The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-08-05
Perry Vance'S Fate.

Perry Vance was bachelor-old
bachelor, as some people were imp0-
lite enough TO qualify the word, al
though he was, in reality, several
wears short of the fatal forty,
where a mans friends are first jGsti-
fed in thus labelling him. But then
Mr.. Vance seemed so confirmed and
hopeless a COelebs that it was small
wonder IL those who knew him fell
into the way of giving him brevet
rank, in the conviction that the fu-
ture Wo1ld be as the past. His own
mother was q sharer in this belief, re-
luetantly enough, for she was not the
sort of mother to be Jealous of "the
not impossible she" that might come
to divide her domestic empire on
the contrary, it was the seeming inn
possibility OF such a she which caused
all her anxiety. Almost from the
time Perry had come out of round
Jackets, Mrs, Vance had occu-
pied herself with the question of his
marriage, and had set trap after trap
for him perhaps it was the early
consciousness of this that made him
so wary it is certain that he moved
among all these sDares with q circum-
-speetion and security which would
have driven any ordinary plotter
long since to despair. But Mrs.
Vance was an indomitable little wO-
man though she had lost hope, she
had never lost spirit, and no sooner
did one castle tumble down, then she
proceeded to build q finer one on its
ruiUs as composedly as if she had not
beheld the fall of a hundred such
structures already.
By means of much practice, these
two had acquired a pretty thorough
knowledge OF each others manner Of
feeling, so that Perry could form a
tolersbly correct notion Of what was
coming when one morning, at break
fast, his mother looked up from let
ter she had been reading, and turned
to him.
"Perry," said she, "I had forgotten
to tell you was expecting my friend
Mrs. Wilkie and her daughter to
spend next week here"
"Such a pity had not known your
plans !" blandly interposed Perry,
regarding the bottom of his eoffee-cup
with an air of the deepest concern,
''then could have made my own ac-
cordingly. AS it is, Tom Grover"
"Oh In said Mrs, Vance. There was
no need for her 10 hear further; it
was not by any means the first time
that Tom Grover had served as Per-
ry's scape goat in like extremity.
Perry, however, went on glibly, with.
out taking any notice OF the lntelli-
gent tone of her exclamation
HTom Grover wants me to go down
to his place next week. Franks
making trip north, he tells me, and
be has asked two or three people to
meet him. He made such a point OF
my coming, and it would be rather
awkward, you know, TO go back
from my promise"
All of which argument was ildispu'
table so far as it went, only that Mr.
Perry Vance somehow omitted Il
mention one trifiing circumstance
which might have rather changed the
aspect of affairs this was, that h'
had not as yet given his promise, bu
was even now vowing TO rush at onc'
to Tom Grover and commit himself
irrevOcsbly, in order to escape the
threatened invasion. Mrs. Nanc'
probably was not without her suspi'
cions as to the true state of the case,
but she only said, in q resigned tone
"Well, Perry, 1 shOul1 have liked
You to meet the Wilkes, certainly
but, if you have other engagements
Of course there is no use in talking
about it,"
She took it so easily that Perry
looked at her keenly for q moment
half fancying some deep laid plot un.
der that serene countenance, then
concluded that she had at last made
up her mind to the inevitable. "Pool
mother ln he said to himself, with 4
kind of compunctious smile, "for hel
sake I almost wish 1 could shut my
eyes and walk into the trap, but
suppose there's q fate in these things
and Pm convinced mine was to live
and die bachelor"
Perry had told nothing but th,
strict truth in saying that Tom Grov
er made a point o. his coming to him
so thas gentleman was as delighted a
Perry's change of mind as amused by
its cause. For on that subject ther,
were no concealments between thesl
two old comrades, and Tom, with 1
goodwill nothing less than treasona
BILE in a married man, had helpe,
his friend out of more than one dan
ger,
'Dilly won't stay to be killed." SAT-
Tom, with 3 malicious laugh over tn
disappointment in store for ''tbe de
signing young woman" as he called
the poor unknown Miss Wiikie. "Al
the better, old fellow ! / know Geor
gle never would forgive either of us
you were TO be gobbled up by this for
eign invader, for between ourseIve
she Is bound to marry you to som
cousin; or aunt, or grandmother, G
her own.h
(Georgie was Toms wife, a brigh
little brunette of 3 woman, who ma
taken a great liking to Perry, and de
clared him 3 thousand times too goo
for the Old-bSchelor ranks.)
| tForeign or domestic foe," said Pei
~, in reply to Toms remark, sit !
all one TO me, and defy them alike.
Which was not only an ungallant bu
a rash challenge on the part of Nj
Vance, for which he deserved to
I punished.
II Perry had accepted his friend
invitation in the first instance as
means of escape, he certainly ha
reason to congratulate himself o
: finding so agreeable way out Of hi
dilemma. Tom Growers house We
= about the pIeasantest visiting plaC
to be found anywhere, principall,
perhaps, because it was wholly III
, like q visiting.plaee. II you ha
come into it without previous know
edge, you would have been puzzled
tell which were hosts and whic
guests, for there was not the slightei
2 fuss Of constraint on either side, sn
the party appeared like q happy fam
ly, where every one did exactly as
pleased. There were people, indeei
who said that the Growers were
4 great deal too free-and-easy; whethl
. they were or not, their house-fam
. liarly knowh by various fond nicl
8 names, such as NO-Man's-Land, Lii
erty hall, ete.-was the most populi
one in the neighborhood.