Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
[graphic]
[merged small][graphic][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

TOOL, MACHINERY AND SPRING STEEL
CASTINGS AND FORGINGS.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

GENTLEMEN: On February 17th, 1880, I sold your No. 22,573 to Timothy Hurley, an engi-
neer on the Rensselaer & Saratoga R. R. The regulator was changed two or three times in the
first ten days, after which it was not touched until August 6th, 1881, when the main-spring
broke. During that time (nearly 18 months) it did not show 30 seconds variation from stand-
ard time. I inserted a new main-spring, without cleaning, and it ran the following fourteen
months even closer than before. On the 1st of February, 1883, it was cleaned for the first
time, and is now running as accurately as ever.

The performance of this movement has been to me a matter of astonishment, and to its
owner a source of great satisfaction.

It will be difficult to find the equal of this watch, and it certainly cannot be excelled by
any of its grade.
A. S. MARSHALL, Jeweier,

[graphic]
[ocr errors][graphic][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

'HERE, darling, sit down by the fire and let me take your things off. Albert will be here this evening, and I have so much to tell you first."

Agnes Tressilian looked very beautiful in the soft glitter of the silver candelabra and the ruddy glow of the fire, as Barbarine Cliffe untied her bonnet-strings and loosened the clasps of her cloak. Her face was a pure, perfect oval, with blue, languid eyes, and lips of fresh, vivid scarlet, and her hair fell in a shining shower of gold from the fillet of blue ribbon that she

wore.

Barbarine Cliffe was what is ordinarily termed a pretty girl, but Barbarine looked plain and coarse, with her fresh cheeks and hazel-brown eyes, by the side of this blonde sylph.

Who would have thought, darling," went on Barbarine, pressing the soft, dimpled hands in hers, as Agnes sat smiling before the fire, "that I should so soon have claimed your part of our old school-girl compact of being each other's bridesmaids. I hope you will like him, Agnes-I don't believe you can help itand I am sure you will admire him."

She prattled away in the innocent fullness of her girl-heart, as she led Miss Tressilian up to the dainty casket of a little room provided for her, and Agnes listened, smiling and radiant as a saint.

Well, Barbarine, has she come?" It was the first question that Albert Vincent asked, when his betrothed wife came tripping across the parlor threshold

NO.

to meet him! Barbarine nodded, brightly:

"Pshaw! I am sorry!"

Albert!" she remonstrated, almost inclined to be vexed.

"But we have been so happy together, all by ourselves, Rina. And now this third one comes to spoil it all."

'You will like her so much, Albert," she pleaded.

Shall I?" He shrugged his shoulders a little dubiously. "Well, for your sake, Rina, I'll try.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

Barbarine Cliffe smiled triumphantly to see the unconscious start of admiration that Mr. Vining gave, when the parlordoor swung open and Miss Tressilian glided in, robed in a dress of white cashmere, with a blue-velvet band twisted through her hair-rose-cheeked, goldentressed and beautiful as a dream. "I knew he would admire her," thought unselfish little Barbarine; " and oh! I am so glad!”

There was no more question of Miss Tressilian's being a third one" after this. How gracefully she harmonized with all their plans-how prettily she gave her sympathy on whichever side it was pleaded for. Barbarine was happier than ever-and Mr. Vining, was he happy? Yes, in a sort of dream, or fever, or exaltation something so different from all he had previously known that he scarce knew by what name to call it.

Agnes Tressilian went away, after a month's visit to her old school friend, and Mr. Vining escorted her to her home among the Catskill hills, at Barbarine's especial request.

She is too beautiful to travel alone!" said the bride-elect, and I shall feel

easier if you come back and tell me you much to heart, Barbarine Cliffe-but love saw her safe home?" will not be controlled or driven!

"What a whimsical little woman you are, Barbarine," said Mr. Vining, but he obeyed nevertheless.

He will be back to-morrow!" thought Barbarine, as she sat down to her embroidery, singing to herself and counting the days to her wedding. Only twentyseven of them now!

But when the morrow came the servant brought in a note, at the hour she had expected Albert Vining himself to arrive -à note that blanched Barbarine's peachblossom of a cheek and sent a keen stab to her poor little tender heart, as if a knife had cleft its way through the quivering flesh.

He had left her to transfer his recreant allegiance to Agnes Tressilian-that was the upshot of it all. He did not love her any longer, since beautiful Agnes Tressilian's face had dawned upon his life.

And Agnes? She had accepted himshe lied, was false to the ideal of friendship poor, simple little Barbarine had worshiped so blindly.

"I will go to her," she thought, rising suddenly up, with her sweet face as pale as a moonlight snow-drift. "I will have the truth from Agnes' own lips. Else I never, never can believe it."

Miss Tressilian had not expected ever again to see the face of the girl she had so wickedly wronged. She had thought Barbarine Cliffe would suffer unremonstratingly, and in silence-but she had misjudged matters in this respect. Barbarine could not give up her life hope without at least one struggle.

"It isn't my fault!" said Agnes Tressilian, with a toss of the showery golden ringlets, "that Albert loves me better than he does you. You ought not to blame me.

[ocr errors]

Agnes! Agnes!" wailed the brokenhearted girl, putting up her trembling hands as if she would ward something away from her, "the fascination was never on one side alone! You dare not deny that you stole his heart away from me!"

No. Agnes Tressilian dared not deny it. She colored, bit her lip, and sent a glittering, arrowy ray from her lovely blue eyes, that was half malice and half triumph.

At any rate, he is mine now," said she, exultantly. "In this world of love, the race is to the swift, and the battle is to the strong! I am sorry you take it so

The

Barbarine rose quietly up. 'I forgive you, Agnes," she said, gently. time may come when you will be glad to remember that!"

"I don't want your forgiveness!" flashed back the blonde beauty; "I will not have it!"

So Agnes Tressilian was married to Albert Vining, the loveliest bride that ever the sun shone on, and Barbarine hid away her broken heart, covering it up with the sweet memories, which were all that she had to dwell on now.

"It was a little shabby to poor Barbarine Cliffe," said Mrs. Vining, tossing back the yellow curls from her alabaster, fair brow; "but I was so much better suited to Albert than ever she could be. It will be a great deal more sensible for all parties in the long run!"

Humph!" said old Mrs. Gregory, Agnes' aunt; "how would you like it for some other woman to put in a claim for Albert on the ground that she was better suited than you to his particular needs and requirements?"

But we are married!" said Agnes, looking alarmed.

[ocr errors]

Marriage isn't always such a safeguard as some people seem to think,' said Miss Gregory, and she took snuff, and plunged into her book again.

She met Barbarine Cliffe sometimes in the years that followed-not in what the world calls society, where people meet to compare their diamonds, envy each other's Paris dresses and talk with those they never cared two straws about-but in the peaceful shadow of rich rooms, where patient sufferers lay waiting for the great tide of eternity to float them away-in dreary purlieus, when Mrs. Vining went to scold dressmakers, and hurry up pale sewing girls. "A regular sister of charity!" said Agnes, scornfully; Barbarine was just made for that sort of thing!"

So it happened that Barbarine Cliffe had occasion to go to her beautiful rival's handsome house one day to plead for an over-worked seamstress to whom Miss Vining owed money—′ a mere trifle”she called it, but to Ruth Morris it was more than that—and Antonie, the French maid, showed her directly to Madame's own room.'

But Barbarine stopped on the threshold appalled. Agnes lay with her face buried among the soft cushions, the lace scarf

« AnteriorContinuar »