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Show THE SOUL OF A MAIDEN. j By Gabrielle Ashland. I THEN. Satan was bored, bored to death, which goes 'to prove that the modern tendencies are not reserved re-served for one stratum of society. The old joy of hunting souls was a thing of the past. Every one was only too eager to start Hell-ward nowadays; nowa-days; in fact he had had to double the guard at the door. More from force of habit than the hope of seeing sport ahead h$ climbed up into his observation tower. It was an amusing place, the world, he thought, but horribly monotonous. Vice dressed in the garments of virtue, and virtue vir-tue covering vice, played the same antics whether the background was gilded or of commonest clay. But suddenly his eye roving wearily over the familiar fa-miliar sceu as arrested by a face the face of a maid-' clothes were poor and her condition condi-tion lowly, but so innocent was the expression of her great eyes and so pure the light that seemed to emanate from her that Satan was abashed, but only for a second. Then he laughed the laugh of his Gounod representation and called for his two chief aides. He pointed to the maiden: maid-en: "Do you see that? Well, go, both of you, and try to procure her for me. The one that sue- j sal in that state. He was not only one of the , ceeds shall be my chief here under me." Then he 1 turned to look at her again, though it hurt his jl eyes, for he never expected them to be again so II affected. jl The aides, when they were alone, tossed for j first innings, for each preferred an open field. The younger one won the toss and set off. He found the maid fair to look upon and being young and impetuous offered her gold fo her soul, but she i spurned him and with hard words drove him from j her. "What luck?" asked the elder aide malicious- 1 ly, as he beheld the crestfallen air of his confrere. con-frere. "None! She refused gold. She will take nothing!" noth-ing!" The elder laughed. "You might have tried family diamonds," he suggested, mildly, as in a panama of most approved maVe he started off. Being wiser than the other he was slower in the planning of his campaign. Seeing that she was beautiful, young and very innocent, he offered of-fered her bouquets of flowers, boxes of candies I and many sweet words, Love. Returning to ' Hell a little later he laid at his master's feet the Heart and Soul of the Maiden. Now. i Again Satan was bored, again he climbed the stairs of his observation tower. He gazed east. j he gazed north, ho gazed south. Nothing waa changed just the same old story. With a sigh of unutterable weariness he turned west. A speck on the horizon caught his eye. He adjusted the lens of his telescope. With its aid he saw San Francisco; then a shop in SaD Francisco in which women spent the hard-earned dollars of their husbands. Amongst the crowd of beautifully gowned shoppers one face stood out supreme, the face of a maiden, beautiful but cold as ice. Again Satan was abashed, not as on a previous occasion, by the purity of the face upon which he gazed, but by the insolence which is bred of much gold and is unsurpassed in. this world or the next. Stung to resentment by the unaccustomed indifference to his slightest glance lie summoned as before his two chief aides. "Go at once,' 'he snarled, "bring me that woman by hook or crook. You" turning to the elder aide, "as my second in command, shall go first." But the aide 1 flined the favor. He had succeeded once, he urgeo Let his young friend have a chance of redeemnig what ho had lost by his previous failure. So with a self-satis-fled smirk and a rose in his buttonhole the younger young-er aide set off. He found that she had gold, position, posi-tion, diamonds and therefor friends, so profiting by his elder's example he offered her love. The " peal of scornful laughter that greeted his offer brought a blush to even his shameless cheek, as amidst epigrammatic ridicule he took his departure. de-parture. The elder aide said nothing, but grinned a derisive grin as his brother in service slunk in and with carefully waxed moustache and eye-glass he started,he started, whistling gaily, for the Gold-en Gold-en Gate. He also viewed the gold, position and B diamonds, and with an insolence equal to her H own offered her to take or leave as she thought H fit a coronet. H A week later, on bended knee, he, offered to H his master a crested box in which reposed the H soul of a maiden. Town Talk. |