Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1900-06-02
MONICA.

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no weight with it at all?'
"But do you love me-rcallY?'
Need l answer tha,%.
"But there are others, younger, rrettier."
Nonsense! There Is no II prettier than
you in this wide world.'
Abr with q charming smile, nov i'll
deed / believe you do love me, for the Greek
Cupid Is blind. What q silly Toy you are 10
urge this matter? For one thing, l am older
than YOU"
"a year or two"
"For mother"
IL will not listen. stony limits cannot
hold love OUT why, therefore, try to DIS
courage me-"
"But you should think
IL think only that If you will say what l
ask you, l shall be always with you, and you
with me-"
'What is your JOY Is my fear. Custom
creates WEAKNESS! And-'tle lover, in the
husband, may be lostr'
"Ahl you have thought Of me in that
light" eXclaims the young man, eagerly.
Beloved, if you will only take me, You
shall find In me both lover and husband UNI
til your life's end"
The smile has died from Olga's lips; she
holds out her hands to him.
$50 be it," size says, gravely.
"You mean it?" says R~onaync, as vet
afraid to believe in his happiness.
Eyes. But II ever you repent blame your
self"
"And If you repent?"
~ shall blame you too" she says, with a
sudden return to her old archness.
"And you will refuse Rossmoync?"
She laughs outright at this, and glances ut
him from under dropping lashes.
II can't promise that" she says, with
carefully simulated embarrassment,-'be
cause"
whats" haughtily, moving away from
her,
~ did so yesterday"
"Oh, darling, how cruelty l misjudged
you! / thought feared"
"Never mind oil that. / know-I forgive
you. I've a lorelU temper" says Olga, with
much self-gratulation.
"Why did you refuse him? Was it," hope
fully, because You didn't like hIm~
"N-o. Not SO much that-as-" again
this shameless coquette hesltates, and turns
her head uneasily from side to side, as
though afraid to give u%tterance to the truth.
"What? Explain, Olga says her lover,
In q fresh agony.
"As that 1-toue your returns she, with q
heavenly smile.
His arms close round her. and at this mo-
ment she lets all her heart be seen by him.
The hooking light dies out of her eyes, her
face grows earnest. She. lets her heart beat
with happy unrestraint against his. The
minutes fly, but time was never made TO be
counted by blissful lovers.
A gong sounding in the distance rouscs
them from their cOntented dreaming.
II must go and tell Hernia" she says,
starting to her feet; that is the dressing
bell"
"YOu won't let her influence. you against
me?'
Nobody could do that" She moves away
from him, and then runs back to him again
and lays her arms round his neck.
You are more to me now than Hernia,
and TIC WOrld" she says, softly.
Yet, presently, when she finds herself In
Hermia's calm presence, her courage some
what fails her. 1t Is not that she for a mo-
ment contemplates the idea of having to
give up her lover, but she Is afraid of her
Cousins cold d~isparagcment of both him
and her.
~ have Just promised to marry Ulic," she
says plunging without preface into her story,
with q boldncss born of nervous excitement.
ITO MARRY him! Why, / thought you
looked upon him as a mere boy! Your
baby you used to call him."
Probably that is why l have accepted
him. A baby should not be allowed to roam
the world at large without some one to look
after him."
do you love him, Olga?'
Eyes, | do" says Olga, defiantly. "You
may scold me If You like, but a title isn't
everything, and he Is worth a dozen of that
cold, stiff Rossmoyne."
well, dearest, as you have given him the
best part Of you,-your heart, lit Is well the
rest should follow, says Mrs. Herrick, ten
derby. Eyes, l think you will be very happy
with him"
This speech Is so strange, so unexpected,
so exactly unlike anything she had made up
her mind to receive, that for q moment Olga
is stricken dumb. Then with a rush she
comes back to glad life.
'Do l wake? do l dream? are there Wis
ions aboutP' she says. "Why, what sentl-
ments from you! You have changed all
that apparently"
II have" says Hernia, very slowly, yet
with a vivid blush. Something in her whole
manner awakes suspicion Of the truth in
Olga's mind.
"Why," she says, "you don't mean to tell
that Oh, no! it can't be true! and yet
/ verify believe you have Is it so, Her
mia?'
1T is" says Hernia, who has evidently,
by help of some mental process of her own,
understood all this amazing farrago of ap-
parently meaningless words.
There is a new sweetness on Mrs. Her.
rick's lips. One of her rare smiles lights up
her calm, artistic face.
After all your vaunted superiority p says
Olga, drawing a deep sigh. ''Oh, dearr'
Then, with q wicked but merry imitation OF
Mrs. Herrlck's own manner to her, she goes
on:
You are throwing yourself away, dear.
est. The world will think nothing of you
for the future; and you, so formed to shine,
and dazzle, and"
He will be a baronet at his fathers
death" says Mrs. Herrick, serenely, with 9
heavy emphasis on the first pronoun; and
then suddenly, as though ashamed of this
speech, she lets her mantle drop from her
and cries, with some tender PASSION
II don't care about that. Hear the truth
from me. If he were as ugly and poor a:
Mary Brownies Peter, l should marry hin
all the same, just because l love himp
"Oh, Hernia, l am so glad" says Olga
"After all, what is there in the whole wide
world so sweet as love? And as for Ross
moyne,-why, he couldn't make a tender
speech to save his life as it should be made
whilst Ulic-Oh, he's chdrmtngW
CHAPTER xxx.
And now night has fallen ut last upoI
this long day. A gentle wind is shiverins