The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-04

10 younger standards.
But tins was ter years ago, and the
mysterious valentine had become "a
yearly fact.
There had never been any explana-
tons. When pressed to the wall, Miss
Jemima had, indeed, been constrained
10 confess that certainly every valen-
tine she had ever gotten had been sent
her by q man chow sweet and sad this
truthl)
"And are all the new m as pretty
as your lovely old one, Aunt 'Mimie?"
To this last query she had carefully
replied:
81 amt never got none tibet amt
every bit an grain ez purity ez that one
not a one."
"An' why don't you show 'em to us,
then?"
Such obduracy was indeed hard to
comprehend.
If, as the years passed, her brother
began to suspect, he made no sign OF
il save in an added tenderness. And, of
course, he could not know.
On the anniversary upon which this
lltilt IttOId VI HCI iilt Hdu optitt, viz
situation was somewhat exceptional.
The valentine had hitherto always
been mailed in Simpkinsville-her own
town. This postmark had been noted
and commented upon, and yet IL had
seemedNimpossible to have it otherwise.
But. this year, in spite of many compli-
cations and difficulties, she had re-
solved that the envelope should tell n
new story.
The farthest point from which, within
her possible acquaintance, IL would nat
urally hail was the railroad town of-
let us call it Hope.
The extreme difficulty in the case lay
In the fact that the post Office here
was kept by her old lover, Eli Taylor.
Here for ten years he had lived his
reticent bachelor days, selling plows
and garden seed, and cotton PRINTS and
patent medicines, and keeping post Of
flee in a small corner of his store.
Everybody knows how a spot gazed
ut intently for n long time changes
color-from red to green and then TO
white?
AS Miss Jemima pondcred upon the
thought Of sending herself n valentine
through her old lovers hands, the color
of the scheme began to change from
impossible green TO rosy red
The point of objection became in the
mysterious evolution its objective point.
Instead of dreading, she bcganardent-
~ to desire this thing.
BY the only possible plan by which
she could manage secretly 10 have the
valentine mailed in Hope "A plan over
which she had lost sleep. and in which
she had been finally aided by an Hit
crate colored servant going there, &c
return next dav-it must reach her
on the day before Valentines. This
day had come and eone-and her valen-
tine had not returned to her. Had the
negro failed TO mail it?' Had il re-
NAMED all night in the post ofice-in
possession of her lover? Would
she ever see it again? Would her
brother ever, ever, ever get through his
trifing with the children and finish
giving out their valentines?
PART III.
Miss Jemima had not long to wait,
and yet it seemed an age, before the
distribution was over, and she felt
rather than saw her brother moving
in her direction.
bigger an purifier n N ever for
funt Minnie tn $ time-looks to me
like he said, as at last he laid the great
envelope upon her trembling knee.
Don't reckon it's anything extry-
in particlar," she answered, not Mt all
knowing what she said, as she con-
tinued her work, leaving the valentine
where he had dropped it; not TOUCHING
it, indeed, until she presently wound
up her yarn in answer tn the supper
bell. Then she took ii, with her work.
basket, into her own room, and drop
ping it into her upper bureau drawer,
turned the key.
The moment when she broke the new
envelope each year-late at night, alone
i'm her locked chamber-had always
been a sad one to Miss Jemima, and
tonight il was even n sadder ordeal
than ever. She had never before known
how she cared for this old love-token.
As she sat tonight looking at The
DuNSlut VI TIC thNtioIc, iuihihS " o'ti
and over in her thin hands, great hot
tears fell upon il and ran down upon
her fingers, but she did not heed them.
IL was, indeed, n meager little embodi-
ment of the romance Of a life, but such
lis il was, she would not part with IL.
She would never send il out from lkr
ngain-never, never. never.
IL was even dearer now than ever
before, after this recent passage through
her lovers hands. At this thought she
raised IL lovingly and laid IL against
her cheek. Could he have handled IL
and passed IT on without "A thought of
herr Impossible. And since he lad
thought OF her, what must have been
the nature of his thoughts? Was he
jealous--Jealous because somebody was
sending his old sweetheart a valentine?
This years envelope, selected with
great pains and trouble from a sample
catalogue and ordered from a distant
.,tv ...g An gno ,fyatr nr,f,toaIxy Io.n-