Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-09-01
HIS SECOND CHOICE.

INTO Inat tfap DICK! Salu hetty MOT
gan, indignantly.
Mr. Eichard Carisforde looked calm
ly a. his wrathful little cousin.
81 -aon't exactly phrase it i'll those
,erms, Hetty," said he, quietly. eff
yon mean to question whether I am
Intending to offer myself to Miss
Deerhaven, can only answer you
yes.
''It's a trap, and insist upon it,
that it is," said Hetty, vehemently.
"Oh, dear, why will men be so wise
on all other subjects, and SO idiotically
blind when women are concerned?
Julia Deerhaven is an ill-tempered,
scheming
''Hetty!'
''She is not your wife yet; no, nor
even your fancee, thank goodness,
persisted Hetty; "and something may
happen to open your eyes before you
have hopelessly committed yourself. !"
''Hetty," said Mr.. Carisforde, rest
lessly turning lead pencil round and
round his fingers, "what has occurred
to give you such a preiudice-an un-
founded one, as 1 sincerely hope
against Miss Deerhaven? She is cer
tainly pretty, and"
Pretty? Yes," said Hetty with a
shrug of her shoulders, $50 is a spot
ted tiger pretty after its fashion, and
black and yellow leopard"
"And amiable?"
NO." interrupted Hetty, empha-
tically. "Her temper is anything but
the temper to make mans life
happy"
''What makes you think so?'
II don't think so," said Hetty, with
an air of calm assertion. 81 know it,;
she is ill-natured, shrewish to her
poor old father and mother, unamiable
in every relation of life.
''You misjudge her, Hetty, 1 am
sure," pleaded Mr.. Carisforde, with a
troubled look
"Oh, Of course" answered Hetty,
satirically, that's always mans
argument. I only hope you won't find
my judgment correct when it is too
late to mend matters"
cat all events she is Industrious, or
she would never have undertaken to
lead the district school,"
eyes; because she wants more
money than she can screw out of her
father for dress, ornaments and inap-
propriate jewe'"y."
'Now,you are uncharitable Hetty."
"Oh, am ]" retorted Hetty, with
toss of her pretty little head. Just
you waix and see for yourself, that's
all: only don't say that I haven't
warned you
And she fitted out of the room like
butterfly in high dudgeon.
''Richard Carisforde sat with con-
tracted brows and grave, thoughtful
eyes, as he still turned and twisted
ahe cedar pencil between his fingers.
GOULD it be possible that there was
any shadow of truth in what Hetty
Morgan had been saying to him. No.
surely not-and yet-the reflection
would keep recurring to him that if it
was so, what very disagreeable dis
sovery it would be to make too late.
He thought of Julia Deerhaven, fair,
Berene and dew-eyed as an angel
surely she could be naught but what
she seemed. Hetty must be mistaken; !;
and yet Hetty was pretty shrewd in
her conclusions, quick to understand,
tnd an adept in reading all the signs
sf character.
SIS there no way of deciphering
jhis riddle?" sighed the would-be
over. "Oh. for wise womap to un-
fold the mysteries of futurits for a
1lue to the hidden meaning of a sweet
voice OF a gentle glance! l remember
how, as boy, I used to write in my
eopybook, over and over again: 'All
is not gold that glitters.' Can it be
possible that I am destined to live
over the significance of the words? If
Julia Deerhaven is not perfect, then
women are more of dissimulators than
I have any idea
And Mr.. Dick Carisforde, too un-
Iuiet to sit still, went for a long walk,
whose winding took him past the one
story schoolhouse 1where Miss Deer
haven taught young ideas how to shoot,
Mt the rate of twenty-four dollars a
month, and in sight of the lower
farmhouse, under the hill, where Far
mer Deerhaven himself dwelt, trying
to force precarious living out of the
sterile and rocky soil. For the fair
Julia was the eldest of seven young
Deerhavens, and money didn't grow
on every blackberry bush in the pas
ture meadows, by any means, as the
poor tiller of the soil found to his cost.
1t was no very tempting casket to
snshrine the jewel of Julia Deer
haven's rich blonde beauty = yet
Richard Carisforde stood looking at it
as lovers will gaze upon the homes of
those they have learned to worship,
until the purple clash came down, like
royal curtain all glittering with
stars, and light flashed out of the
lowly easement, where perhaps, even
then, Julia was tightening her mother
household cares with the tender minis.
trations of filial love
He stood quite silent and immovable
for full ten minutes-then started as
II from magnetic trance.