night, and I
accepted him."
Charlie gasped again.
"But you are engaged to me-, he
calculated. lyon must be mad. You
can't seriously contemplate throwing
me over for Dolly Eastwood. The
things impossible!'
She looked at him and smiled.
Incredible as it may seem to you, 7
do contemplate it,"
"But-but-but,' stammered Char
lie, "this is very-er-extraordinary be-
havior on your part, Eva. Are you
aware that you propose to treat me in a
most dishonorable way, and-and-er
in short, very badly?'
Her face grew grave.
II should be sorry to do that" she
said more gently. IL don't want to
be dishonorable or to treat you badly,
Charlie, but 1 am only human, and no
one but myself knows what l have gone
through in the last few months. You
have tried me too hard. Twas very fond
Of you at one time, and if you had treat
ed me fairly | should have been fond of
you still. But you would wear out a
saint, and 1 am only a woman. l don't
think Lord Dolly would be hard on me.
He may not be very brilliant, but at all
events he is a man-the sort of man we
call a gentleman-and knows how to be
generous, even to such an altogether in
feriOr creature as a mere woman
She paused and looked critically at
her rejected lover, who now presented a
truly pitiable appearance, with all the
starch taken out of him and a general
air of limp depression porvading his be-
ing.
"That is ALL" she went Oh present.
ly. "But before you go there is one
thing that I should like to impress upon
you for future guidance-it is always
worth a mans while to be just and fair,
wen to a woman
She paused again and contemplated
him with her big blue eyes, but he said
nothing. He was too bewildered to even
speak. It seemed to him that all the
La Of creation were reversed and the
whole scheme of the universe turned
upside down.
There was a hitch in the system some
where. 1t had ailed.-London Truth.
A Truthful A fYican.
To-