The St. Johns herald., 1897-04-24
.Ddd6 HdrkInS' Wedding
By VIOLA RosEBORO.

[ tl4dt bc udt liOt Ilatlt a uSOluCu DiOHuOA l i'll lis selection of :, confidant, for Mrs. i Peytee, like many better woman was 1 all but sure to find man ln love all i odious and tiresome or noble and grat- ! flying spectacle, according as he was hot CT was ill love with herself, but now she was moved to an unusual patience with Harry, because she was sure that the colonel's eligibility for marriage and in all probability his inclination to- ward that state would be much lncreas- ed by Charley's entrance upon 1t.
 Il want to measure your finger, Mss Kate, said Harry, standing in front or | her.
 Mercy on us, what for?" said Mrs. Peytee, leaning back and looking up at him with brilliant black eyes
 Because 1 heard Miss Charley say that you and she wore the same sized gloves. ''
 He was looking down upon her with a pleased fatuous sense of being rather neat in his way of introducing his sub- iect and of shining little in this early scene of tfo lovely happy drama he had i'll his mind.
 Charley in turn was looking down up on them both from the garTet window. She now saw him sit down on Mrs. Pey- sse $ gu5 hand, decidedly close to her, take string from his pocket and begin ! what proved to be the troublesome and 1 lengthy task of measuring the forefnger ! of her left hand. Of course it was Mrs. l Peytee who took care that the little task should be amusingly difficult, and of course Harry was so innocent-in the masculine way-that he was all unwarn- cd by his conscience of the coquettish character of these delays.
 From her window Charley could even see the shy, happy embarrassment on his face and the quizzical, half languishing glance of the wiGow.
 Naturally from all this she drew COIL clusions, and inevitably, like most hu man conclusions, they were erroneous.
 How natural and assured her mistake was, however, how little it resembled the conduct so often displayed ill the first act of play by a heroine who sac rifices all ordinary intelligence to the interests of the playwright, probably only those can fully understand who have some knowledge of the curious and complicated code that governs Irritation and lovemaking in large sections of southern society. An exposition of this code would be interesting, it seems to me, but my present mission will be bet ter met by simply saying that Charley, according to the ideas in which she was bred, had good grounds for feeling that she had looked upon a more significant scene than any that had passed between her and Harry, or that, if he were only | flirting with the naughty Mrs Peytee, 1t was only the more probable that he was only flirting with her-a form of amusement, this, by the way, in which up to some rather indefinite point he was encouraged by society-that is to say, by the women generally. Such things are mainly regulated bv women in any society in the world, and 1t is perhaps not aside from my story to say that Harry Williams was exactly the { soLo Li you-s u4la creature who Rev CT has any clear idea of what are the sub. tleties of any such code, no matter where he lives
 Inc .-uasur0ment for that fatal ring was hardly finished when Charley turn ed and flung herself face down upon the hard floor She had no conscious ness of right to blame any one. She was conscious only of pain and the de. termination to hide it.
 Now, poor Charley was blessed or cursed. as you choose, with an unusual command of feminine powers of dis stimulation, and her natural pride, which was great, was re-enforced by social training favorable to its strongest devel- opment Now, it put her upon course of self control and play acting that for the time seemed like to cost her cruelty, although, according to her lights, she was behaving with just that virtue and discretion which, if southern women are to be believed, should most endure happiness. She treated Cousin Kate with deferential cordiality and met Harry, when escape would have been noticeable, with pleasant, elusive, mock ing gayety. He felt and could not un- derstand saddening change in the tenn perature, argue against the fact with himself as he would.
 Life ill such place as this is as if the whole world had taken hasheesh and the ordinary measurements of time were lost The long hours in such a household are more than weeks amid life's ordinary routine.
 By evening the day after she had de- voted herself to this purpose Charley had contrived to spread subtle impress sion of slight but growing weariness with Mir. Williams society and of an awakening disposition to he interested in that of another young man The of- fees of the mining company gave an unusual proportion of young men to the sil.al. C.Golo oI summer isi,oEs at Over toni0. That was it's one great recommen- datiOu.
 i- tha meantime Charley Was begging her father to let her go for visit across the mountain to the Alpine House, a much larger and more fashionable cara vansary. He paid small attention to her and nut her off with saving he'd see