New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-06


who had picked up the article and was has
tening to restore it to her.
I" found this in front of Miss Studley's
ROOM" he said, holding it ups - presume
it is yours
ayes, sir,o answered Susie, demurely. 'I
missed it, and came back to look for it.
Thank you,' with smile and bow to the
handsome young gentleman, rs she took the
handkerchief and tripped down stairs again.
"She's beauty" said the young man to
himself, as he turned and entered the room,
Susie had considered such an awful dirty
place." "By Jove! but didn't her eyes
have snap to them ? and her cheeks, too!
There wasn't any paint about them, know.
And such splendid hair! all her own, too!
I'd give something to know who she was"
He flung his hat down in one corner and
his gloves in another, and seated himself in
the chair Susie had occupied, thinking all the
while about the saucy black eyes, rcd, DIM
pied cheeks, and dancing curly hair of the
young lady he had met.
"What is this ?'' he exclaimed, after de-
lightful dream concerning the fair unknown
for, of course, young lawyers, like other
young men, are not exempt from such waking
dreams-as his eyes alighted on fiat parcel,
in brown paper, lying on his table. sit isn't
anything left here for me, is it?'
He took it up, and as he did so, the string
slipped off, and there was rustic and culver
inside of it, and something white and airy
sprung into graceful shape and symmetry.
"a hoopskirt! by all that's good - cried
Fred Dean, holding the flexible, odd-looking
thing out at arms length. 81 It's the fun
niest thing! Who'd have imagined hoop
skirt inside that fiat parcel? wonder how
it came in nv office? 1t must be some
woman left it by mistake. / have it," he eX-
claimed. 1t belongs to that girl met on the
stairs. OF course it does. It's just about
large enough for her, should judge. Such
n funny thing! !" and he turned it round sur
veying it critically and wonderingly, and,
perhaps, n little admiringly.
''What are you doing with that article,
Dean ?' called out laughing voice at the
door.
The young man dropped the article sud-
denly, and grew very red in the face, as he
confronted his visitor.
"Oh! it's you, is it ?" he said, as young
fellow entered the office. 81 didn't know
but some client had called in, and didn't
fancy being caught examining a hoop-skirt.
Hardly the kind of study suitable for lawyer,
you know" he added, laughingly, and he
pushed the chair he had occupied towards the
visitor. 81 found this thing" touching the
crinoline with his foot as he spoke, on my
table. How it came there l don't know.
Some lady left it, probably"
"Fearfully and wonderfully made, isn't ?'
said Lockwood, taking the skirt and deposit
ing it on the table in much the same way a
body would handle something he expected
would bite. "Quite an adventure, declare,
and romantic, withal. If you can only find
out the fair being whose property this is, and
restore it to her, you will, perhaps, be able to
claim her as your own reward. That's the
way in romances, and hope this won't prove
an exception to the rule"
"I'll put it in this Closet" said Dean,
hanging the crinoline on a nail in a small
room in the corner of the Office. "I'm in
clined to think, however, that finding hoop
skirt wouldn't be considered very romantic
by romance writers.N
Hereafter, it can't be said that you've no
skeleton in your Closet" laughed Lockwood,
as Dean closed the door on his new article of
on the table, after emptying the chair of a
pile of papers, and tossing the slippers into
the corner where he had hung up'' his hat.
"Herc arc your drops, Aunt Jemima, )" said
Miss Thayne, on her arrival home, as she
handed Miss Thayne, senior, the vial she had
received from Miss Doctor Studley." ''Such
a time as have had, looking for your female
NJ. ID. I've hunted up and hunted down. as
the ballad goes, and found her at last, after
much tribulation and-oh, dear !''-sudden-
ly-" Where's my crinoline? i declare, Aunt
Jem, / do believe l left il on that lawyers
table. You see 1 made a mistake the very
last thing before found Miss Studley's room,
and Numbered into lawyers Office. was
so tired that 1 dropped down into the only
chair that happened to be empty, and put my
package on the table. When l found out my
mistake, was SO provoked with myself for
making it, that / forgot the crinoline COM
pletely, and havn't thought of il until this
minute. What will that lawyer think, l
wonder?'' cried Miss Susie, half laughing,
half crying, and wondering to herself if the
young gentleman she had met was the law
yer who would find what she had left on his
table. Such adventures as I've had, Aunt
Jem! If was an authoress, I'd write them
up, and call the story, In search of a Female
Doctor"
One day Miss Jemima Thayne called on
her friend, Miss Studley, M. D., and, having
some legal business which she wished adj
justed, and being in the vicinity of law Offices,
she asked Miss Studley to recommend some
reliable person. Accordingly, Miss Studley
recommended Mr.. Dean, whose room joined
hers, and both ladies called on the young
man. The result was, that he was engaged
by Miss Thayne to transact her business for
her, which he dld very satisfactory, and won
Miss Thayne's gratitude thereby. One day
he received an invitation to dine at the
Thayne's, and as Miss Thayne was good
patron, and in the best society, and might get
him other business than her own to attend to,
if he kept himself in her good graccs, he ac-
copied.
| The evening before the day appointed by
Miss Thayne for him to dine with her, Dick
Lockwood called at his Office, and, on men,
tioning that he was to dine at the Thayne' IS
next day, Dick astonished him with the nf0r-
nation that the Thayncs were distant rela-
tives of his, and that he had an invitation to
dine there on the following day, too.
.How many are there in the family ?" in
quircd Dean.
"Only two," answered Dick; ''Mss Jemi-
ma, spinster, and Miss Susie, young lady. l
tell you what, Fred, there's the girl for you!
Handsome as picture, and smart, too not
one of your wishy-washy things, but a clever,
genuine young woman. You'll be sure to
like her. If Miss Jcmima has taken q fancy
to you, and Miss Susie should do likewise,
you'll find il easy work to win the day, like
wise a wife,"
II don't know as want wife very MUCH"
answered Fred. "Thc truth is, Dick, Pm in
love with that skeleton, and, when l find
its owner. shall probably fall i'm love with