Connecticut western news., 1895-09-12
wouldn' t treat me like that. ''

httt NStS SIlOtlSil lO SGI IuG W i1ll ' 6T- der was the one fellow I dreaded, and he hadn't known her six months either. 1 went back to the rock and stood at the foot of it, just near enough to touch the hem of her gown--such sweet, white gown, with Q bit of blue showing through 1t as the blue sky peeps in and out from the fleecy white clouds.
 "Do you like him?" I asked sullenly
 "Not any more, I guess, than you like Hattie Swann," she retorted, with a perk of her nose and a shake of her f1uffyshair.
 "Then you like him pretty we'll, said in worse humor than ever, and quite insistent upon nagging her all I could.
 Perhaps I do. ]" she snapped, land, if do, I'm sure he is very nice fel- low"
 "Not any nicer fellow than Mattie Swann is girl, D put in as mean as knew how.
 ''Well, I don't care," she said as she slipped of the rock and touched the sand as lightly as thistledown "I'm going home, and when you get me to come away off down here in this lonesome place again at this time of day, or any other time, I think you'll know it. D
 Then she started off along the beach toward the row of cottages. It was mile or more, and I thought would keep within call, so let her get some distance ahead of me. poked along be- hind, gazing out to sea and wondering where all the beauty of the purple shadows had gone, and why it was the waves looked so cold and cruel and clammy. They were the same shadows, and the same waves, and there 1 was, and-but where was Lois? Fifty yards up the shore and hurrying along as if she were afraid of twilight ghosts or other strange inhabitants of the crepus- cular air. I looked over my shoulder nervously, and all around, and shivered What it was I don't know, but on the instant I called to her and went after my call as fast as I ever ran after a football
 ''Lois, Lois!'' kept on calling, but she gave no heed Her face was set away from me and she was going with it rapidly. But not so fast that could not catch her i'll the next 50 yards or so
 "Oh, MT. Belden," she said in a tone of pretty surprise as came up panting by her side, "how you frightened me I had no idea you were on the beach this evening""
 Think of that, and still her father having the temerity to talk about puppy lovel If that wasn't full grown mastiff sarcasm, I'd like to know what it was But I was not to be thwarted by wo- mans whim now, any more than I was in the beginning.
 "Oh, Lois, Lois," pleaded, though puffed as I did so. Don't talk like that. We are not children to let trif1e come between us- and our love. You know love you, and know love you. It was because love you so that grew wild with jealousy when you spoke of Verder. I don't care rap of my finger for Mattie Swann, even if you do like Charlie Verder.'
 "Mr. Belden, she began very stifhy-
 "Call me Jack, 'ST cried, with all my feeling come again. "Call me Jack, as you have always called me-
 Perhaps I'd better, :" she said coldly "You have acted so childishly that MT. seems scarcely an appropriate title. "
 "You shan't talk that way to me, Lois Tanner, exclaimed as I stepped ill front of her and blocked her path. ''I have done wrong, and I apologize hum- ply for it. Now, as a lady, you cannot do otherwise than accept it. '
 II accept the apology, end pray let that end the matter. ''
 "No; it shall not I insist upon your accepting the apology and the apologizer as we'll want you, Lois, and that's what started to tell you down there on the rocks Answer me now, with only the sea, and the sky, and the sweet twi light as witnesses. '
 I was about to take her hand and more tenderly urge my claim to an answer, when she gave a slight scream and sprang to one side as if she had stepped on mouse in the sand
 "Look there, she whispered, pointing to couple seated on an old spar half ill the sand, and who until then were not visible. l looked and saw Verder and Miss Swann, very close together and talking earnestly.
 "Let them be witnesses also, if they will, darling, said bravely, and this | time 1 took her hand in mine But is was too dark for them to see, and when Lois and I walked by them in the duskier shadows of the later evening ! she had promised to be my wife, and though the great snn of the heavens had set over the world and the earth was full of shadows the greater sun of love had risen in our hearts, and they were | filled with the light inextinguishable.
 That was dozen years ago, and to- day Lois is the proud and happy mother of three of the prettiest and sweetest children in the world, except four that am the proud and happy father of.
 She is Mrs. Charles Verder, and Mrs Belden was Miss Swann Detroit Free | Press