Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-01-24

merely good-natured, friendly neighbor, who
gave very pleasant little parties, and whose
carriage was useful in the fiOwer-show season.
Beyond and above all, on two several occasions
Mrs. Trefol turned the gloomy midwinter into
Joy and gladness by carrying Granny and
glimpse of (theatricaD fairy-land.
Two years passed; the Doctor still remained
in Africa, and the last petals of childhood fell
from Ethel; fact which was first brought home
to poor Granny by the intrusion into tn ,ir
peaceful life of lover.
AT one of the friendly lawn parties given by
Mrs. Trefoil in the summer months there APP
peared stranger, who huttered the Hawkshaw
doyecot, an assistant surgeon, and the second
son of neighboring squire, now an under
graduate, and intended for the bar, and who
might be fit for the matrimonial market in
twenty years or so, If all went well. Dudley
was the strangers name; he had no profession;
dressed well; rode valuable looking horse: was
tail, handsome, with very white teeth, and
very black moustache, and a certain keen ex-
presslon In his eyes which always makes a man
PASS for romantici above all, was single.
There were eight young ladies between the
ages of seventeen and twenty-five at that fete,
and seven OF them were Immediately prepos-
sessed in this Mr.. Dudley's favor. The eighth,
who shuddered at him, was Ethel, who had a
prejudice against dark men, and thought there
was something especially Mephistophelean
aged to talk Ethels first aversion away tn at
very afternoon, and the next time they met her
only feeiing was that she was going to have an
deIScdpic Cbdt. ooOu, whenever sue went into
company, she looked for him, and she seldom
looked fruitlessly, for the young man rarely
missed chance Of meeting her.
He had been asked to stay at Mrs. Trefo!l's
for . couple Of days only, but when he left he
did not go far. He possessed q few hundred
acres In another county, and wished to farm
them himself, If the present tenant, who was in
q very precariOus state of health, should die.
1t was therefore req uisite that he should study
practical farming, and for that purpose he took
up his abode with John Higgins, substantial
yeoman, whose HON estead was not milo out
Of the village. But as the time of year was not
favorable for the study of top dressing and sub
soil draining, the agricultural neOphyte had
plenty of time on his hands, which he devoted
to the cultivation of his neighbors. His atten-
tons to Ethel became so marked that Mrs Tre-
foil thought 1t right to call upon Miss Antro-
bus and say what che knew of the young man.
II was not much. He was q cousin of her late
husband; was pretty well of, though not ex-
actly rich, and had been educated abroad,
where his parents, who were both dead, had re-
sided. Indeed, she believed that his mother
was French woman.
Poor Granny was dreadfully dismayed. "But,
my LADY," she said, when she could utter,
ETHEL IL only child"
Quite right, dear Mrs. Antrobus," replied
Mrs. Trefoil; "you have the law on your side.
But the law is very often opposed to nature and
common sense, and We cannot do any good by
shutting our eyes to the fact that our dear
Ethel, though theoretically an infant. is prsc-
tically woman"
"Bat, my lady, her guardian, DR.. Antrobus,
IL away, and nothing Of that kind can be talked
about till be comes back. o dear, dearl"
But Dr.. Dudley had no idea Of pushing deli