Smyrna times., 1902-07-23
A WOnnan's
...Revenge

O'AnSS anu uallled with
the tremulous fronds of the weepino
willows in which the city of Cheyenne
is embowered. P. S.-The willv-
wally is not wild beast; it is a noun
tain wind.
In pretty rustic bower, overhupe
by clustering clematis and Winding
wlsterla, sat Susan Muggins and
Lionel Livingstone Darlington. listen
ing to the lifting lullaby of a lutte
touched by caressing fingers on the
lake below, bathed in the golden pur-
pie glory of Wyoming moon. The
magic and mystery of the night laid
their enchanted hands upon the face
OF the waters, and on the green valleys
and silver submitted mountains.
transforming the scene into one that
seemed scarcely of earth.
Lionel Livingstone Darlington gent
ly murmured the name of Susan Mug
gins, and the music of his voice made
sweeter the strains of the Lutte Oh the
lake.
And do you love me, Lionel?" the
girl whispered nesting her hand in
his and inclining her silken tresses
toward his manly bosom.
Il swear it, dearest, by all the
beauties of the night of which YOU
are the queen," he responded raptur-
Ously.
Their lips met in a delicious, de-
claratory, definite, delightful, detonat-
ing, delirious, dizzy kiss, and the
circumambient atmosphere was filed
with the mellihuous melody of two
hearts beating as one.
Let me pause a moment, gentle
reader, at this point in our tale, in
order to introduce our hero and
heroine.
Susan Muggins, whose family was
one of the oldest in Wyoming, having
come over in a prairie schooner, the
Sunhower from Kansas, was a fair
being of twenty-five summers, tall
and stately, charming and accom-
plished, with starry eyes and pearly
teeth, and cherry lips, peachy cheeks;
and since her debut two years before
IN the most inclusive, recherche, and
arlstocratic circles of Laramie City,
she had been one of the most popular
bellies, both in her native city and in
the bedazzling bewilderment of the
splendid assemblage of wealth and
fashion at the capital, where she
always visited during the gay season.
1t was here she met Lionel Living
stone Darlington, of Cheyenne, which
had before been attractive to her as a
social centre, became very dear to her
as the home of the man to whom she
plighted her troth on this night of
nights, by the moonlit, silver strand,
with the Niobrara nightingales sing
ing in the Wyoming willows by the
lute-flled lake. That her father owned
vast mining interests and stood to
be Millionaire was of no consequence
to her at this iuncture.
And what of Lionel Livingstone
Darlington? Much, more, most, and
then the half has not been told.
Handsome as Apollo, graceful as
Ganymede, strong as Hercules, ador-
able as Adonis, sage as Solomon, he
combined in one man the charms of a
dozen, and it may be said of him
without fear of successful contra
diction, that he was the Chesterfield
of Cheyenne, and the one man among
a hundred Of the capitals most capti-
waiting, to whom every feminine eye
was turned. But he passed unscathed
of Cupid until Susan Muggins came
his way, and he had learned that her
father had a barrel of money and more
IN sight. He was a poor young law
yer, with a promising practice, and
the gall Of Galileo, and there was no
proposition too hard for him. Possess
ed of inordinate ambition, he had
early turned his attention to politics,
and he paralyzed the very Oldest
practical politicians by the principles
he preached. They did not claim to
be angels, but they feared to rush in
as Darlington did. He had not yet
held Office, but it was known at the
August convention he expected to be
nominated for the Legislature, and
even his bitterest enemies in the other
party admitted that nothing short Of
divine interposition would beat him
should he receive the nomination.
But politics is vague and unreal in
its diversities of destiny, and the man
who trusts his own party is quite az
liable to be disappointed as he is to be
defeated by his political opponents.
Yet Lionel Livingstone Babington, in
his imperious march onward, seemed
not to know what fear was. He knew
that he had foes within his own party