The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-08-11
THE NEW SOPRANO.
BY PEN SHIRLEY.

"Try that chair by the fire, Steve, and
comfort your soles on the mantle while
unearth pair of slippers for you. Pve
small mound of them in the closet
built up of the individual giftso of CRATE
full pupils"
A cruel waste! You should be a cen
tipede, Hail. instead of that forlorn
biped, bachelor. By the way, speaking
of single blessedness, how it must harrow
you, my boy, to witness diurnally the
bliss of the bride and bridegroom who
sit opposite you here at the table
Favor them with Lambs Complaint
against Married People, will you? and
send me the bill"
Bride and bridegroom? Well, that is
rich! Have cigar, deluded youth,
while | enlighten you concerning this
mellifluous couple. Did you mark the
gentleman particularly? You can't take
him at a glance; there's too much of him.
Goodwin his name is-Timothy Good
win: Good Timothy" his friends dub
MN; ana the title applies.
He sat next to me at the table when ]
first came to Mrs. .Tewksbury's five years
ago, and from the outset he showed g
fatherly interest in mean interest
which this quaking STRIPPING of an organ
ist appreciated, | can assure you. Being
one of the pillars of st. Luke's-the
church | play at, you remember-and
an esteemed musical critic withal, his
hearty approval of me as performer
was an immense advantage to me.
You'd hardly suppose such quiet,
imperturbable earthlinp as he looks to be
would rhapsodize over music, would
you? 1t was surprise to me to find
how deeply it moved him. He soon fell
into the habit of dropping into my room
after tea when he heard me at the
piano; and many time I've caught the
great, strong fellow hopping his eyes
surreptitiously over affecting passages.
As | came to know him intimately,
and to feel what a staunch, tender
hearted, domestic sort Of an individual
he was, / began to wonder he had never
married. One day L asked him in jok-
ing way how a rich man like himself
could reconcile it with his conscience to
remain a bachelor in America, where
there was such a preponderance of I'M
married ladies to be supported. He made
a wry face, and said he had assumed the
maintenance two spinster step-cousins:
wasn't that his part?
"Or if you think it isn't, Hal, I'll tell
you what I'll do,' he added, laughing
You marry yourself, and I'll support
your wife. Won't that be fair?"
Hardly fair for the lady" remark
ed, adding that l should pity the Iuckless
unknown who should thus fail to secure
him as her Benedict.
The idea seemed to amuse him i'm
mensely.
You kindly insinuate that it would BE-
benevolence in me to take wife," sale
he with twinkle in his eye. "Now,
protest Pm not conceited enough t.
think that On the contrary, if woman
should consent to give herself to me,
should consider the beneyolence entirely
on her side. Can't say / crave such
charity just at present, though, he added
in comic haste, stretching his long arm,
as If to waive the bequest. "The fact is
Hal, I've never seen the girl | want
Being hard upon forty, it stands to reason
l never shall see her; I fear she died
young. May | trouble you to play
Beethoven's Funeral March in respect to
her memory"
And 50 the subject dropped.
Timothy was no woman-hater, you un-
derstand, indeed, he admired the whole
sex, but in collective way, as you
might the Galaxy without preferrine
any individual star. Young ladies were
TO him nebulous and mysterious crea-
tons, to be reverenced from a distance
he never lavished upon one of them a
1.-THE OF the attentions he lavished upon
me. | had terrible headaches in those
days, and | shall never forget how
patiently he would sit making passe,
over my head till the pain yielded to hi.
touch, as it was sure to do sooner or LAT.
er. He had more magnetism than any
other man / knew. Detesting a dres,
coat and white kids as he detested the
Vaccinations of the evil one, he seldom
went into society, but he was Away
ready for lectures and concerts, march
ing off to the hall with me on his arm a
proudly as if | had been the most be
witching damsel. Excepting on Satur
day, when | was usually engaged at the
choir rehearsal, we were rarely separated
of an evening.
We had gone on in this David and
Jonathan style perhaps a year, when
Miss Sparrow came to st. Luke's as
soprano singer. remember her first APP
pearance in our dim old gallery that last
Sunday in Lent-how she seemed to