Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-02-01
BEHOLD, 1T WAS A DREAM.
A New story by Rhoda Broug htsn.
CHAPTER /.


Yesterday morning L received the following
letter:
WESTON HOUSE, CAULFIELD, -sHIRr.
M Dear DiRGh:-IOu must come; i scOrn all
yOur excuses, and see through their fiimsness. L
have mo- doubt that you are much better amused
~ s. 100 e.li',e -n"nd h.u-rnc-,: -its
majesty's household troops play polo in the
Phoenix park, but no matter-you must come.
We have NO particular Inducements to hold out.
We lead an exclusively bucolic, cow-milking,
pig-fatte ming, roast-mutton- eating and to-bed-
st-ten-o' CLOCK going life; but matter-you
must come i want you to see how happy two
brightness in their lot to make them so. Myold
mamie 10 surprisingly ugly at the first glance,
but grows upon one afterward-sends you his
respects, and bids me say that he will meet you
~ any station, ON any day, at any hour of the
day or night If you succeed In evading our
persistence this time, you will be q cleyerer wo-
man than take you for.
Ever yours, affectionately, JANE WATSON.
s.Aagust f5ik.
"P. s. We will invite our little scarlet headed
cuIate to dinner TO meet you. 80 As to soften your
fail from the society of the Plungers.''
This is my answer:
my Dear Jane:-Kili the fat calf in an haste,
and put the bake-meats into the oven, for will
come. Do not, however, imagine that 1 am
moved thereunto by the prospect of the bright
headed cuIate. Believe me, INV dear, am As
yet at distance of ten long. good years from an
addiction To the minor clergy. If / survive the
crossing of that seething, heaying, tumbling
sbominatiOn, st. Georges channel, you may ex-
peet me on Tuesday next. have been cropping
Tor hours in Bradshaw darkne that may be
telt, and have arrived at length at this twi-
light result, that 1 may arrive at your station
al 600 l.. ~ But the ways of Bradshaw are
not our ways. and / may either rush violently
past or never attain IT. III do, and if, on nv
arrival, i see some rustic vehicle, guided by
siartlingly ugly gentle man, awaiting me, shall
know from your wifely description that it Is
your 'old man. Till Tuesday, then, affection
stely yours, DINAH BELLAIEs.
.sfH9Ust I1h.''
am a. GOOD .s INV xxor,l. ~, ruasr., "A, "a
For four mortal hours and half am disas-
trOusiy, hideously, diabolicallv sick. For four
hours and a hall curse the day on which was
born, the day on which Jane Watson was born.
the day on which her Old man was born, and
Isstly-but oh not leastly-the day and the
dock on which, and in which the Leinster's
plunging, cOurtesying, throbbipg body was born.
On arriving at Holy head feeling con yinced from
my sensations that, the French saw, 1 touch
my last hour, indistinctly request to be allow
ed TO stay on board and die, then and there, but
n the stevardess and nv maid take different
view of my situation, and insist upon forcing
my cloak and bonnet on my dying body and
limp head, at length succeed in staggering on
deck and on the accursed boat. 1 am then we'll
shaken up for two or three hours in the Irish
mail, and, after crawling along a slow by-line
Tor two or three more hours. am at length, At
6;55, landed, battered, tired. dust-blacked, and
qua at the little roadside station of Caul
neld- My maid and i are the only passengers
who descend. The train snorts its slow wavOn-
ward, and am left gazing at the calm, GRIM
son death o. the nc, Aas9Sf iSa ap9 snsne the
der look round in search OF James promised
tax-eart, and steel my nerves FOX the contem
Plation Of her old mans unlovely features. But
the only vehicle which i see is q tiny, two
wheeled pony-carriage, drawn by a small and
tub-shaped bay pony, and driven By a lady in
hat, whose face Is turned unexpectedly toward
ne. go up and recognize my friend, whom
i hsye not seen for two years-not sine. be
fore she fell in with her old man and espoused
him.
II thought it safest, after all, to come my
zalf -.lt. 90 xrifh hrirh Ian Oh, In
man look 50 Handsome this morning, that /
thought you would never recognize him from
my description. Get IN. dear, and let US trot
home as quickly Is We can"
comply, and for the next half-hour sit (while
the cool evening wind IL blowing the dust of my
hot and jaded facet stealing amazed slances at
il the very last word that, excepting in an iron
ieai sense, any one would have applied to my
friend Jane two years ago Two years ago
Jane was So, the elderly eldest daughter of a
large family, hustled into obscurity, jostled.
shelved by q half dozen younger, fresher sisters;
an elderly girl, addicted to lachrymose verse
about the gone and the dead and the forever
lost. Apparently the gone has come back, the
dead resuscitated, the forever-lost been found
again. The peaky, sour virgin is transplanted
into gracious matron, with kiadhy, comely
face, pleasure making and pleasure-feeling. -
Happiness! what powder, or paste, or milk -of
roses, can make old cheeks young again in the
cunning way that YOU do? If you would but
hide steadily with us We might live forever, al
ways young and always handsome.
My musings on James metamorphOsis, COM
bined with a tired headache, made me some
what silent, and, indeed, there is mostly
slackness Of conversation between the two dear
est allies on frst meeting after absence-a sort
of hesitating SILVER before plunging into the
sea Of talk that both know 10 lie in readiness for
them.
"Haye you got your harvest in yet?' ask,
more Tor the sake OF not utterly holding MI
subject, as We jog briskly along between the
yellow corn-felds, where the dry, bound
sheaves are standing in golden rows in the red
mot vet" answers Jane; 1--WE have only Just
begun to cut some OF il. However, thank
Heaven. the weather looks As settled as possi-
BILE; there Is not a streak Of wstery lilac in the
west
My headache is almost gone and am begin
ming TO think kindly OF dinner-a subject from
which all day until now my mind has hastily
turned with a sensation OF hideous inward re-
yOlt-by the time that the fat pony pulls up be-
fore the Oid-world dark porch of a modest little
house, which has bashfully hidden its original
face under vail of crowded "Reminiscences
and stalwart ivy. Set as in a picture frame by
the large. drooped iyy-leaves, i see a tall and
moderately hard-featured gentleman, of mid
die age, perhaps, OF the two, rather inclinng
toward elderly, smiling at US q little shyly.
This is my old man." cries Jane, stepping
gsyly out, and giving him a friendly, intrOduc-
Dinsh., ~ mani 'H'' -
Having thus been made known to each other.
we shake hands, but neither OF " can arrive at
u
the little house, the little house tor which she
has so happily exchanged her tenth part of the
large and noisy paternal mansion IL is an old
house, and everything about il has the IN oder
ate shabbiness Of old age and long and careful
wear. Little thick-walled rooms, dark and
cool, with flowers and fower-scents living in
wait for you everywhere-a SILENT fragrant
chfldless house. To me, who have had oiIy
locomotives srorting and racing through nv
head all day, its dumb sweetness seems like
heaven.
"And, now that we have secured you, we do
not mean to let you 60 in q hurry" says Jane,
hospitality, that night, at bed time, lighting the
candles on my dressing table.
"You are determined TO make my mouth wa
ter, Sc, - say I, interrupting yawn To laugh.
Lone. lone me, who have neither old man, nor
attaining either"
But, II you honestly are not bored, you win
stay win us good bit?" she says, laying her
nand with Kind entreaty ON my sleeve. ..St.
Seorges channel Is not lightly to be faced
..Perhaps shall stay until YOU are Obliged to
20 away yourselves 70 get rid of me !, return /,
smiling. "Such things have happened. Yes,
without joking, viii stay a month. Then. by
the end Of q month, IL you have not found me
out thoroughly, i think may pass among men
for q more amiable woman than have ever VET
had the reputation Of"
A quarter Of an hour later am LAYING aovu
my head among soft and snow-white pillows.
and saying to myself that this delicious sensa-
ti0n Of utter drowsy repOse of soft dark meas and