The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-12-24
HoRR1p MISS LEIGH.

girl he had never seen.
Some ten years before dispute ha
arisen about certain Hillingdon estate, i
Leicestershire, to which Mr.. Luttreli-
Toms father-and certain Carnwt
Leigh both laid claim. Litigation SCENE
inevitable, and the legal fraternity bega
to prick up its ears, when one morning MI
Iuttrell received the following note:
'sDear Luttrell-You and have bee
good friends all our lives, and there is n
man living for whom | have greater es
TEEN than for yourself. Cannot we, then
settle this wretched business without trou
bling these internal lawyers? I? NY uncle
Haughton Leigh, had a suit that lasted hin
twenty years and killed him in the end
Now, listen to me /; my daughter Nelli,
will have ali I've got at my death, excep
Barfield, which goes to jacks boy. Why
shouldn't she marry your boy Tom? Lee
the property alone for the next ten years
then Nellie will be eighteen and Tom four.
and-twenty-if they like to marry then,
we'll and good if either should decline to
carry out the arrangement, let the property
60 TO the other. ~
"This is rough idea of my plan, which
Jackson, your lawyer, could soon put into
shape. What do you say? Yours, &c.,
Carnworth Leigh, Barfeld."
TO this proposition Mr.. Luttrell agreed,
and Tom found himself an engaged man
at fourteen. Soon after this Mr.. Leigh
was obliged to leave England for his health;
and for many years he resided entirely on
the Continent. So it happened that Tom
and his future bride never met.
About month before the time fixed for
his decision Tom betook himself to a
small inn in the village of Settleburn, near
Stockford, nominally to fish, but in reality
to escape from his fathers arguments and
to get little time to himself for quiet re-
Election, while he solaced his wretched soul
with tobacco
One day as he lay lazily smoking by the
silver Beck something fell from a high
bank above him and dropped lightly on the
water, while girls voice exclaimed.
"Oh, my gracious, my hat"
Tom looked and saw very neat little
hat floating, boat-like, down the stream.
Bother the young woman" he grum-
bled. ~ suppose, now, she'll expect me TO
fetch i'll"
AS he rose he looked up to the spot
from which the voice had proceeded, and
saw girl whose beauty surprised him.
She stood bare-headed on the bank, gazing
with look of comic dismay after the fast
receding hat, and Tom had an oppor-
tunity Of examining critically, from the
little head, with its crisp, brown hair, dis
ordered by the wind, to the slim ankles
which her position revealed as she stood
above him.
Running some yards down, the bank, he
stepped out upon an old willow, which pro-
truded over the stream, and waited in the
hope that the current would bring the hat
within his reach. He was not disappointed
and in a few minutes more he was again on
terra t,ma with his prize. @ =
IL must make friends with this young
person." he thought, as he carefully dried
the dripping feather with his handkerchief.
The fair stranger had watched his efforts
from her elevated post, and smiled sweetly
on HIM as he climbed the bank with his
recovered treasure. She had evidently
been sketching, for her materials were
scattered in picturesque confusion around
her.
II hope it's not much damaged" said
Tom, as he looked rather ruefully at the
result of his manipulations. ''I'm afraid
the feathers in bad way"
"Oh, it doesn't matter in the least,
thanks. How kind of you to take so much
trouble. But for you must have walked
home bareheaded."
81 wouldn't put it on just yet" Tom
said. "Let it lie in the sun little and
dry, while you go on with your work."
"But suppose it starts off again, when
there's no one to recover it for me 2" she
HLet me guard it, then, and you can
work in peace. You are sketchng, see
may l look 2"
"Oh, yes; but it's miserable failure.
Pm afraid" she said, laughing, as she
handed it to him. Tom examined it, and,
being bit of an amateur himself pro-
ceeded to criticise, and, finally, to instruct.
He found this girl very charming; she
seemed so delightfully."- free from all con-
ventionality, without at all resembling his
bdeaoir, the "iast girl.o
They grew quite confidential as the
lesson proceeded, and were amazed when,
on consulting their watches, they dis
covered that t was halfpast six.
81 must fly," she said, ''or shall be
late for dinner. and Sir John can't stand
that"
"Have you far to go?" asked Tom
craftily.
"About a mile. I'm staying at New
lands. Good-by. No. can carry them,
thanks / couldn't think of troubling you
any more. Good-by," and she was Oft.
Tom went to his room, thinking great
deal about his new friend, wondering
where the charms lay which, even more
than her beauty, had fascinated him. : Per-
haps it's her dress" he thought; 'she dress
es better than any woman l ever saw aud
then her boots ~ Here he lit cigar and
fell into dream about the said boots and
about the little white hand which had
worked SO industriously and confidingly
under the direction of his big brown paw.
All the next day he wandered by the
river, but she came not. That evening he
was restless and ill-tempered with his host
ess and every one who approached him.
The day after he was more fortunate:
She was sitting in the old spot, and greeted
him smilingly.
"Youre just in time," she said. "Look
at my tree; isn't it like those bright green
caulhowers you see in the pickle bot
ties 2" ~
Tom sat down and set to work on the
refractory tree, while she watched him.
81 say" said she at last, ''isn't this
dreadfully improper ?''
(Which ?" asked Tom, working away
vigorously.