Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1854-02-15
KISSING IN TIE DARK.
a Very improbable Story.
by TIE AUTHOR OF ''cuRIzrIR TOMBSTONE" D."

BY TIE AUFIIOR OF ''CI1It!SElR JOANSIONL.
The 1915 train glideI from Padding
ton, May 7, l847. In the left compart-
ment of certain first class carriage were
four passengers ;; of these, singularly
enough, two were worth description
The lady had a smooth, white, delicate
br1w, strongly marked eyebrows, long
lashes, eyes that seemed to change color;
and good sized delicious mouth, with
teeth as white as milk. A man could
not see her nose for her eyes and mouth,
her own sex could and would have told
some nonsense about it. She wore an
pretending greyish dress, buttoned to
the throat, with lozenger shaped buttons,
Scotch shawl that agreeably evaded the
responsibility Of color. She was like
duck. so tight her plain feathers fitted her;
and there she sat, smooth, snug and deli
cious, with book in her hand, and a
soupcon of her snowy wrist. just visible as
she held it. Her opposite neighbor was
what call a good style OF man-the
more to his credit since he belonged to
corporation that frequently turns out the
worst imaginable style of young men,
He was cavalry officer, aged about
twenty-five. He had moustache, but
not very repulsive one; it was far from
one of those subnasal pig tails, on which
soup is suspended like dew on a shrub ;
it was short, thick, and black as COAL
His teeth had not yet been turned by to-
bacco smoke to the color of tobacco juice;
his clothes did not stick or hang on him,
they sat on him; he had an engaging
smile, and what liked the dog for, his
! l. r.
place, his heart not in his face, joStllng
mine and other peoples, who have none ;
| in word he was what one oftener hears
of than meets-a young gentleman. lie
was conversing in an animated whisper
with companion, Il fellow ofticer-they
were talking about what it is far better
not to do with, woman. Our friend clear
| ly did not wish to be overheard, for lie
cast ever and anon a furtive glance at his
! fair vis-a-v -v!s and lowered his voice. She
seemed completely absorbed in her book,
and that reasurcd him. At last the two
soldiers came down to a whisper, and in
that whisper (the truth must be tOld) the
one who got down at Slough, and was lost
to posterity, bet ten pounds to three thai
he who was going down with US to Bath
and Immortality, would not kiss either o
the ladies opposite upon the road
" Done !" "Done !" Now am sorry a
man I have hitherto praised, should have
lent himself, even in a whisper to such {
speculation, but "nobody is wise at al
hours" not even when the clock is stri
king fve-and-twenty; and you are to con
slider his profession, his good looks, ant
the temptation ten to three.
After Slough, the party was reduced
to three at Tyford, one lady droPPe'
her handkerchief, Captain Doligan fell OF
it like tiger and returnedi it like lamb
two or three words we're interchanged OF
that occasion. At Reading, the Marlbo
rough of our tale made one of the saf
investments of that day, he bought {
Chimes" and a"Punch," the latter wa
full of steel-pen thrusts and wood cuts
Valor and beauty deigned to laugh a
some inflated humbug or other Puncture'
by Punch Now laughing together thaw
our human ice long before Swtndon
was a talking match-at Swindon, who's
devoted as Captain Dolingan-he handeC
them out-he souped them-he tough
chickened them-he branded and cochi
nealed* one, and he branded and burnt
sugared the other;on their return to tn
*This is supposed to alluds to two deeoction
called port and sherry, and imagined by on
earthly nation to partake of aVinouS nature.