American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-10-11
VAN TWILLER'S MISTAKE.

suddenly takes TO wearing square toe
boots or to draw his neckscarf through
ring so it became all at once the fashion
without any preconcerted agreement, 70
every body to speak of Van TwilleT as
man in some way under a cloud. Blu
what the cloud was, and how he got I'm
der it. and why he did not get away iron
it, were points that lifted themselves int
the realm of pure conjecture. There wa
no man in the club with strong enough
wing to his imagination to soar to tn,
supposition that Van Twiller was embar
raised in money matters. Was he il
love? That appeared nearly as impossi
BILE; for if he had been in love all tn,
world-that is, perhaps hundred frs
families-would have known all about i
instantly.
He has the symptoms" said Delaney
laughing. Il remember once when Jacb
| Flemming-"
"Ned.' cried Flemming, al profess
against any allusion to that business"
This was one night when Van Twillel
had wandered into the club, turned ovel
the magazines absently in the reading
room, and wandered out again without
eve would have remarked the great
change that had come over Van Twiller
Now and then he would play game
| of billiards with Bret Harte or John
| Hay, or stop to chat moment in the
vestibule with Whitelaw Reid; but he
was an altered man. When at the club,
he was usually to be found in the small
| smoking room up stairs, seated on fau-
| teuil fast asleep, with the last number of
| the Nation in his hand. Once if you went
| to two or three places of an evening, you
| were certain to meet Van Twiller at them
all. You seldom met him in society now
By and by came whisper number two, a
whisper more emphatic than number one,
| but still untracable to any tangible
mouth piece. This time the whisper said
Van Twiller mas in love. But with
whoms The list of possible Mrs Twillers
was carefully examined by experienced
hands, and Il check placed against a fine
old Knickerbocker name here and there
but nothing satisfactory arrived at Then
that same still voice of rumOr, but now
with an easily detected staccatO sharpness
to it, said that Van Twiller was in love-
with an actress! Van Twiller, whom it
had taken all these years and all this
waste of raw material in the way of ances-
tors to bring to perfectiOn,-Ralph Van
Twiller, the net result and flower of his
race, the descendant of Wou.er, the son of
Mrs. Vanrensselaer VanZandt Van Twill
erin love with an actress, That was
too ridiculous to be believed,-and so
everybody believed it.
Six or seven members OF the club
abruptly discovered in themselves an
unsupported latent passion for the his
trionic art. In squads of two or three
they stormed successfully all the thea
tiers in town, = Booths, Wallack's,
then) and the Grand Opera House. Even
the shabby homes of the drama over in
the Bowery, where the Germanic Thes-
Plus has not taken out his naturalization
papers, underwent rigid exploration. But
no clew was found to Van Twiller's mvs-
FERROUS attachment. The opera 5oube,
which promised the widest field for inves-
tigation, produced absolutely nothing, not
even crop of suspicious. One night,
after several weeks of this, Delaney and
tancied we caught glimpse of Van Twill
Ter in the private box of an up town the
alter, where some thrilling trapeze per-
torrance was going on, which we did not
care to sit through; but we concluded af-
forwards it was only somebody that look
ed like him. Delaney, by the way, was
unusually active in this search l dare
say he never quite forgave Van Twiller
for calling him Muslin Delaney Ned is
fond of ladies' society, and that's fact
The Cimmerian darkness which sur
rounded Van Twiller's inamorata left us
free to indulge in the widest conjectures
Whether she was black-tressed Melpo-
meme, with bowl and dagger, or Thalia,
with the fair hair and the laughing face,
was only to be guessed at. 1t was popu-
larly conceded, however, that Van Twiller
was on the point of forming a dreadful
Up to this period he had visited the |
club regularly. Suddenly he ceased to
appear. He was not to be seen on Broad
way, or in the Central Park, or at the |
houses he generally frcquented. His |
mighty comfortable ones
hey were-on Thirty-fourth street, were |
deserted. He had dropped out of the
world. shot like a bright particular star
from his orbit in the heaven of the best |
society.
where's Van Twillers"
who's seen Van Twiller?"
"What has become of Van Twiller? ~
Delaney picked up the Ecening Post,
and read, with a solemni:y that BETRAYED
young Firkins into exclaiming, "By Jove
now!''-
Married, on the 10th instant, by the
Rev. Friar Laurence. at the residence of
he brides uncle, Montague Capulet, ESQ,
Miss AdrienHe LIE Couvreur to Mr. Ralph
Van Twiller, both of this city. No
cards"
at strikes me,'' said Frank Living
stone, who had been ruffiing the leaves of
magazine at the other end of the table
that you fellows are in a great fever
lbout Van Twiller."
$50 we are"
"WeIl, he has simply gone out of
own"
"Where?"
up 20 the old homestead on the Hud
on"
Its an odd time Of year for fellow
o go into the country"
"He has gone to visit his mother" said
Livingstone.
"In Februarys"
81 didn't know, Delaney, there was any
tatute in force prohibiting man from
listing his mother in February if he
wants to-"
Delaney made some light remark about |
he pleasure of communing with Nature {
With cold in her head, and the topic
vas dropped. {
Livingstone was hand in glove with |
Van Twillcr, and if any man shared his |
confidence it was Livingstone He was
ware of the gossip and speculation that {
lad been rife in the club, but he either !
vas not at liberty, or did not think it
worth while, to relieve our curiosity. In t
he course of a week or two it was report
d that Van Twiller was going To Europe;
nd go he did. A dozen of us went down I
% the Scotia to see him Off Ii was re-
reshing to have something as positive as ]
he fact that Van Twller had sailed
Shortly after Van Twiller's departure {
he whole thing came out. Whether Liv-
ngstonc found the secret too heavy "A bur {
Zen, or whether it transpired through |
ONE indiscTetion or the part of Mrs I
'anrensselaer Vanzandt Van Twillcr, | {
annot say; but one evening the entire 5
tory was in the possession of the club {