Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1874-07-17
AUNT CHARLOTTE'S YARN.

4
"Now, Ida, my dear girl. take my ad
vice." said Aunt Charlotte to her young
niece, s'and don't imperil your own future
happiness nor be guilty of injustice by
sighting the man to whom you have givel
your troth, Oh by foolishly teasing him il
order to test his affection. There is a sto
ry in my own memory that | have never
told you; and [ coul d not now bring my
self to do SO only that | see you don't like
me to lecture you, and wish you to learn
wisdom by an easier method than that OF
bitter experience.
When [ was a young girl we lived, as
you know, in Canada, in one of the small
lake-shore towns between Toronto and
Kingston. Your grandfather was a man
Of note in the town, and / was a good deal
sought after. I was giddy, too, and sell
| fish, though I did not then consider myself
so. [ had many admirers and suitors,
among whom the one [ liked best was
Harry Vane. From my very infancy
Harry had been my gallant, and though I
sometimes pretended to be, and sometimes
really was, jealous of him or otherwise Of
| Tended and he the same with regard to
me, we always made up again and were
better friends than ever. There was not
really any engagement between us, though
Harry had asked me to form one; but my
parents objected to long engagements, and
we were not ready to marry. Matters
stood thus when, early one spring, we had
an addition to our list of beaux in the form
Of a dashing young fellow, an Englshman,
sent out by wealthy firm Of the mother
country for the purpose of establishing an
agency in their line of business. His
headquarters had been at Montreal, but
| he now announced his intention Of making
our town his home during the summer.
s'fIe had a good deal of leisure, and
spent no inconsiderable part Of it at our
me. I could scarcely set my feet on the
sidewalks without encountering him. His
name was Downs, and he claimed to be of
aristocratic parentage. He was handsome
5and affable, though rather supercilious,
withal very distinguished in appearance
so no wonder the girls of our set wished to
| attract his attention, and were envious of
me. Of course | was proud of my con-
quest, and perhaps carried myself a little
haughtily in consequence. For some time
Harry pouted, then openly demonstrated,
even pleaded; but as [ angrily asserted my
|
independence, he finally desisted from all
apparent notice of the matter; and when
ever we met he treated me with indiffer-
ent courtesy, and altogether showed a
manly self-command, which did not fail
to note and admire. Still | must confess
that at that time gave.very little thought
to Harry OF to any Of my old admirers; it
seemed wonderful to me how completely
was fascinated by the prepossessing stran-
ger.
ssTo be sure he fattered my vanity not a
little, and my empty head was turned by
his lavish, adulatory style of compliments
He raved about my eyes Of heavenly blue,
the golden glory of my mermaid locks, my
swan-like neck, and an endless flow of
bathos that ought to have disguised me-
but did not; and so / listened and he rant
ed. About the middle of August we made
up among our set a picnic party to drive
out to Rice Lake Plains and spend the day
in boating on the lake, gathering buckle
berries, wild flowers, etc., and generally
amusing ourselves.
"You must know that there is an irreg
ular chain Of small lakes extending trans
versely from the Bay of Quinte, near the
eastern end Of Lake Ontario, to the east
ern end of Superior. Rice lake is the first
of the chain counting from Ontario, an(
it lies at a distance of from two to fou
hours drive from several small towns OF
1.-THE frontier. We had an early breakfast
and set off at s o'clock, so that we need
not be on the road during the heat Of thu
day. There were several carriages; th
one in which [ rode was a handSom
barouche hired from a livery stable TO
the occasion, and by my side sat the all
conquering Mr.. Downs.
For some unexplained reason Harr
Vane did not go in any of the carriages
but was mounted on horseback, and b
rode gayly by the side Of first one vehicle
then another. When we had gone littl
distance out of town, the country all
] sights and sounds were so exhilaratin&
that we in our carriage began to sing
Harry, hearing us, rode up and joined il
the song he being particularly fond OF slpE
ing. Shortly we struck off into an old dit
which he and l had sung together coun
less times when we stood each first in tt
: esteem Of the other and no gay strange
had come between us. For stanza {
two, Harry sang bravely, but when
came to the refrain suddenly his hors
bolted and he rode off, catching at his hi
with one hand and seeming to draw rel
with the other. The remainder of tt
party thought his horse had SHE'D and ru
away with him, but saw thoroughly tt
whole maneuver, and sudden pang sh
- I'll