Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-07-04
From Harper's Magazine.l
"TIN A.

IT ~ \ -
always missing their opportuni-
ties" grumbled the doctOK; ''always
getting into the wrong places, some
how, and doing the wrong things -
That is the way with people. Now,
there is Welby-loOk at Welby; the
idea of Welby settling down into a
country parson, simply because his
mothers aunt regarded the church as
his vocation, aud could have made it
inconvenient for him if he had dis
agreed with her. Dear me, drop
ping suddenly into a wearied sort of
abstraction, and staring at the brown
stone front on the opposite side of
the street,-''what fools women make
of honest men sometimes, and-what
knavesl"
1t seemed as if the sight of the
brownstone front was suggestive, and
added a spark to a new train of tho't,
for he sighed again, and rumbled his
shaggy hair with his large white hand,
in an odd, disturbed fashion.
''And Durant," he siad, in lower
voice, "kindly, gentle little fellow as
he is, made for home life, and simple,
tender home pleasure-to think of his
marrying a womn like that, and being
worked to death by her, and disap-
pointed to the core of his soft heart
by her, and dragged from post to pill
lar, to her balls, and parties, and
feasts, and watering-placeSI God
bless my soup'-shaking his broad
shoulders like big water-dog- -"what
blunder it wasl And then there's
the child" he went on the next min
ute, "and
THAT SLIP OF A GovERNEss GIRL,
with her novels, and romance, and her
big, lost-looking, dreamy eyes. What
right has pretty, silly, vague crea-
ture like that to make n governess of
herself? What does she know about
mOlding a child's mind, and roofing
out evil tendencies, and checking lit
tie offshoots of wrong, and all that
sort of thing? She's a baby herself.
All! there she is at the window-star-
gazing, l suppose
The nursery was in the highest
story of the house, and the house was
large one, so the window at which
the solitary young figure stood was
high enough, and near enough 10 the
oNeAAo AcA eAAA oAaaA eALlAlfS BAl1 hONNo l. AAG
window itself was thrown open, and
the light within showed the girl lean
ing upon the sill and resting her chin
ON her hand. But she was not look
ing mp; she was looking down. The
stars her forlorn girlish eyes saw were
the twinkling street lamps, stretching
themselves down the street in a mar
rowing vista. If the doctor himself
felt rather neglected and out of sorts
tonight, he was not alone in his tenn
pOrary detection, for his young ac-
quaintance across the way was out of
spirits too. 1t was so lonely in Ted
dy's pretty nursery there when Teddy
was asleep, and the world that seem
cd so far below the high window was
all lighted up, and Teddy's mamma
was out enjoying herself in all her
bravery and beauty, and even the SER
wants were having a sociable sort of
gathering in their own domains.
1T isn't so dreadful in the day time,
when Teddy talks and people seem to
be properly alive" said Tina, her
great melancholy black eyes rowing
here aud there until at last they set
tied on the doctors study window
Il suppose it Is because 1 am up here
by myself in the silence that every
body who passes appears like sort
of ghost.
THERE Is DIR. THEoBALD
looking out, and he looks like ghost,
too. l wonder what he is thinking
about? 1t would be safe enough 10
ask him from here: one needn't be
afraid of being answered. What are
you thinking about, DIR. Theobald:
she said, softly; and she gave him a
little nod under cover of the dark
ness, a slow, dreamy smile touching
her lips.
She had observed him far oftener
than he had observed her. He had
been an object of interest to her from
the first day of her arrival, when she
had seen his comfortable carriage
drawn up before the pavement, and
had watched for his outcOming with
the dreary curiosity of utter loneli-
ness. Her life at the third-rate board
ing-school at which she had been edu-
Gated had not boeu a pleasant one,
but she had become used to its dull
routine, and, being only girl, there
had been other girls among the fifty
third-rate pupils whom she had
learned to like, and whom she was
sorry to leave. There had been poor.