Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1874-02-07
HoRRID MISS LEIGH.


HORRID MISS LEIGH,
Tom Luttrell, aged twenty -four, was
q thoroughly good fellow, good-tem-
pered, good looking, and heir to good
property, but he had one sorrow-he
was engaged to a girl he had never
seen.
Some ten years before dispute had
arisen about certain Hillingdon es-
tate, in Leiscestershire, to which Mr..
Luttrell-Tom's father-and certain
Carnworth Leigh both laid claim. Lit
igation seemed inevitable. and the le-
gal fraternity began to prick up its
ears, when one morning Mr.. Luttrell
received the following note:
DEAR LUTTRELL You and /
have been good friends all our lives,
and there is no man living whom l
have greater esteem than for your
self. Cannot We, then, settle this
wretched business without troubling
these internal lawyers? My uncle,
Haughton Leigh, had a suit that last
ed him twenty years and killed him in
the end. Now, listen to me; my
daughter Nellie will have all I've got
at my death, except Barfeld, which
goes to Jacks boy. Why shouldn't
she marry your boy Tom? Let the
property alone for the next ten years
then Nellie will be eighteen and Tom
four-and -twenty-if they like to mar
ry then, we'll and good; if either
should decline to carry out the ar
rangement, let the property 60 to the
other.
This is a rough idea of my plan,
which Jackson, your lawyer, could
soon put into shape. What do you
say?
Yours, etc.
-"CARNwORTH LEIGH.
Barfeld."
To this proposition Mr.. Luttrell
agreed, and Tom found himself an en-
gagged 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 Cont
nept. So it happened that Tom and
his future bride had never met.
About month before the time fixed
for his decision Tom betook himself
to a small inn in the village of Settle
bourn, near Stockford, nominally to
fish, but in reality to escape from his
fathers arguments, and to get a little
time to himself for quiet reflection,
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 over him and dropped light
ly on the water, while girls voice ex
claimed:
"Oh, my gracious, my hat"
Tom looked, and saw a very neat lit
tie bat floating, boat-like, down the
stream.
Bother the young womap," he
grumbled, u suppose, now, she ii ex.
pect me to fetch itp'
As he rose he looked up to the spot
from which the voice had proceeded,
and saw a girl whose beauty surprised
him. She stood bareheaded on the
bank, gazing with look of comic dis
may after the receding hat, and Tom
had an opportunity of examing criti-
cally, from the little head, with its
crisp, brown hair, disordered by the
wind, to the slim ankles which her pO-
sition revealed as she stood above him,
Running some yards down the bank,
he stepped out upon an old willow,
which protruded over the stream, and
waited in the hope that the current
would bring the hat within bis reach
He was not disappointed, and In q lev
minutes more he was again ON terra
frma with his prize.
Il must make friends with this
young person." he thought. as he care
fully dried the dripping feather with
his handkerchief.
The fair stranger had watched his
efforts from the elevated post, and
smiled sweetly on him as he climbed the
bank with his recovered treasure. She
had evidently been sketching, for hel
materials were scattered in picturesque
confusion around her.
hope it's not much damaged,
said Tom, as helooked rather ruefully
at the result of his manipulations
I'm afraid the feathers in bat
way"
"Oh, it doesn't matter in the least
thanks. How kind of you to take sc
much trouble. But for you | mus
have walked home bare-headed."
Il wouldn't putt on just yet, Ton
said. Let it lie in the sun a little
and dry, while you go on with YOU
work"
But suppose it starts off again
when there's no one to recover it fol
me2 she suggested;
Let me guard it, then, and you car
work in peace. You are sketching,
see; may | look 2
"Oh, yes but it's miserable fail
ure, I'm afraid" she said, laughing
as she handed it to him. Tom exam
| ined it, and, being a bit of an amateur
himself, proceeded to criticise, and, fin
ally, to instruct. He found the girl yer.
charming; she seemed SO delightful,
free from all conventionality, withou
at all resembling his bete noir, the ''fas
girl"
They grew quite confidential as tn
lesson proceeded, and were amazec
yhan, on consulting their watches
they discovered that it was half-pas
six.
must fly" she said, "or l shal
be late for dinner, and Sir John can
stand that"
Have you far to go?" asked Tom
craftily."
About a mile. I'm staying at New
lands. Good by. No, l can carr
them. thanks; / couldn't think o
troubling you any more. GoOd-by,
and she was off.
Tom went to his room, thinking
great deal about his new friend, won
dering where the charms lay which
even more than her beauty, had tasci
mated him. Perhaps it's her dress,
ha thouoht. I" she dresses better tha