Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1896-12-17

"Ah, dad dear!' she said, pitifully;
mother was a woman; she knew you
couldn't guard me against lover
I'm an old brickhead!' Capt. Kelly
cried, with queer blending OF anger
and apology. Il don't deserve such a
daughter as you are Patrice! fl
look here, won't think Of business any
more today; Wen have a haiday,
we'll go somewhere and enjoy the
weather Shall it be Richmond and
the river?-or Greenwich and white
bait dinner at the Shlp?--or shall we
go ana look at the picturesr'
Not the academy" she said, earn
estly. Il feel so much ashamed of
myself about In Dublin's Fair City,
which ! meant to have sent. 1t would
have been better for me to have had |
rejected than to have been limp enough
to leave it unfinished all these weeks.
have been idle! l am ashamed of
myself. Let us go down to Green
wich, dad, If you are on pleasure bent.
or, rather, If you are bent on giving me
pleasure. And let us go by steamer
and take me into the painted hall and
tell me about Nelson and Greenwich
hospital as it used to be all the way
down from poor Nell Gwynne's days
to now. You know how l love navel
history"
Had Capt Kelly been more percep-
tive or more suspicious he would have
diseerned that the girl was prattling
on in order to divert his attention from
herself and her sorrow. The singing
sensation of the first doubt of one best
loved in the world by her had assailed
her in a vague and indefinite way But
in the midst of the maze Of bewilder-
ment and anxiety through which she
had commenced to wander she made an
effort to spare her stepfather the pain
of comprehending and syE4pathizing
with her.
The atmosphere of the bright May
day helped her. The busy river scenes
and the hungry. noisy, holiday people
who crowded the steamer and seemed
to be afflicted with an unquenchable
thirst diverted her mind from the
shapeless trouble that had doomed over
her spirit for awhile. Nor did the
clouds gather again when they left the
merrymakers in the innumerable tea
houses that offer their irresistible at
fractions on the ways between the pier
and Blackheath and the park For in
the latter the venerable hawthorn trees
were thickly laden with their white
and pink nutty perfumed blossoms and
the scents Of the lime trees were watt
ed in upon them from the fine old
avenue which runs along outside the
park wall from the top OF Crooms hill
to the heart of the heath. To the girl
who seldom strayed beyond the pre-
oincts of Paddington 1t seemed as re-
freshing a thing to explore the cock
neys rural paradise as If it had been
the real country and in her perfect APP
probation of that freshness, the beau
ty and the novelty of it, all her doubt
and anxiety faded rapidly until their
proportions seemed so petty that she
was ashamed of having allowed them
TO shadow her for an instant.
Then their little dinner at the ship
was quite a stirring event in her
hitherto uneventful life. That wonder
full dinner at which it appeared to her
that every fish that swan in the sea
was served in half dozen different
guises. 1t is true that her thoughts
never fiuctuated far from Sholto and
required to him constantly both while
she was inhaling the fragrance OF the
lines and hawthorns and while she
was eating whitehall. But though she
wished for his presence and longed to
hear the sound of the voice that made
the sweetest music the world held for
her ears she had no sore or sad feeling
about his presence. He was doing right
she felt sure, in staying with the good
kind aunt who had just parted with the
girl who had been as daughter to her
He was doing right and his thoughtful
ness for others endeared him more to
her
1--WE must have another day here,
papa, when Sholto comes back she
said. when the dinner was over and
they were starting for the station.
LAY, ay. we will and will invite his
sister to come with us. 1t will be
something Of treat to the young
Scotch LADY. They have no Green
witch hospital or whitehall dinners like
this in Edinburgh" Capt. Kelly said
with calm confidence in the superiority
of the grand Old naval palace that
fronts the river so proudly.
But the mention Of Lady Gwenap
reused no enthusiasm in Patrice
In little sittine-room in Chichester
street another woman was going
through terrible torture OF doubt and
anxiety during the hours Of that holt
day which Patrice passed in Green
witch.
Ned Thorburn had got the post OF
special correspondence at the seat OF
war. and his mother had TO cover the
pain Of parting with him and the
agony OF dread she felt at the mere
prospect of the dangers by which ne
must inevitably be surrounded before
she could possibly see him again Her
nerves had been weakened and her
courage Of heart had been cowed by