The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1898-12-23
- belonrs 10 the -,

II belongs 70 lue past.
Then it has not been opened for
some timer
Miss FozglOve's gray eyes turned
within.
"a quarter Of a century, she said.
ale took the volume from the shelf,
and with strange misgiving turned the
leaves until arrested by a much under
scored canto, from which fell faded
foxglovc.
a with a smile whose divinely deep sweet
d.. ness disclosed
Some depths IN her nature he never had
'sThe eyes of Lavinia Foxglove met
his.
% The volume has never been opened >
she said-sudden PaIlor in her Gueenly
presence-'since an old, old friend Dor
rowed It, returned it-and then
then
What happenedP
He went away
"'And thenP
90 The world changed
"She took the volume Hillhouse hand
ed her to read in the lines the foxgloEe
had stained. the confession she had
waited in vain 10 hear from the lips Of
the borrower so long ago."
''You don't mean to tell US" cried
Miss Dashaway, that there lives in
this age q man stupid enough TO ex-
pest woman to look in a book for a
prOPOsaI?T
But that happened a quarter Of a
century ago" laughed Mrs. Pentland.
"True," said Betram, "and the poor
IL
devOured every word underscOred,
while she naturally laid the volume
away and never looked at it again until
HiIIhOuse opened 1t and babe her read
the lines which embodied his proposal.
Not having heard from her, he went
away in a moment of pique and never
Returned. From time to time he heard
Of her conquests, but il seems they were
but fiirtatiOns which he strOve in vain
to forget. Youth passed away, as did
her family ties, until she was left alone
in the world, with a mere pittanee that
Cut her off from the gay circle in which
she was once SO brilliant an ornament"
"Weu, she must be a mOss-grown
foxgIove,'' laughed Miss Dashaway. ~
thought the species extinct. Fancy a
modern woman pining over a delin-
quent lover, burying herself in hall
room with an ADgOTa cat and window
garden!"
''How does it come, Betram," said
Pentland, that your quasi-Austen hero
Inc escaped clubdom? ?"
"So reflection on club women" re-
proved the hostess. ITO forget history
there is nothing like helping to make
it -
Bravo" cried the telegraph editor.
al can understand Miss FOxglOve,"
said Mrs. Wetherell, giving the story
teller a sympathetic smile. 'She was
born too early to grasp the spirit Of
the new movement and adjust herself
TO its exacti6ns. Being an offspring
Of the old order Of things, She chung
instinctiveIy to a belief that her hearts
desire would some day be fulfilled.
AS she waited, opportunity slipped by"
at I retollect rightly" said FrOth-
ingham, everything had plenty Of time
TO slip by in a Jane Austen story"
''BUt isn't it time for the cleric?"
smiled Mrs. Wetherell. "Jane Austen
without the clergy is Hamlet without
the prince"
Betram's glowing eyes took in the
guests VINO had followed his story with
the ba&tering old friendship admits.
Tomorrow at high nOOn," said he,
''Rev. DR.. Broughton viii await you at
the Red Brick church. and after the
ceremony Lavinia and 1 viii be at home
at the studiO-its latch string, you
know, is always Out-where we hope
to dispense Christmas cheer through
out the year"
''The deuce!' cried the city editor.
''YOu said the chaps name was Hill
house"
And so it isl smiled the sculptor
Return Hillhouse Betram.' - Ida
Ross McCabe, in Detroit Free Press.