Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1873-07-03
GIN Gnteresting gtory.
THE BACHELORS DILEMMA.
How MIR. ver1ey Went to See His Nice


"And don't you know when you will
pass through the country again, Mr..
Verley %
"No, don't" said the old bachelor,
decidedly.
He was something of bear to an
swer so crustily, when Barbara Smith
stood in the doorway with the shadoWy
lashes dropping over the soft brown
eyes, and the roses deepening into
deep earmine on her rosy cheeks, until
her dress was plain in comparison
Such pretty, big-eyed loving little
Barbara as she was, in all the blonde
freshness of her eighteen summers, and
the soft sigh that futtered from her
lips as the one-horse carriage drove a.
way, was checked Instantly. Barbara
had no idea of becoming a victim of
unrequited love, though she fancied
Mr.. Verley during his brief stay at her
fathers house.
Mr.. Verley drove away through the
rustling green draperies of the sum-
mer lanes, whistling sadly as he drove.
81 shall be in very good time for the
1890 train," he meditated to himself.
ssPunctuality is the soul of happiness,
and [ never was one of the behind tribe,
thank Providence. Besides, think it
was becoming dangerous to remain in
that place any longer; for I am thirty
nine, tomorrow, and that is just TWEEN
ty years too old for me to go making a
fool of myself"
"Fancy me getting married! No
you don't Joseph Verley, my friend!'
As he settled himself comfortably in
the crowded car, and opened letter,
the subject again occurred to his mind
with curious persistence.
1The letter of my poor brother'sex-
ecutor came just in time, or | should
have fooled away more time than would
have been sensible or at least profta-
ble.n
ssPoof, dear Harold! / don't see
what on earth possessed him to fall
sick and die on his way home from
Venice, and leave his daughter! [
never did understand woman, and
what's more I don't want to. [ am to
meet her at Speedville and take her
home with me. Oh! groaned Mr.. Ver-
ley, despairingly, "what am [ to do
with her there, I'd like to know. I
suppose she's great creature with
ringlets and ribbons, and has, just like
as not, an italian lover, talking senti-
ment to her-a creature that reads
Byron, and keeps an album, and eats
slate pencils and chalk. I'll send her
to d boarding school-that's what I'll
do with my niece. Perhaps when she
has graduated there, the schoolmaster
can suggest some means of getting rid
of her. Of course she'll have dozen
large trunks, and a bonnet box, and a
parrot cage, that's the way women
travel, I believe! I'm glad I am out of
the way of Barbara's destinations now.
Mr.. Verley looked out of the car
window in sort of calm desperation
at the prospect before him.
81 suppose she'll want piano and
poodle dog, and there's no knowing
what else. do not see why Harold
wanted to die and leave his daughter
to my care just now. Speedville sta
tion, twenty-seyen miles farther; Iwish
it was twenty-seyen hundred miles,
that's what [ wish"
And with vindictive statement in
his mind our hero tied red handker-
chief over his head, and tried to lose
himself in series of brief troublesome
dreams, wherein the vision of tall,
nice young lady figured conspieuously.
"Are we here already?" he stam-
mered, starting to his feet, as the con-
ductor growled out 'Speedville STA
tionp and selling valise and travelling
shawl, with the bustling bewilderment
peculiar to people just aroused from
sleep, he alighted.
ssSpeedville was rather a large sized
village, situated at the junction of sew
eral railways, with an imposing Amer
lean Gothic structure for depot. Into
the building Mr.. Verley walked, look
ing right and left for the young lady
whose guardianship he was about to
assume"
"Of course" he responded mentally,
"she'll be on the lookout for me; wo-
men are proverbially curious"
But Harold Verley's daughter was
not on the lookout for her uncle
When the crowd incident, to the even
ing train had subsided, and the people