Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-05-21
of course Won and T know better

Arthur Baype was there. 1t is barely
possible thafCora might have fallen in
love with him; there is something very
fine and hyfalutin-pardOn the express
sion-in young lady's idea of a poet.
| But then Arthur Bayne was altogether
different from her ideal. He knew the
world too well to believe in its hollow
ness. He had found it in fact very
round, hard and stubborn sort of thing
| notice that men who have really been
shaken up bit in the merry go-round we
call life are not inclined to preserve the
| outside show of sentimentalism to anv
! great extent. We all start off some time
or another with our long hair, our turn
| down collars, our sable suits, our brigand
hats and our little hidden sorrows; but
when we have cut our eye teeth and
learned something about other folks
| trouble we always come back to reason, to
! plaid neckties, to stovepipe hats and the
| barber.
| Arthur was too matter-of-fact for Cora
| and she too sentimental for him from anv
| hymeneal point of view, yet they some
| how became very excellent and very init
mate friends. One evening they sat on
| the shore OF the little lake together. Cora
was gazing at the moon, of course. She
|
! ing Arthur what kind of a hero she had
imagined for her hearthistory, and de
| scribed the prince, with his melting ewes
and musical voice, his generous nature
and magnificent air, his mild, melancholy
and inexhaustible affection, his ire
| proachable morals and aristOcratic birth.
Arthur listened with due gravity until she
had finished
"Why don't you take me?" he asked.
81 am not very rich, but then poverty is
romantic. | can't play the guitar; but I
know fellow who is splendid on the
| banjo. AS for fine antique family, my
father was Mr.. Bayne, son of Old Bayne;
| believe he never went to State prison"
"Now, Arthur, you are too bad! You
make fun of everything"
"Well, to be serious, child, you'll never
| find your prince"
"And why nOt?"
Because they don't make 'em. Most
men are tolerably human, and humanity
is not perfection. If a man has no other
snail vices he is sure to use tobacco.
write poetry or keep dog. We are fair,
but frail, we men,
"Ah, Mr.. Bayne! what world it isl
| wish there might be some place where
one might go and hide away and dream
in peace"
"There is; and I am going there now.
| refer to my bed"
The next morning the bellies of Happy
Valley were in a twitter. The late train
The night before had brought new young
man, and young men were not a drug
at the Pavilion. The newcomer had
taken the finest suite in the establishment,
and a great pile of trunks with his mi
tialS -ctpOd in no Uncti b11Ia H.
were jealousy regarded by the other
young men, heartbroken with the con
seriousness of possessing but a single
trunk, and that, perhaps, small one.
When it became known that the
unknown was really on the piazza,
smoking a cigar all sorts of dip
lOmatic maneuverS were resOrted to
to get a fair sight of him on the
part of the young ladies. Cora Depeyster
denounced it as an exhibition of braZen
ill-breeding in others. As for herself, she
only stood at her window, which com
manded the piazza, and scrutinized him
through an Opera-giass.
Montgomery Smythe-fOr such was the
name which appeared on the register-in
three days time found himself a favorite |
with the ladies. He was of the conven-
tlonal type of magni6cence-the black |
haired, black-eyed, red-cheeked style, with |
small feet, dyed mustache and eye
glasses. In the matter ofscarfs and neck |
ties, with the jeweled pins thereto de- |
voted, he was truly gorgeous. If man |
has the least faint of vulgarity let him be-
ware OF his neck. Too much thoracic |
decoration ruins one.
A great change came over Cora She !
was sad and gay by fits; irritable, change |
q nd mo !,
use wasting words about it. She was in |
Iowa. Her prince had cone.
AS the days wore on this regal person |
developed. He gave suppers in his room |
to the young bloods, and organized picnic |
parties in the woods thereabout, which |
made the bellies of the Pavilion quite |
miserable with happiness. To Coras |
intense delight he made her in some sort
tie central figure in these last charming |
affairs, and held profound consultations |
with her concerning the details They
thus became associated in a certain de
gree before the public eye, and when
rumor whispered an engagement Cora
did little more than blush and stammer a
denial that sounded ever so much like
confirmation.
She gave herself up to q sort of blind
alteration of Montgomery Smythe. She
made prince Of him first, and put all
her trust IN hi N afterward. He told her
of his ancient family; of his late father,
twice United States Senator, and son of
Commodore Smythe, of the War of 1912.
The Commodore's father, he said, was
General Smythe, of Revolutionary fame,
and brother to Governor Smythe of one
OF the colonies under George III. He
talked OF the magnificent old cOuntry-seat
his father had left him, with its picture
gallery full of the portraits of the old
worthless just mentioned and their wives,
all uniforms and brocades and gold braid
and laces; of the long drawing rooms, the
grand dining-hall, the library, the grounds
all IN true barOnial style-till Cora,
rich and luxuriously reared as she was,
began to look up to him as a being of an
different and higher sphere.
One day they took a walk in the grove
IN the rear of the pavilion. 1t was the
closing up of the season, and the next day
there was to be a general exodus of the
Happy Valley boarders to their homes.
Cora felt that the decisive moment had
and it had The hitherto pent-
up-de7otion of Montgomery Smythe
found vent at last in declaration and
proposition. He vowed his love in per-
tectly ,prlncely style, ana having been &C
cepted with a good many bushes and
tears, just as is the case in all well-written
novels, he informed her that letters
just received from his confidential agent
In Europe compelled him to start i'm