The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-09-13
To which polite remark his host re-

To which polite remark his host re-
sponded by observing:
"foa have q low, pot-house look
about You, and wish you had never
entered the house, but It can't be help
cd now, SO we must make the best OF
it.n
OF course the discriminating reader
will understand that these remarks
We're not made aloud that which pass
ed between the two men being some
what as follows:
"Would Mr.. Tozer like to join the
ladies' in the drawing-rOOm, or prefer
to have a quiet cigar with Tommy
eldest son, sir?"
"Mr. TOzer was delighted to make
the acquaintance of Tom, and, being
somewhat fatigued witch his journey,
would rather defer his introduction to
the ladies until the following morn
ing.n
So BiffAnd Tom Holmwood-Holm-
wood, we should have mentioned, was
the name of Bills host-had several
cigars and 'tumblers of hot whisky to-
gether; and when at length, towards
the small hours, he tumbled into lux
urious bed, Bill muttered with all sim
cerity, "Bill don't grumble."
Who has ever sung properly, and
who will ever be able to do so, that
delightful moment for the worn out
tOwn-dweller who awakcs-but stay!
just hd.t-dwdkes-in a pleasant bed
room i'm pleasant country house?
The sense of coEtentment is SO perfect;
the feeling that you are on the: thres-
hold of a new life Is so wonderful!
( When Bill Tozer awoke OH the
morning after his arrival at Crumbush
House, he took pains not to awake too
much. Only by slow degrees would
he allow himself to indulge in the lux
ury of feeling that he was far away
from the dreary temptations of his
club at the Bedford Head, and that he
would not, OH this morning, at least,
have TO encounter landlady at the
foot of the stairs, saying, "Where is
nv money@
But as Bill, in a delightful half
dream, surveyed the luxuries of his
novel dormitory, he perceived the door
slowly open, and a man cautiously
enter. ,ess
"Have I been laboring under an hal.
lucination? said Bill to himself, "and
instead of being i'm a respectable house.
am in one where / shall be robbed
and murdered ?'
The man, meanwhile, continued to
advance cautiously towards the chair
on which We're deposited Biil's clothes,
and gently lifted up Bills best coat
Best coat, for sOOth The only one
he possessed in which he was present.
able.
This was too much even for Bill's
So, starting up, he de-
manded in stentorian tones of his
early visitor,
What are you going to do with that
coat?"
The mysterious stranger was now as
much startled as Bill had been, but
after pause, replied de!erentialIy
If you please, sir, | am TO walt on
you while you are here, aud 1 am
going TO brush your Clothes"
Every WELL" rejpined Bill, some
what mollified; "but take care how
you brush that coat, for if you brush
it hard the left sleeve will come off"
The portrait which Bill Tozer was
to paint at Crumbush Hall
was that OF its owners only daughter,
a beauty ard a blonde of some twenty
three years, and possessed of that deli
cate Clytie east of head which Bill, i'm
common with all good judges, almost
Therefore Bill set to work
with a good heart.
But of course he had, first of all, to
endure all the petty annoyances to
which portrait painters are usually
subject. Did Mr.. Tozer think that
the sittin9s had better take place in
the library or I'm the morning room?
Would Emily look better i'm evening
or walking dress? Didn't Mr.. T0zer
think that there was more animation
in three-quarter face than a full one
And how many hands did he generally
put in his portraits? The answers
which Bill gave to these and scores of
similar questions would have rather
shocked the propriety Of Crumbush
house, but rs he dIscTeetly clothed them
i'm an articulate grunt, 1T didn't much
matter.
For a few days matters went on cap
italy with Bill. The denizens of Crum-
were perfection; the sur
scenery was delightful. The
comparatively early hours which Bill
had to keep did him good, and he was
getting on very well with his portrait.
Certainly, his sitter was morOse in her
manner towards him /; but, as she was
a beauty, Bill "didn't grumble" at
that.
But on one summer afternoon, as
Bill was taking his usual ramble, and
a cigar-we should have said, short
pipe-in one of the pleasant glades
which abounded in the grounds of
Crumbush Hall he suddenly came up
on Miss Helmwood, who was seated
on a bank, with her face buried i'm her
hands and evidently crying bitterly.
Stupefied for a moment, he turned
hastily, and was moving as quickly
away as his usual slowness of tempera-
ment would allow him, when he found
one of his arms suddenly grasDed with
a cOnvulsiye grip, and turning, per-
ceived his fair sitter gazing up at him
with look of supplicatiOn that dis
tressed him exceedingly.
"Good heayens!" thought he to
himself, surely she hasn't gone mad
and fallen in love with me? Well,
Bill don't grumblcv
"Oh, Mr.. Tozer." exclaimed the
girl, ado save me?, DO paint me
ugly? Dopaint me as ugly as you cant
"But If 1 dill that" replied Bill,
with a smile, "even if could-and it
would be very difficult-your parents
would get some one else to paint you
pretty"
81 have thought of that,n replied
the girl quickly. "You must go on
with the one you are now at, and paint
another oh, 50 hideous for Sir Nor
man to see?"
Bill's face upon this assumed such
a look of blank amazement, that even
the sObbing young creature by his side
could scarcely refrain from laughing;
but she continued:
"You do not know why you are
painting my portrait, l Isuppcse? Well
il is Just this. When was about sew
enteen I became engaged to Sir Nor
man Atkins but the families thought
we were too young to marry, and so
it was arranged that he should go
India with this regiment. and that if,
after five or six years, he should be of
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