Litchfield enquirer., 1873-06-26
Front the Springfield Republican. TEN MINUTES LATE.
A TALE WITHOUT A MORAL.

M A TALE WITHOUT A MORAL.
 have always been late all my life. ] begun It by being. ten minutes late for I title and fortune. In this wise 1t happen. ed: My mother, after ten years of mar
 riage, during which time she had moi made the slightest atempt at presenting my father with an heir. suddenly an nounced that she had great hopes of, in time, supplying him with the much-desir- ed blessing Great hopes they proved themselves to be, for one lovely June morning she not only sconferred on my father one son, but being determined to do nothing by halves, ten minutes after wards second made his appearance. The eldest son was at once claimed as such, and invested with piece of blue ribbon.-which should think formed a pleasing contrast with the crimson wrist it adorned, that no mistake as to his identity should occur, while l, not being expected, came off second best in honor and attention, and went shares in all the goods the gods had provided for my brotEer, i. e., his food, his clothes. and his cradle. Of course we were the image of each other. and being strongly i'm. pressed with the fact we naturally grew up to admire each other intensely. I new CT. however, quite forgave him for giving me the go-by in my entrance into life, un- til he squared matters by outrunning me In another race, which proved more. .tQ my advantage than the first. It is this ad- venture which am about to relate.
 First, it is necessary to tell you that through a whim' of mothers we were christened by the respective names of Charles and Charlewo0d my fathers name was Manners; my mother, having been an heiress of the name of Compton, had conferred it, with herself, on my grate- full father, whose acres before his marriage were not equal to his ancestry, and whose baronetcy was bestowed upon him by an impoverished monarch, who received in exchange an equivalent, and rather more, in the coin of his realm. Such being the case, the double patronymic of Compton Manners descended to the twin offspring of the illustrious couple afore mentioned, and remained their undisputed possession; as my mother, after that supreme and highly successful effort of maternity, rest ed on her laurels, so to speak, and no other child arrived to share my fortune as 8 younger son. I have not mentioned that 1t was whim of my mothers to call us both by christian names beginning with the same letters, and the same whim caus- cd her to increase, if possible, the likeness between us, by dressing us exact ly alike Of course, this oecasioned end less confusion, but luckily, when we had both attained the age of 12 years, my hair grew rapidly darker, while my brothers retained it's rich auburn color. This at once, greatly to my mothers disgust. pro- claimed & difference between us, though we possessed the same blue eyes, dark eyelashes and regular features.
 pass over the school-days st Harrew, a year at Christ church, and, fpally, as we would have it so, our first separation, my brother Charley getting his commis- sion in the guards, while I contented my self with one in the rife brigade; and T had not been in that most edifying and steadiest of dear old regiments for month before became fully convinced. that the guards were nowhere as compared with 1t, and not for gold unfold would I have exchanged my dark green-there is really as much green about it as there is in 8 London square-for the grandier trap pings of the household troops.
 When was about two and twenty it chanced that my brothers battalion of guards and my battalion of the rife bri- gade were ordered to Montreal, we pre- ceding the guards by a few weeks. It happened to be about the time that 8 cer- tain political outbreak was feared, and soon after our arrival at Montreal I was sent on detachment to country town to frighten the disafeected inhabitants into good behavior. This proceeding, strange to say, gave great delight to some of them though fear it was only the female por- ton of the town of Agnesville, Canada West, who hailed our advent, not only as a protection, but as break in the monot- ony of an otherwise decidedly dull coun- try. town. .-.-.....-. --.
 You must know that in those days of youth and folly, dear reader, prided my self on an unexceptional taste in beauty, and to keep up nay supposed credit for this I went systematically to work to as- certain who was the belle par excellence before I fixed on any young lady as my muffin" during our stay at Agnesville. For the first week firted generally; the second week began to reduce the circle of my acquaintance; the third found me in state of waver between two beauties i; and by the end of tine first month I was, fguratively speaking, on my knees before Miss Marguerite Duval, who, had now quite made up my mind, was one of the most beautiful, as we'll as one of the most innocent and simple-minded of her sex. Who could doubt the fact for an instant who had been permitted the felicity of gazing at her? When with her. I felt in spired like Montrose,
 ''To make her glorious by nay pen, and famous
 by my sword!" ---.
 When was away from her-don't be shocked, my sentimental reader-I felt as if I had had nothing to eat for fortnight, followed by an extraordinary tendency to- ward Villa Duyal. This, I suppose, was sympathetical electricity. a
 Let me describe her; let me, in fact, make her glorious by my pen, as the sub stitute of rife, I fear, precludes the pos sibility of winning her fame by any other means. She was tall and slight-very slight. Now this slightness is, to my mind, almost fault in Canadian beau tY, and it is in the one respect of figure that the maidens of England excel their Canadian sisters. Imploring your pardon for this Aggression, let me proceed with my portrait. Very slight, with graceful, piquant head, crowned with quantities of silky hair, massed in an extraordinary and mysterious way, all loops and twists, and coils and sunshine. No-it was not dyed, and it was not bought. She tainted in my arms once, and, though it came tumbling down in glorious and golden confusion, it did not tumble of. These wonderful tresses were cut straight across the fore head Ia Vandyke. Tam aware that this way of arranging the hair is generally con- demned as :.bad style,a but 1t was not so common then as it is now. and I boldly say, nothing can be more becoming when it forms fair and .silken fringe over a soft, young forehead and dark -penciled eyebrows. As for the eyse, it is simply impossible to describe them. They were everything by turns and nothing long. Yes; they were always beautiful l-melt. ing. burning, laughing, loving, soernipg. They were large, they Yeza brown, with very large, diliatinS rides. and they were guarded by 0 double file of lashes, long, soft, and almost black. As I write these words in praise of those wonderful eyes, helping my memory with glance at a