The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1900-08-24
"Any letters to take back7. asked the

'Any letters to take back?'' asked the
messenger, looking up from his meal.
you are not going back tonight"
"No; but shall start in the morn
ing before you are awake. guess-four
at the latest"
Then ] will finish my letter and
bring it down to you in the camp
said Roy. You put up for the night
at Wilson's store, suppose?''
That's So"
"Then will bring down my letters
in half an hour. Good night!' as the
man rose to resume his journey.
AS soon as he was gone. Roy sat down
again to finish his long letter to Lilac;
but, as he was doing it, q thought oc-
Cured to him that he must read his
other letters first, lest they should alter
his plans.
pleasant. cousinly style, saying that she
would welcome Lilac as sister, and
adroitly toning down the hostility
which Lady Garth felt toward the
match. Its pleasant vivacity made LII
laos more constrained epistle seem all
the colder by contrast; and q vague
uneasiness had already orept AUTO the
baronet's mind when he opened the
third envelope and found that the con-
tents were from Major Emmott.
He was glad that the messenger had
left him, and that no human eyes could
watch him as he read the bitter accu-
sations which the old major. urged on
by his daughter. made against the wo-
man of his choice. His face grew white.
and a mist rose before his eyes which
big, bold handwriting. His heart was
filled with fierce resentment against
Lilac; but he tried to combat it. 1t was
not her fault, he told himself, that she
could not love him, and had met in the
person Of Mark Mowbray q man for
whom she cared more. Was 1t likely
that in the new life that he himself had
opened out for her that she would meet
nobody for whom she would care more
than for himself? She had liked him
he felt sure that she had liked him
although she ad refused to be formally
engaged to i'm; but was 1t not only be-
cause he was the first man with re-
finement like her own whom she had
met in her isolated Californian home?
Now she must have met many. Of
course, and it was scarcely to be hoped
that he could retain his pre-eminence.
Well. Lilac's happiness must be Sc
cured. he told himself. even IL it broke
his heart: and Roy took the fond let
ter he had been preparing for her and
tore It into fragments. II she cared
for this Mark Mowbray. for whom. &C.
cording to the major, she had shown
her affection 30 unmistakably-he
would not stand in her way by making
her feel under obligation to him or em-
phasizing the cruelty Of the blow she
was striking at his happiness.
So. in place OF. the diary-like letter
which had occupied him SO long. he
wrote q short little note. begging Lilac,
II she cared for anybody more than
himself, not to have any scruples on
his account in admitting the fact; and,
as soon as he had sealed it. he took 1t
in q white heat, down to the camp, to-
gether with similarly short note to his
mother, announcing his almost immedi-
ate return. At all costs. he must go
home now. he told himself, and ascer-
tain personally whether all hope Of hap
piness was at an end for him, as seemed
only too likely.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Thanks to the friendship Of Evange-
line Garth. which had become every
day dearer to her, Lilac had found five
weeks pass at Delverton Hall much
more. quickly than she had imagined
possible. Owing to Evangeline's never
failing help, as we'll as to her own
intuitive taste, it would have been DIFF
flcult for anybody to discover in her
speech or manner a single solecism
due to her previous life.
In each of the letters which Lilac
wrote to her lover every week she al
lowed more Of her real self and real
love to show themselves as her hopes
of making the baronet suitable wife
increased. 1t was unfortunate that
the first Of these letters reached the
mining camp in Nevada after Roy's de-
parture.
The feeling that. in spite Of all her
fears. her life was to be one of COM
plete. overwhelming happiness as Roy's
wife was increased by the long. loving
letters which she received from her
fiancee, giving her every detail of his
life at the mines in a way that told
Lilac she was always in his thoughts.
She had read them over and over again
till she knew every word. and could
kiss the passages she loved the best
without glancing at them at all.
In spite Of Lady's Garth's chilling
presence. Lilac felt very happy one
evening. at the end Of Ave weeks. az
she sat in the drawing room and list
ened to Evangeline's sweet voice sing
ing an air from "Cavalieria Rusticana'
to the accompaniment Of her harp.
For the first time her ladyship had
called her Lilac" in place Of the for
NAL Miss Marvel" and there came
into the girls heart faint glimmer-
inE of hope that some day she might