Year: 1869

| reasonable beings ahd each is entitled to b
treated as such by the other. am actuated b.
| q true regard for you in endeavoring to con
vince you that this habit is injurious, AM
my endeavors are entitled to respectful
consideration"


eyes; but you see you have failed Il
convince me, then why not give the matte
up and talk of something of interest insteat
of reading me these premature caudle lee
tures," said Robert.


An angry flush shot across Miss Dalton
face, bat, with an effort, shs curbed he
tongue and quietly answered, e. cannot SCI
that my arguments have failed so long a
you fail to meet them"


Roberts petulance increased as the con
versation continued and the less ground hi
fair opponent left him to stand on the mor'
angry he became, until at last, Miss DaltoI
lost temper also, and finally said; 'Wcll
sir if you have not enough manly courage
and self-control to break off habit which
you must know to be luxurious, you are moi
the man / thought you to be; if you cannot
surrender so small thing as your cigar fol
my sake, you cannot love me as you ought
and you may rest assured that will never
call any house my homo the atmosphere o.
which is to be poisoned by the fumes ol
tobacco"


Mr.. Livingstone sprang to his feet as
though he had been stung


"Am to understand that as threat,
that if do not accede to your wishes in this
matter you will break our engagement" he
asked, quivering with excitement and sup
pressed passion.


"You are at liberty to SO construe it il
you please"


"But l want your construction, NOT
mine.'


"Well, accept yours. Yes sir! you can
have your cigars, or you can have me. You
can't have both.'


Then Miss Dalton, take the cigars.
That love which may be won or lost by q
cigar is not worth even so slight sacrifice
Good evening"" and without further cere-
mony the irate lover bowed himself out of
the room, and grasping hat and cane rushed
home, to think, and TO peruse possibly, but
certainly to sit and smoke as we found him
during the opening of our story.


The more Robert Livingston thought, the
less he was able to see anything wrong in
his conduct, and the more strongly he felt
that Miss Dalton had committed an outrage
on his love in demanding price for her
hand, even though this price were her lov-
er's REIMBURSEMENT of a practice she believed
injurious to him and knew to be dsagreeable
to herself.


Miss Dalton of course also thought long
and sorrowfu!ly on the course affairs had
taken, but conscious of the rectitude. of her
intentions, she did not see that there was
any step for her to take towards reconcilia-
ton, and then, that sneer about ''premature
Caudle lectures kept ringing in her ears
and bringing hot Aushes to her cheek.


So pride triumphed over love, and the
separation grew into days, and the days in
to weeks, and neither heard from or saw the
other.


Miss Dalton was not left long to indulge
in selfish grief Her fathers chronic i'll
health changed suddenly to dangerous i'll
ness, and his care occupied nearly all her
time and thoughts for few weeks, and then
she bowed in lonely grief over the lifeless
remains of the only parent she had ever
known. When the last sad rites had been
performed, and the body laid away, the
poor girl felt utterly desolate and alone in
the world. She had not seen Robert since
the night they had parted in anger, but she
had known all along that almost immedi.
ately afterwards he had gone on a business
tour in the South. She felt now, in her bit
ter grief, how unspeakably dear his presence
would be to her, how he, alone, could speak
TO her words of comfort that would not
wound like the commonplace words of con-
ISOLATION that had been dinned into her ears
during the past few days.


In this softened mood she thought anew
of their quarrel, and saw it in somewhat
different light. During her fathers last ill
ness she had incidentally alluded to Lis
broken health being the result of his early
excessive use of tobacco. The family ply
scian, hale, bluff man, who dearly loved
a cigar himself, laughed and told her that
that was merely whim of her fathers,
which he had humored, after fruitless ef-
fort TO argue him out of it, and then he pro-
ceeded to explain to her somewhat fully the
nature Of Mr.. Dalton's disease, and to de-
monstrate quite clearly the impossibility of
its being the result of smoking


Annie was not convinced, but the firm
ness of her former conviction was shaken.
This uncertainty influenced her in her re-
newed consideration of her quarrel with
Robert, and in her presen. longing desire
for love and sympathy, she felt that love
was indeed beyond price, and that she had
been wrong in her attempt to exact cond-
tions of her lover. AS is usual in such
cases, she rapidly flew to the other extreme,
and, forgetting the provocation she had al
ready forgiven, she lay the whole blame
upon herself and added remorse to her al
ready heavy burden of grief


A few weeks after the funeral, Robert
Livingstone, in looking oyer the old files of
New York paper, at dreary Southern
hotel, came across a notice of Mr.. Dallons
death. II awakened in him variety of
emotions which finally eliminated in this
feeling, he had been absent from the wo-
man he loved In the hour of her greatest
trial, and had, himself, added to her grief
He gave but little time to useless brooding,
but was soon whirling northward at the
rate of thirty miles an hour, and chatting at
the slowness Of railload travel. He forgot
his quarrel with Annie.-their broken en-
gagement-everything, but that he must as
soon as possible get to see her, and speak
to her words of sympathy. He arrived in
New York early in the evening, and as soon
as was possible afterwards, he was ushered
into the presence OF Miss Dalton,-the SER
want who admitted him, knowing of no
change in his relations with that lady. no.
even announcing him.


The lovcra lunked at each oihar far a mn