The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1904-11-19
par was in love with YOU nnterposed

Il DiOdAli.
@And engaging yourself to them
both, as | am led to believe the sig
EoIa began with a fresh start.
Knowing the consequences could
| be nothing but disastrous to all con-
gerned," finished the indignant sig
more.
| The girl made a deprecatory gesture,
and turned as if to leave the room, but
her fathers stern tones arrested her.
is it true, as Thompson tells me,
that you promised to marry him?' he
questioned.
The girl'e eyes dropped before his
| charge, but she nodded assent.
ftAnd isn't it equally true that you
promised Caspar last week that you
would marry him?.' chimed in the
mother with volley of tears.
The dropping little target of these
accusations suggested at the moment
anything but wicked, Willful, unduti-
full daughter With no attempt at
classification, she meekly acquiesed
to allthey said, casting furtiye glances
toward the door.
This, then, is the last Of your tri-
fling The signore's tones were as
measured and formal as if he were pro-
nouncing a death sentence. Both
Caspar and Thompson have promised
to keep their hands off each Others
throat tonight, but only on condition
that they have your decision before
ten o'clock"
'.And you will wear Signore Caspar's
camellias tonight, won't you, daugh-
ter?' pleaded the little signora,
changing her tactics.
Under cover of this temporary truce
the culprit made her escape. Alone
again in her room, the cause of all
this trouble sank into limp little
heap upon the floor, and waited for the
earth to open at her feet and swallow
her. But after an hour or two Of pa
tient waiting, the clock on the mantel
licked Off eight hours and admonished
her that, since the earth showed no
sign of coming to her rescue, she had
only two hours in which to decide this
momentous question and make herself
ready for the ordeal of meeting her
parents usual Thursday evening guest.
This was the first crisis she had ever
had to face with her own judgment.
Heretofore blind impulse had swept her
along well enough, but it was this blind
impulse that had at last brought all
this trouble upon her.
When Thompson, who was SO fine
looking after his blond American type,
had asked her under the soft mellow
moonlight to be his wife, her impulse
at that moment had been that life
could offer no finer thing, so she had
told him SO promptly and heartily. And
when a few days later she had met
Caspar on her way from Vespers, when
the autumn sunset glow tinged all the
world with a tender rosy hue,
and. after telling her how lone
some this life was to him away
from his own people, he had
asked her to be his wife, following a |
swift impulse of sympathy and forget
ting for the moment everything but |
the compelling earnestness Of his eyes,
she had told him yes.
And now she was reaping the reward |
OF her lack of stability of character. |
These two men had almost killed each |
other for her sake, and her mother
had almost died of the shock It would |
have been a just retribution, she told |
herself, if she had lost them all and |
every other friend she had ever had. |
Great waves of contrition surged over
her soul till she was ready to do
anything, make any sacrifice, to undo
done
'sPoyero padre!" she sighed, recall
ng her fathers anxiety to hush up the
affair and meet his guests as if moth
ng had happened. She lighted the
candles that fanked her mirror land
began slowly taking the pins out of her
lair, thinking the while, more earn
estly an seriously than she had
yer done in her life. AS the
husky shower fell over her should
RS, the little mirror returned
Ter a miserable, sad-eyed pic
ure that, with an upward glance of
he eyes and more resigned express
ion, might have done for a Mater
9olorosa.
But it was always diyerting to deft
myers to fashion puffs and ringlets,
specially when the result is SO emf
lently satisfactory. BY the time the
asst hair-pin was tucked out Of sight,
nd the last artful curl allowed to
tray at just the right angle, the eyes
n the mirror had lost much of their
adness. The camellias-stiff. pale,
centless things-were not easy to ar
arge, and required much coaxing to :
induce them to nestle contentedly in
er locks. The foliage was stiff and
he stems woody, and somewhere there
fas an uncomfortable pull in her hair.
he did not care, however. She would !
lady have worn crown of thorns at
nat moment, in expiation of her tickle |
ess.
She held her head trife higher !
nd her shoulders just wee bit I
traighter as the meaning of the ca !
1elllas grew upon her. OF course she /
oVed Caspar, and would never dream t
marrying anyone else. Her mother,
he knew, would be happy when she
aW his flowers in her hair. She was
Apply too, because she was doing her I
aty. 10 was so nice to be good. She I
how she ever could have g
cen SO headstrong and tickle. Since I
he horror OF this afternoons barely t
Yerted tragedy, her other self-the
hstlnate, tickle girl-seemed centuries