The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-19

them-half-sheet Of paper. upon which
was scrawIed with a pencil. In poor
loans cramped. unused hand:
won't you wear these tonight. dear
Calista, at your reading? They'll
match your dress I know, for I got
aunt Mary to give me a piece Of h
and I looked out hat the yellow was
just the shade to go with it. I do wish
that I could see and hear you tonight:
but I can't unless-Oh, dear 'Lista!
would it be too much bother for you to
step in a minute on your way, and let
me have just one look at you in your
beautiful silk gown. with my lowers on
your bosom? But If it would be too
much OF a put-out, don't do 1t, for
father Is going to hear you. and he Will
tell me all about it. I 10 SO hope that |
you'll have a great success tonight, |
and I almost know that you will.
Lovingly, JOAN"
The tears were running down the
girls cheeks as she read the conclud-
ing words, and there were tears in her
voice as well, as when she said, touch
ing tenderly the long, curled petals
that had cost her little cousin 80 many
hours of weary work:
Tell Joan, uncle Ben, that I will
| plan to spend an hour with her before
it is time for reading to begin. And
If she wants me to, I will go over a
part Of M programme for the evening,
for her special ear. No, no, don't
thank me IT'S little enough for me to
do in the way of hanks for her beauti-
full gift"
But Mrs. Meade's face wore a look of
troubled Ierplexity; and her brother
was scarcely out Of hearing before she
broke forth impatiently:
You don't mean thai you're going
to stand up there, before an audience
of the very best folks in Fairfield, rig
ged out in tissue paper flowers? You'll
make yourself the laughing stock Of
the town, wearing such gaudy things
in public"
They are such perfect limitations
that, seem from a distance, 1 don't be-
lieve that any one will mistrust that
they are not the real fowers,"
perhaps not" assented her mother,
ruefully; but even if they are k
for the real flowers, who ever head Of
wearing chrysanthemums in ones
gown? They're a pretty enough gard
en- flower, blu to wear with an evening
dress-and in such a Conspicuous place,
too; it's perfectly ridiculous!"
Mrs. Meade said no more; but there
was IN anxious quicker between her
eyes that deepened as the day wore
away. There are the Moore girls"
she said to herself. and Helen Barton,
and Mis- Cap'n Hayes-all folks that
h1loV w AAAI - lAoS oAAA AAo A'~SS ~
we'll 'Lista reads, those great, flaring,
yellow paper f1owersll stamp her in
their eyes as a regular country
greeny." And murtively wiping away
her tears, the poor mother tried hard
to keep up a cheerful air that her
:, anxious face fatty contradicted. Even
the crowded hall, with it's picked audi
: ence, failed to bring any relief to her
distracted soul.
I The bursts Of applause were frequent
=, and loud; but when some one, at the
1 close of the last piece. presented the
smiling reader with a beautiful bou-
; Quet poor Mrs. Meade could only groar
: in spirit:
l "Them's real flowers; anybody cal
. tell the difference even from here"
The profuse congratulations Of hel
= neighbors, even the raident face of un-
O Gle Ben, failed to reassure her; but 6
whispered colloquy etwee one OF
= those much-dreaded critics, the Moore
-. twins, and another young lady, as they
, stood for a moment in the vestibule
:, carried more real comfort to her sou
- than all the fiattering comments tha
had been shoWered upon her by par
, tial friend
= $50 it seems that chrysanthemum'
are the fashionable flower, after all,
= remarked Miss Moore, in an audible
" aside. MY cousin Charlotte wrote m
, some months ago that they babe fai
to be all the rage. But l don't Sc
y, where Calista Meade got such beauti
10 full ones at this season Of the year.
~ ooh, as to that" returned the Other
va eager to air her own knowledge, The
i cousin in New York sent them to he1
I know, because Harry Saunders, tn
r clerk in the post office, told me that
box of flowers came for her from ther
in this mornings mail"
But if she could only have heard tn
conversation hat followed that t
." which she had listened, her feeling {
ne relief would have been one of actus
f. triumph.
Il wish somebody would start
greenhouse here; but-see here, now.
and the two daintily hooded heao
drew closer together; Il know whe1
we can get artificial ones so perfe'
or that, in the evening nobody woul
II know the difference. You rememb'
az that Miss Van Cortland who was he
tn last summer and boarded with tt
Gannetts? Well, she taught that lit
er crippled girl how to make the mo
he exquisite paper f1owers-her chrysal