The St. Johns herald., 1897-04-10

Nevertheless, thanks to nature's con- tempt for the theorizing of her children, they had made some progress in their knowledge each of the others state of mind.
 Everybody knows that weddings are contagious. When Ea1ly that afternoon CD the gallery listened to the discussion of the coming festi7ity at old Harkins' he had what he took-perhaps l had bet t7r say mistOoL-for q small but happy ---- ---llo a1 once tAot on tnatnght he would declare himself to Charley. He would take her to the wedding in the only buggy that was to be had in Overtonia. Harkins' place was two miles from the hotel on a rough road. It was strange if coming home that night he could not find fe- licitous moment for-what he was going to say and what be was going to do--for decisive steps, let us say. An evening buggy ride exactly suited his ideas of a proper occasion for serious lovemaking He had regretted more than once that life on the mountain offered so few such opportunities, but the roads were so bad that in the public mind only some defi- nite necessary end justified recourse to travel on wheels. h the fullness of his heart Harry embellished his little plan with various decorative features. Among other things, he thought that he would send off at once to Nashville for an en- gagement ring, so as to surprise Charley with the promptness of its appearance. No really grownup person, with brains enough to learn from experience, would ever have dared to tempt fate by such crass confidence as this, and more pen etratingly tactful youth would have known that Charley, even if she accept ed him, would not be altogether pleased by this particular form of foresight
 But Harry was, in fact, but boy and one sure to be generally astray as to what men have been pleased to chris ten the mysteries of woman's heart, though I dare say, if women had been managing the worlds affairs and liter ature for tho last several thousand years, we should be hearing just as much about the unfathomable mysteries of mans heart, the fact simply being that the mystery lies in those arrange ments of all ever inscrutable Providence by which it is established that the sexes shall be eternally divided, however ap- pearances may sometimes contradict the misunderstanding
 q wit dreams, ne was 50 moved hv them that h8 turned away from the aZitated group, laughing and chatterjns about the Far- kins family, and went and stood peer ing through the honeysuckle vine at the other end of the gallery. Charley called to him, and he did not hear her:
 "Mr. Harry" cried one of the other girls, Charley wants to know what you are going to wear. !"
 "Excuso me-" said Harry, coming toward them, but then he forgot to make any reply, in the distraction of seeing Charley's brown eyes turned up to his, and unable to endure just then the glancing frivolity of the talk he picked up his hat and strolled down the walk.
 Charley felt distinctly miserable that she had been snubbed, so she laughed with merry abandon at the information that Art Harkins never, under any cir cumstances, took off his hat and would undoubtedly eat Dade's wedding supper with it on, and then she danced away into the big empty hall, dragged her self slowly up the stairs and crept off into an unfrequented garret. In the crowded house, this, since she fell in love and needed one, had become her place of meditation She was over wrought by the unaccustomed and star tling amount of sensation her days now brought her, and by dramatically pie turing various unpleasant possibilities to herself as probabilities, though not ill the least really believing in them, she managed to relieve herself by few tears, and then she crept over to the one small square low window that lit the place She sat on the floor and press ed her face against the glass and gave herself up to further dreaming, but now of vague, sweet possibilities, probabili-
 There were no other windows in the hcuse that looked down into the corner cf tho green yarl sine saw. It WAS sLCl- tered nv a big t-ctHesl ~-rg.viue ana b.l,ltu ifs sLa.. 7..- an a.a sa.teu buc,.
 When Harry found a chance to drag Mrs. Peytee to this spot for oonfden- tial interview, it was under the delu- sion that it was invisible to all indoors. He and Mrs. Peytee were always very good friends, and now, seized with sudden need of a sympathetic ear, it was to her that he turned That idea about the ring that had slipped through his head became fixed now by nothing more or less personal to himself or Char ley than the chance he saw of making It an easy pretext for telling his tale to Mrs. Peytee.
 Come, sit around by the grapevine with me, " he said when, turning back to the house in his restless tramping. he met her in the yard.
 Mrs. Peytee was alUox-C oroo;o,,- o,,l