Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-11-07
A JUST PUNISHMENT.


about forty, handsome and bronzed, and
girl about fifteen years younger, fair and
delicately pretty. From within came the
distant sound of piano and violin, and
without, at the bottom of the compound,
was the ceaseless sigh and whisper of the
river.
''The air feels almost like England to-
day." said the man. ''When / shut my
eyes can fancy myself at home"
"Do you long so much for England ?"
said the girl, looking up with smile.
sits all so new to me, and so full of inter-
est, that don't want to go back at ALL"
''Ah, Miss Graham, if you had been an
exile for ten years, as have, you'd know
what the longing is"
''Ten years." said the girl, sympatheti-
cally. Eyes, shall want to go back long
before that"
CIV only home for a month then"
went on the man, as If lie found it hard to
leave the subject. Twenty years of my
life have spent in strange countries and
ting old and England is calling, calling to
me louder and louder as the days go by.
I've learned what it is to be homesick,
Miss Graham"
'Then why not go home ?" said the
GIL, gently. "Surely"-
"Why not ?" the man laughed little
bitterly. "You see am reaping the re-
wards of a misspent youth. / got into
scrapes when | was at home-I wasn't
worse than other people, but l was bit
more reckless. i belong to respectable
family, you see, and it's part of the con-
tract that don't go back unless
"Unless-what?" asked the girl, softly.
UNLESS / marry, and take my wife
back with me-"
$50 it's either slavery or exile" said the
girl, laughing.
''Don't laugh, Miss Graham" said the
man, earnestly. "The truth is, have
never seen woman wished to make my
wife, unti"-
.'Alison," said voice at the window,
twill you have scarf? There is quite
breeze, and your dress is very thin"
The man muttered something under his
breath, as the girl rose and turned to take
the scarf. She stood at the window few
minutes, and odd words and phrases of
talk, punctuated with laughter, came bro
kenly to the mans ears.
"There goes my chance" he said, un-
der his breath. He got up and leaned
over the railing looking out upon the
river. When the girl came back to her
seat he turned towards her.
''Do you mind if | smoke, Miss Graham?"
he said.
''Oh, no, like it," she answered, smil-
ing. She leaned back in her chair, gath
ering the scarf round her, and looked up
a. him, still smiling, while he lit his
cigar.
'Hessie has been telling me most alb
surd story that George has just brought
home," she said. .The colonels wife
has got new nurse girl from England,
and she has been causing great interest
and excitement among the men. To-day,
two of them, each considering himself the
favored swain, fell to quarrellng about her,
and, at last, there was regular stand up
fight. In the end when some one i'm au-
thority interfered and separated the
bruised and CORY combatants, the girl an
nounced her preference for another man
who had been peaceable spectator of the
fight. George says no one was more
surprised than the man himself, and
there were at least six other men who con-
sidered they had claims. One can't help
laughing, though it isn't thing to be
amused about, really. think they ought
70 send the girl straight back to
England"
ooh, come, Miss Graham, perhaps she
did not mean to do any HARM"
"No," said the girl, bitterly. 1.-THE
people who flirt never mean to do harm, l
believe, but that does not make it any less
cruel"
would you-would you be very down
on man that flirted ?"
''Oh, it's not really worse in a man than
in woman. It's heartless and mean, and
contemplate on either side"
.'But, Miss Graham" demonstrated the
man, lit doesn't follow always that flirt-
ing merits all the hard names you
give it. Sometimes l fancy, it
may be very innocent form of amuse-
ment."
''Ah, you don't understand, you don't
know" said the girl, earnestly. "You
are too simple and honorable yourself to
guess what it may mean when it's 'inno-
cent amusement on one side and not on
the other. That game is so seldom played
fairly on both sides. Perhaps l should
have thought like you but for something
that happened when was very young. l
can never forget can never think light
ly of flirting again"
Her voice stopped with a little quick
catch of the breath; the man looked at
her with face full Of sympathy and in
tcrest. Presently she went on again:
I'm tell you, if you like; it doesn't
matter now who knows. Ihad friend
nv dearest friend, though she was some
years older than /. She died six years
ago, and was with her much of the time
that she was i'll. They called 1t all sorts
Of things, aud no one knew but that she
died of broken heart. / suppose II
was one of those cases of innocent amuse-
ment
.'Her people used to go every summer
to little watering place, where they had
cottage and boat. One year there was
young man there, handsome, clever and
attractive, and with some halo Of romance
and heroism about him that made him
specially interesting Mabel liked him
from the first, and when he began to de-
vote himself to her, as he did almost al
once, there grew up an understanding be-
tween them that, in Mabel's eyes, was
equivalent to an engagement. You see
my friend was quite incapable Of flirting,
and II never occurred to her that an hon.
orable man could mean anything but that.
OF course, in her eyes, this man was the
embodiment of honor, and courage, and
every other virtue.
.sMabel had said nothing to her people.