The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1872-11-29
SsIettea Stnrp.
From All The Year Round.
LITTLE DORM Err.

"I would rather die,n said Lefty,
passionately.
"Just SO, my dear; all young girls
would rather die than give up an un-
substantial fancy for profitable re-
ality. In general, however, they do
give it up, and they do not die, " an
sWered her mother, quietly.
"Msmma, how cruel you are!''
cried the girl, with kind of angry
despair in her voice.
Because l am rational! How
cruel you are, you ought rather to
say, Lefty, to give me SO much trou-
bic when am acting only for your
own good; and when you know you
viii have to yield at last
81 will not yield-I will die first .
repeated Lefty. 9lo
''You are very fond of that asser-
ton, my dear; but it does not move
me. 1 say that you will marry as I
wish you to do, and live into quite q
respectable old age. You are heal
thy, though you do not come of a
long lived family on one side" She
sighed-it was a conventional sigh
and then she family murmured,
'poor papaT
"Oh, mamma! you are too dreadful
with your old sarcasms," cried Let
ty, finging up her, hands.
"And you are too silly with your
mock heroics, my dear. If you had
not me TO guide you into common
sense, what mess you would make
of your lifep
"What a mess you wish to make
of it," cried Lefty.
SILLY little girl," said Mrs. Dor
er, with compassionate contempt.
"You are like a naughty child
who will thrust its hand into the
fire, and thinks its nurse abominably
cruel because she tries to prevent it.
The day will come, my dear, when
you will thank me, instead Of scold-
ing me as you are doing now, that 1
put sn end TO this absurd affair with
Mr.. Ratclif, and give you such an
admirable settlement in Mr.. Noun
sey."
admirable settlement! A man.
old enough to be my father-a man,
l hate, and that no girl could like
only with money"
And, having money, with all that
IA portionless girl can desire and
more than she has Alright to expect
said Mrs. Dormer, taking up few
dropped stitches leisurely.
''Oh, know you don't think it.
necessary for wife to love her hus-
band" said Lefty, sarcasticlly.
"To begin with?-by no means,
my DEAR" answered her mother, with
perfect good breeding and good tenn
per. 'Love comes by habit, by the
fact of pleasant home where there
is no stint. One man is very much
the same as another man, when you
know them; and, with a moderate
amount of amiability, a well princi-
pied girl is sure to be happy if she
Is properly provided for"
"Your opinions are absolutely
monstrous, and l will have nothing
to do with them," said Lefty, angrily.
"Only to fulfill them, little goose,
when you have worked off the froth. y
Mrs. Dormer returned the answer
with slight laugh; and the servant
at that moment flung open the door
with an air, and ushered in-aMr.
Mounsey."
A short, thick-set, irrascible-look-
ing man with grizzled hair cropped
close, broad bushy eyebrows, and
that kind of moustache and whiskers
run together about clean shaven
chin which gives such a wild beast
expression to face, a confident ag-
gressive, unsympathetic looking |
man; a man to push his own way in |
the world without regard to those he
shouldered aside, and to hold his
own let who would want; man to
be wary of in business, and with !
whom it would be necessary to be
cautious how one made him friend
or foe; a man strong in his own
right, and standing four-square IN
his own esteem; but as Lefty said, a
a man whom no girl could love.
This was the wealthy Mr.. Mounsey,
who had been pleased to cast eyes of
admiration on portionless Lefty
Dormer, and to demand her Of her