Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-07-10

| chatted With me Willingly ana famlllarly;
but iii vain did | watch for some slight in.
dication, a glance or information, whence
| to derive hope. None such were per
| ceptible, nor could the most egregious
coxcomb have fancied that there were
| We once or twice fell in with other ac-
Quaintances of hers and her brothers, and
with them she had just the same frank,
| friendly manner as with me. | had not
sufficient vanity, however, to expect a
woman, especially one so much admired
as Miss NJ Dermot, to fall in love at first
sight with my humble personality, and |
patiently waited, trusting time and ASST
| duty to advance my cause.
Things We're in this state, when one
morning, while taking an early walk to
the springs, l ran up against an English
| friend, by name Walter Ashley. He was
the son Of a country gentleman of moder.
| ate fortune, at whose house I had more
than once passed week in the shooting
| season. Walter was an excellent fellow,
and a perfect model of the class to which
he belonged. BY no means unpublished in
his manners, he had yet sort of plain
| frankness and bonhOmnaae which was pc
culiarly agreeable and prepossessing. He
| was not university man, nor had he re-
| ceived an education of the highest order
| spoke no language but his own with any
degree Of Notwithstanding played the
! fiddle, painted pictures, nor wrote poetry
| On the other hand, in all manly exercises
| he was a proficient; shot, rode, walked
| and danced to perfection; and the fresh
originality and pleasant tone of his con,
versation redeemed any deficiency of read
! ing or accomplishment. In personal ap-
| pearance he was splendid fellow, nearly
| six feet in his boots, strongly, but at the
same time symmetrically, built; although
his size of limb and width of shoulder
| rendered him, at twenty,six, rather
what is called fine man, than a
slender or elegant one. He had the
| true Anglo-Saxon physiognomy, blue
| eyes, and light brown hair that waved,
| rather than curled, round his broad,
handsome forehead. And then. what a
mustache the fellow had. He was
an officer in crack yeomanry corps.
Not one Of the composite order, made up
of pomatum and mpblack-such as may
be seen sauntering down St James street
on spring afternoon, with incipient
guardsmen behind them-but worthy of
an Italian painter or Hungarian hussar;
| full well-grown and glossy. Who was
| the idiot who first set afloat the notion
now become an established prejudice in
| England-that mustaches were unseemly ?
To nine faces out of ten they are a most
becoming addition, increasing physiog-
nomical character-almost giving it where
| there is none; relieving the monotony of
| broad, flat cheeks, and abridging the
abOmination of long upper lip Tn
clearly, say you? Not bit of it. if Judi
| ciously trimmed and trained. What sir
are they not at least as proper looking as
those foxy thickets extending from jaw
bone to temple, which you yourself, each
morning OF your life, take such pains to
comb and curl into shape?
Delighted to meet Ashley, l dragged
him Oft to the hotel, to Introduce him to
M'Dermot and his sister As friend of
mine they gave him a cordial welcome,
| and we passed that day and the following
ones together. | soon, however, | must
confess, began to repent little having
brought my handsome friend into the so
cletY Of Dora. She seemed better pleased
with him than | altogether liked; nor
could / wonder at it. Walter Ashley was
exactly the man to please a woman of
DOra>s character. She was of rather rO-
mantle turn, and about him there was a
dash Of the ChivalrOus, we'll calculated to
captlvate her Imagination. Although
perfectly feminine, she was an excellent
horscWoman, and an ardent admircr Of
teats of address and courage, and she had
heard me tell her brother of Ashley's per
lection in such matters. On his part,
Ashley, like every one else who saw her,
was evidently greatly struck with her
beauty and fascination of manner. | can
not say that | was jealous; | had no right
to be so, for Dora had never given me en-
I
once regretted having introduced a third
person into What-hOnest Jack M'Dcr-
mot counting, of course, for nothing
had previously been sort of tete-a-tete so
ciety. | began to fear that, thanks TO my
self, my occupation was gone, and Ashley
had got it.
1t was the fifth day after our meeting
with Walter, and we had started early in
the morning upon an excursion to a
| neighboring lake, the scenery around
which, we were told, was particularly
wild and beautiful. 1t was situated on a
piece of table land on the top Of noun
| tain, which we could see from the hotel
window. The distance was barely ten
miles, and the road being rough and pre-
| cipitous MDermOt, Ashley and myself
| had chosen to walk rather than risk our
necks by riding the broken -kneed ponies
| that were offered to us. A sure-tooted
| mule and Indifferent side-saddles had
| been procured for Miss M'Dermot, and
was attended by Withholding Bearnese
| boy, or gOssOOn, as her brother called
him, creature like a grasshopper, all
| legs and arms, with a scared cOunte-
nance, and long black hair hanging in
| irregular sbreds about his face.
There Is no season more agreeable IN
| the Pyrenees than the month of Septem-
| Der. People are very apt to expatiate on
the delights of autumn, its mellow beau.
| ty, pensive charms, and such like. con
TESS that in a general way | like theyouth
OF the year better than its decline, and
| prefer the bright green tints of spring,
with the summer in prospective, to the
melancholy autumn, lis russell hues and
| falling leaves; its regrets for fine weather
past, and anticipations of bad to come.
| But if there be any place where | should
| be tempted to reverse my judgment, 1t
would be in Southern France, and espe-
cially its western and central portion
The clear, cloudless sky; the moderate
| heat succeeding to the sultriness, often
| overpowering, of the summer months
the magnificent vineyards and merry
vintage-time; the noble groves of chestnut
clothing the lower slopes of the noun
tains the bright streams and flower-span
gled meadows of Bearn and Languedoc
render no part of the year more delightful
in those countries than the months OF
September and October.