Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1897-12-02

ful!" said the girl.
I'm big coward to tell you all this, +"
he went on, ''but / felt so down in my
luck that | had to talk. Now, I might
have made money out of the plantation If
! had staid and worked it instead of leay-
ing it to the tenants. / might have made
\ $500, perhaps $1,000, extra for myself
7 out of it, but couldn't do it, Dolly
just couldn't stay there and clothe and
feed that old woman with my own hands.
She lives in the house, and-oh, well'-
Yes, dear, I have mamma.
Yes, but your mother i5--oxcllse me,
Dolly, but your mother is fat--plump,
mean to say-and portly women must be
more endurable than thin ones with claws
and beaks. j."
"Jack''
Eyes"
"Im thinking of that plantation. I'm
SO glad you've got it,"
"Well I'm not. "
''Oh, but you will be. You see | didn T.
know you had property, and that was max
ing it hard for me. l thought of that col
lection of old family miniatures Of yours
you showed me, and l thought that might
do. u
DO? Do for what?'' he calculated
"Never mind 1t really wouldn't any
way, What want you to give me now is
a mortgage-a genuine mortgage for $5, e
900 on that Virginia property
"What9''
How much is the property worth?"
"Oh, perhaps SIS, 900 / should say. But
what on earth''-
''Well it's just this" said the girl ex-
taI1 f,f fri /,
the income have saved from some proper
ty left me. am to give you $1,000, and
you are to borrow it from me by fixing up
mortgage on your plantation for that
amount. My lawyer will attend to it in
regular form. Papa didn't leave me his
business head for nothing, Jack, dear. :"
"And what am to do with the money!"
asked the youth aghast.
"Now, I've been thinking out all that
for months. thought 1t out when l was
dancing, and had long, restful, delicious
thinks over it while men were twaddling
their nonsense at me. Papa made his pile
mining, you know, and what have you
studied mining and engineering for if you
can't make yours that way too? You re-
member talking to me about gold possibil-
tiles in Alaska? Well, want you to take
this money and try your luck there. And
oh, Jack, don't be SO rude and don't kiss
me while I'm talking and don't look at
me as if you'd cry with feeling if you
weren't 6 feet in your stookings-your
socks, I mean. You are to go to Alaska
and make fortune-a great big fortune,
Jack, big enough to make mamma quail
before you and to convert the count into II
poor little, black, trickling grease spot at
your mighty 'eet"
Dolly Radnor was Il little body, and sho
was almost breathless and decidedly tum-
bled and out of order when she emerged
from his enthusiastic recognition Of her
devotion. The big fellow stood up and
held her at arms length and looked at her
oh, can't begin to tell you how he
looked at her-and then he gathered her
up in his arms again, and presently they
both sat down and he said, 'Oh, Dolly"
in voice hushed with tender emotion,
'Oh Dolly, can't accept"
And then she put her little, SOFT white
hand across his lips and said in the deci-
siye way belonging to small women: "You
are accepting nothing. l am making you
loan, sir. If girl can't help chap she
loves before she gets him, she shouldn't t
ever have le right to do 1t afterward,
that's all. And-well, if you don't let me,
Ill-Ill marry the count or that beastly
old officer with the wooden leg or Chi
nese attache or something like jack in
the box from Korea"
They both laughed, and there was much
personal talk and argument and many
caresses that need not be recorded here.
Suffice it to say that two weeks after this
conversation Jack Stuart threw up his job
and went to Alaska instead of to the devil,
as everybody thought, his companions
during his stay there being not the DEVILS
servants-women, wine, cigarettes and
cards-but instead miniature of very
beautiful girl smiling from a frame of tur-
quoise, face all Washington society would
recognize, and to keep it's memory right in
the heart Of it's owner there were letters
long, delicious, crossed and recrossed lot
tcrs-scented with violets and ornamented
with a modest monogram. Dolly Radnor
did not use her mothers crest.
The last one of these letters was bit
curt and impatient 1t read;
DEAREST JACK-You have got gold enough
to startle even Mark Hanna with, much less
mamma and the count Mrs. Hetty Green
would-I started to say would be green with
envy. am miserable and you must come
home. l can't stand them any longer. Nam.
mas bad gremmar increases with her anger,
and the counts broken English and oriental
perfume become more uncomfortable as his love
intensifes. Pm getting low and vulgar. You
would not know me. I've tried everything to
cure the count frequently come down when
he calls me with my hair done up in curling
kids and chew gum in his presence constant
ly. Nothing seems to work with him. though.
He is Zone grande loafer" out here at our
country place. He counts all my eccentricitics
as "ze caprice Of one petite ille-charmante--
gentile"-all the French epithets of approval.
Come home or l will run away with him Just
for the pleasure Of numbering him neatly Oh
our wedding journey. Your own for eternity,
DOLLY
She didn't add that she was wearing all
of her last summers frocks that she
hadn't now gown or o new hat to her
name; that everything had been cut off
from the first of the year-at least all the
spending money her mother gave heron
account of her disobedience about the
count. And, as for her own income, she had
taken the whole of that for year in adj
vance to lend to a certain young fellow
who had recently dug a fortune out of an
Alaska goldfeld. This young fellow has
no idea of how mean even fat mother
can be when she is stupid and vain and
ambitious, nor will he ever know from
Dolly's lips the extent of her sacrifice, SO
l am determined he shall read 1t here.
He came home ten days ago, and there
was the happiest girl In the world to greet
him in a certain big country house near
Washington. The count was not happy,
and Mrs. Radnor is as yet barely reconciled
to the situation, for she felt that he had
enough money for the count as well as for
the girl who may be named as one woman
who did not send missing man to the
devil.-Atlanta Constitution.
AutobiographiCal.