The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-11-23

Miss Middleton was flushed and gave
other evidences of mental agitation as
she passed through the parlor to the
little closet which was called by courtesy
her room.
The plain fact of the matter is that
Miss Middleton had quarreled with her
lover five minutes before, and that gen
tEenan had dignifedly taken his leave.
II do not mean to hint that the loss OF
a lover lis a matter of any moment in
young gentlewoman's personal history,
or that one lover more or less counts for
much; but there were two facts which
made the present case serious.
In the first place, Miss Middleton was
poor, and, now that her engagement was
peremptorily ended, her prospects III
LIE were really very alarming. She had
not always been poor, and she had little
skill in any art that promised to yield
her and her mother support. They
owned great rice plantation on the
coast, it is true, but It's dikes had been
broken, its flood gates rotted away, its
bitches filed up during the war, and,
until reftted at a great cost, it was
worse tkan worthless. Tax bills had
accumulated against it, and, finally, it
had been advertised for sale by the
Sheriff. The little upholstered summer
cottage in which they were now living,
consisting chiefly of piazza, together
with its two acres of white sand, constl-
futed the whole sum of their posses
Sions.
But her poverty and the barren pros
pect before her were not in Miss Mid
dIetons mind at ALL There was another
and more serious trouble IN the case.
Miss Middleton loved the quiet, patient
man whom she had just sent away with
bowed head and detected countenance,
and, for some reason which she was not
psychologist enough to discover, send
ing him away had not in the least cured
her of the infatHation. The worst of it
all was that she had been In a passion,
aud atamped her pretty little foot an
gritty, and said wicked things In her final
conversation with hmi, and the memory
of all her kaughtiness, now that he was
gone, YVES sorely disquleting.
Not that she blamed herself in the
least for the rupture or the quarrel that
had accompanied it, by any means.
Have [ not said that she was woman.
No. 1t was all Mr.. Fred Breese's
fault. He ought to have known several
things that he could not possibly have
found out in any way, and from us mas
-culine stupidity in not knowing these
things the quarrel had come about, nat
uraliy and logically-feminine nature
and feminine logic being meant, of
course.
Mr.. Breese was a native of New En-
gland, and Miss Middleton was South
CaroIinian. Mr.. Breese had served in
the army of the Union, while Miss Mid
,dIeton's only brother had been buried III
a suit of gray. When Mr.. Breese first
came to South Carolina, therefore, and
became q winter boarder in Mrs Mid
dEeton's house, prudence and common
courtesy forbade the Introduction of po-
aiEical topics Ia conversation; and when,
aitae by little, Mr.. Breese became the
in1imat9 friend of the family, good feel
ing epxompted both him and them to
continue the silence; sothat, while there
was no Discrimination on either side,
there had never been any discussion of
painful topics between them. When
Mr.. Breese returned to pass a second
winter in the family, Miss Middleton
had entirely ceased to think of him as a
eEYankee at all; and when, few weeks
later. his rel..tioh to the family changed
from. that OF friend and boarder to that
of Miss Mddteton's accepted sutton, the
two had pleasanter things than political
differences to talk about; and SO they
forgot to remember that there was OF
ever had been war between them.
On the morning of the quarrel, Mr..
Breese bad brought his New York news
paper with him from the postotfice, and
In his bsent-minded way read 1t as be
walked.
This was the origin of all the trouble,
and. il this story has any moral at all, il
Ia chat one should never read news
paper except sitting In chair.
The newspaper in question contained,
among other things, the Presidents
proclamation appointing the last Thurs
day in November for Thanksgiving.
AS Mr.. Breese had never seen Miss
NFiddleton's early home, and as he had
reason to believe that that young gentle
woman longed to revisit the scenes OF
her childhood, it had occurred to him to
suggest journey thither; and, III order
4EaaA hn rnIoht the more gracefully as