The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1861-10-09

and commodious one. The Manton House
has been kept by lineal descendants of the
| same name for more than hundred years,
and its routine has never changed, save with
the Improvement of the times.
1t is a largr, tastefully-built house, made
picturesque and rambling by the many ad
dit;ons that its successive propretors have
from time to time erected, and is shaded by
an open grove of magnificent oaks and elms,
in the midst of which it stands.
For many years, the Manton House was
merely wayside hostclry, where travellers
from South to North, and North to South,
stopped for bed and breakfast. Then as
| D began to assume the magnitude Of
a village, the hotel began to improve. Sew
eral permanent boarders found home be-
meath It's ancient caves, and the railroad
bs~.ss5aaa tr2.sasi mt ones twice = day. Final
ly, it became known as pleasant place for
summer rustication, and many families from
northern, as well as southern cities, passed
the hot season there.
The present proprietor, VIII Manton, is
young His father died when he was hut
nineteen, leaving himslhe sole charge of the
hotel but none of its g0est1 could discern
any deterioration in the management
! Will came Of a long line Of hotel keepers,
and it was in the blood. Everybody liked
him. He was handsome, affable. quick. tQ
appreciate, and to act The Va - 13d
who sojourned at the Manton House WITH
their parents, during the summer, thought
him quite a. bea. ideal and The heart
warming smiles, the languishing glances,
upon him might have turned the head Of
l al T. H.. s,~ al
least susceptible. ....
But at twenty four Will was not very
susceptible Indeed, among strangers, he
passed for rather callous person Forty
good matches that he might easily have
made, were let slip, and forty damsels left
D with sorrowful faces. He had
chatted with them all had taken them out
to ride behind his splendid fast bays had
sailed with them on the river and given
them boquets; had danced with them at
the Wednesday evening hops; had done
everything that host could deem necessary
for their comfort and happiness; but he
had treated them all exactly alike.
| "Manton?' said the young men, when
this matter was spoken Of oh he's not a
marrying man
There certainly is distinction between
men in this regard know-so does every
body plenty Of excellent fellows whom
like, and whom the women especially like,
but who, somehow, would astonish me mar
vellously by marrying. theirs, again, as
tonish me by remaining single The ones
are marrying men, the others are not -
Generally the difference is inexplcable {;
but in Mantons case there were those who
could explain it,
Perhaps Miss Blanche Gaynes, daughter
of old Judge Gaynes of the County Court,
co I'D have told something about it if she
had chosen.
Judge Gaynes lived directly opposite the
Manton House, just across Main Street
in charming country house, with many
gabless and -snrrounded by garden. He
liked VIII well enough, for several reasons
Firstly, he was aristocratic in his tastes, and
knew that the Mantons were the Oldest
family in that part of the State. Secondly
. he had known Wills father from boyhood
and had been greatly be!riended by him
Thirdly, the young man was honorable
Igentlemanly, and intelligent. So, the old
gentleman used to cross the street pretty
frequently, and, for an hour every morning
when the weather was fine, could be seen
sitting on the hotel piazza with his feet on
the rail, enjoying cigar and the news.
papers.
Blanche liked Will pretty well, also.-
They had gone to school together, and when
her father was in New York once for a
whole winter, she had shut up the house
and boarded at the hotel. They were init,
mate. then, and always enjoyed each others
society greatly. Blanche often attended
the Wednesday night hops. and VIII often
+ passed an evening at the Judges mansion
across the way
Then he further expressed his friendli
ness 10y thousand little attentions. When
he was presenting bouquets to the young
ladies' in his house. he saved the hand.
soonest one to send over to Blanche.
He tok others out to ride, with his bays
but for her, he saldlad his pet-a little
chestnut mare that had never been in har-
ness; and when they cantcred gaily off to-
gether, down the river road, the young men
of the village used to wish they could have
half SO good luck.
But Blanche never knew what to do with
her heart She liked Will more, perhaps,
than any one else in the world, except her
father, and liked him in a very different
way from that in which she liked others
Still, she could not believe, somehow, that
she loved him, or ever would love him.
The truth is, she was too romantic. She
wanted hero.
Her mother, dying when she was child,
had left her in the care of maiden aunt,
who had wonderful tendencies in the senti-
mental way. This lady lived upon novels
and poetry. Byron was her prophet, aud
Manfred the only really trashy thing he
ever wrote] was her revelation. The good
old fashioned novel-all tears and wretch
edness, through which two painfully perfect
go to marriage and happiness in the last
chapter-was her pabulum, day and night.
It's not strange, then, that Blanche, a
quick- -witted child of thirteen, with pas
sion for reading, should have dcvoured her
aunts library in three years, and gone
home to her father as full of sentimental
actions as a girl could be. ........... ..
At sixteen, then she once more met Will
Manton, her old school mate, then newly
made proprietor and host of the Manton
House by his fathar's demise At first she
thought nothing about him, except that he
looked very pale, very sad, and very hand
some, and seemed to have more business on
hand than three men could attend to-
| With time, however, came renewal Of
their childish acquaintanccship. Will los,
his pallor and sadness, broadened, because
taller and more manly; cultivated luxu-
RANT moustache and imperial, and assumed
the vivacious, easy air Of a man who, hav-
ing plenty to do, has also plenty Of money
and wits to do it with.
1t was not not for long time that Miss
Blanche suspected him Of having any deep
er feeling towards her than simple frendli.
ness but after while it commenced to
show itself in many little ways, all more or
less familiar, no doubt, to the reader She
had, Of course, greatly outgrown her 70.
mantle notions <life looks great deal more
earnest to a girl Of twenty than to one OF
sixteen,) but when she came to consider