Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-01-27
kESsETa's AMBUsCADE.
A Charming story.

a sort OF quiet despair.
There are my cousins, Flora, Alice
Aymer and Rosa Fernall-blue eyes
black eyes and melting gray. By tn
way, that monkey Rosa isn't bad look
ing. l rather fancy that peculiar shad
of filbert brown hair, and big gray eyes
and cheeks where the blood hutters lik
pink pennon. Rosa Fernall woul,
make tolerableigood study for my mex
heroiHe-I may as well put her to som'
useful purpose. Heighor'
Kenneth Ross paused a moment, a
the peal of girlish laughter echoed in thu
adjoining apartment.
They are laughing at me. I'll wa
ger my opal scarf. Girls always thinl
q bachelor fair game; they have no NOR,
respect for the dignity of man than Sc
many Brazilian Monkeys
And Mr.. Ross looked rather compla
Gently in the mirror opposite, which re
hected an oval brown face, with shin
ing black hair, and mustache, brilliant
dark eyes, and mirthful, spirited
mouth.
Tap tapl tapl sounded softly on the
panel of his door even while he was en-
gagged in taking this personal survey o.
himself, and he had just time to take hiI
feet off the table before Miss Flora
Edgeworth put her sunshiny little heac
into the room.
Cousin Kenneth, are you there?"
Eyes"
May we CONS I'M
why. you'll come in whether / grant
permission or not, and may as we'll say
yes"
" | just want the girls to see what a
dear little scholarly den you have got
here, all hung with pictures, meer-
schaums and deer's horns, and darling
dismal skulls, and"
Flora threw open the door and admit
ted her companions = rosy, laughing
damsels of eighteen and twenty-one.
Here he is, girls; the old bachelor
as he appears in his native wildsl"
Now, tell you what, young ladies,
said Mr.. Ross, throwing his half smoked
cigar deliberately out Of the window,
must trouble you to be little less un-
ceremonious.
For Alice and Flora had pounced
upon his loose manuscript, and were al.
ready laughing over the rather illegible
chirography.
Miss Fernall stood near the door, a
little confused, and very pretty, in her
bushes and uncertainty.
Alice Flora don'tl" she appealed.
tits no use, Miss Rosa" said Ken
neth desparingly.I" Girls, will you be so
kind as to leave my writing desk alone ?
There is no use looking in that drawer,
either, unless you are particularly in
terested in backing brushes and old
boots.
"Oh my, girlsl" twittered Miss Edge
worth, ecstatically, here's bottle OF
real Farina cologne. Out with your
pocket handkerchiefs-be quickl"
But Mr.. Ross preserved a stately ST.
lence.
"Don't be cross, Kenneth" said Flora,
sprinkliag scented dew on her yellow
curls from the slender, foreign-shaped
bottle. Were going to the postoffice
now. Rosa Fernall has written twelve
page letter to her sweetheart out in
Canada"
"Floral" exclaimed Rosa Fernall,
turning scarlet.
"And," pursued the relentless Flora,
we're going to post it. Come, girls, the
sun is getting more oppressive every
minute.
And the next moment Mr.. Ross was
left alone in the summer silence of the
room, with heavy musk roses nodding at
the open easement, and the dreamy
murmur of maple boughs and far-off
bees in his ear.
" A twelve-page letter to her sweet
hear" pondered Mr.. Kenneth with very
ominous contraction Of his eyebrows.
She must have had something very in
teresting to write. / wonder who he is.
Canada, eh2 / wish it was Van Die
man Land"
Mr.. Ross rose from his easy chair,
and began to walk up and down the
floor.
Its too confounded hot to breathe
herel" be said impatiently taking up his
straw hat, "Tll 20 and take a tramp in
the woods. Twelve pages what could
she have found to eli up twelve pages2"
Flora Edgeworth had succeeded in
planting thorn in her cousins breast
all unconscious though she had been.
The sun was low in the cloudless west
ern sky, when Kenneth Ross returned
from his abstracted ramblein the woods,
and the wide, old-fashioned country
house was very still, as he assembled the
oaken staircase, and went absently along
the corridor toward his own apartment.
"Hallol"
Mr.. Ross gazed vacantly around the
room with something of the bewildered
feeling that might have belonged to the
eastern prince, when he found himself
from pole to pole in an en-
chanted dream.
I'm in the wrong room, l do believe,
for there is Flora Edgeworth's white |
zephyr shawl on the bed, and Rosa
black velvet Derby hat, and no end Of
ribbons and gloves, and lace collars on
the bureau. / don't see how ever came |
10 make such a blunder-I must have |
been in a brown study
He balanced the coquettish little black |
velvet Derby hat on his hand as he |
spoke:
80 this is the fashionable style Of the |
lhapeau, eh2 1t certainly is fact that |
women borrow their dress ideas nova
lays from the nobler sex. This is just
| fac simile Of my last summers tile,
md that little sacque, with the big horn
buttons, is my cutaway coat over again.
wonder now whether Rosa's little hat
would ftHe2
Mr.. Ross adjusted the article of dress
IN one side Of his e1Tls jagntily, and
-iewed himself, not ill-pleassd in the
Mirror.
upon my word, it don't look so bad,
,nly this long, tapping veil is confound-
,dly in the way. And now where's the
acque. A little tight In iie sleeve, but
otherwise quite a decent ft, If fellow
,olds bis arms well back. There's Aliee's
,lEs nnslin dress. I've twOl minds and
half to put i en-, just for the fun Of