The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1895-06-06

keeper there and was not warn for 8
month after. Poor young lady, she's
been very i'll too, I hear. It's either
chills she's got from being there, OF
maybe it's pinin' after you, Sir Miles,
ae is worryin' her."
He shook his head.
81 don't think so, Bett. I wish ]
did, but as ] said before, I'll see what
a be done-perhaps later" and
he walked away, not feeling that he
could stand any further scrutiny OF
his feelings. He had, however, glad
dened the old woman's heart, and
she did not mind his going into the
library and closing The door.
Once there he threw himself down
in an arm chair and remained very
still for a long time. Old Belts re-
mark had stirred his heart to its MT.
most depths. Next week Elvira De-
lane was going abroad with Lady
Marcia Foliambe for some time
Should he let her go without a word
from him2 Now that Pierce Vaughan
was dead he had no rival in her af-
fections, and as more than six months
had passed since that event there
could be nothing undecorous in MAX
ing a formal proposal.
"Faint heart never won fair lady,"
He would write-useless to think of
speaking to her-she would stop him
before he had barely opened his
mouth. She seemed to know by in
tuition what was coming. Decidedly
a letter was best, and in it he would
implore her to give him a straight
forward answer. He turned his
chair round to the writing table and
took out a sheet of his very best
paper. A sheetl A whole quire
wasted before he found adequate
words to express his feelings for
Elvira.
At last a letter was composed to
his satisfaction and despatched to
B~ellagranda by special messenger;
he would not entrust it to the post.
A message came back that Miss
Delane would send an answer.
Till that answer came Sir Miles
was on tenderhooks, and it was three
days in arriving. Elvira did not
wish him to receive it until she her
self was out of England.
1t ran as follows:
"Dear Sir Miles,
Your letter has fattered and pleas
ed me; still it was a rash act on your
part to write it. Are we not friends?
Have we not made a strong and firm
friendship? Why do you tempt
Providence and my favor by seeking
to shatter it? / have been i'll, too i'll
lately to think about matrirr ony,
and I have been grateful to you for
many kindnesses done from a dis
lance and much thoughtfulness OF
my unnerved condition. What I am
to say now that you have suddenly
overthrow these evidences OF tact,
l do not know. Shall ] be'very an
CRY and dismiss your friendship alto
gether, or shall / say come abroad
later on-not now-and see whether
| am really and seriously so disposed
that l shall decline to speak to you at
all, or whether 1 will accept you,
more or less on your own terms.
What a woman's mood will be some
months hence, who shall say?
should be terrible sorry to answer for
myself. If it were a bad habit of
yours to bet OF courses, you
might bet odds about the matter and
80 amuse yourself, but 1 am afraid
that is not altogether in your line, SO
all l can say, is-have patience and
forgive, if the demand you have
made of me, it is impossible for me
to grant. By the time you receive
this Lady Marcia and 1 will have
started for Paris enroute for Swift
land. Yours in Friendship,
ELvIRA DELANE.
Be~llagranda, LIST May"
Sir Miles read the letter over three
times and when at last he placed II
on the table before him, he fell
happy. There was life in the docu-
ment, he decided, more encourage
ment than he had expected to obtain
when long suffering man that he
was, he had sent his own missive.
A third person reading this letter
would probably have been very So
we're on Elvira and said that she had
no business to have written 1t. And
they would have been right.
1t was one of the most tantalizing
letters m ever penned, and only
a rarely good, enduring man like
Sir Miles would have tolerated it and
the vague hope it held forth.
Sir Miles patience in the matter
did not, in the least, ~exonerate Ell
vira. She ought to have known bet
ter than to have indicted such an
epistle, and thus entailed on a true
honest fellow months of unnecessary
suspense.
The strange part of the affair was,
that he was pleased. II any friend
Of his had shown him such a letter,
most assuredly he would have con-