The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1877-07-05

of there being Silver Threads Among
the Gold" fight laugh or half-caught
scrap of song came in now and then,
thrown out on the gentle air from the
overbubbling of some joyous heart.
The half-light, the keen scent of the
little pine fire that it was Janet's fancy
to keep lighted on the hearth through
all seasons. because it was SO companion
able, the odor of the coffee ready served
for us in dainty .taience cups, the slow
waiting to and fro of the light draperies
at the windows, stand out to me now as
wildly from the fair DAYS that's are dead
as they did then when that was present
and this future.
Janet seated herself on the low
window-seat, the primrose sky making a
fine setting for her little head, |, in the
easiest of lounging chairs, slipped my
coffee and wondered when my lover
would appear.
Some one ought to come in now,
Janet-some one that You have not seen
for years-and be captiyated, fascinated
by your pretty face in the cleaning"
said !, still harping on the old subject;
for one Of my characteristics = the ten
acity with which | cling to an idea or
argument, and ring out the changes
thereon increasingly.
Janet laughed. :" And who should
come, since | have known no one that
has gone away, except one, and he can
never come back this side the grave.
"Janet, you have story and never
told it to mer' | said, severely. /" Is
this fair or just, / ask, since from the
very smallest beginning of HiIlyer's and
my romance you have known all?'
" It's such morscl of Il story" she
said, alphabetically; "and it scarcely
had any real beginning, and can never
have any ending"
"Then it must be all middle; and as
beginnings and endings are the meanest
of all things, it must be all nice. Let
me hear it, Janet at once"
So sitting with her back to the pale
light, her pretty figure half shaded by
the muslin curtains, my little Janet told
her summer story.
" You remember, dear, last spring,
during the Franco-German war, / went
abroad with George and Dora. Well, it
all happened then. We were quite a
large party, for besides our number of
three there were Maggie and Edith
Griffith, and their two brothers, Jack
and Frank.
We were to spend the summer abroad,
wandering wherever we liked, dawdiing
a day here and day there, altering our
plans as soon as we made them, each
having our own pet route, and each
arguing with the other concerning it.
and all of us combining to drive George,
our supposed captain, distracted with orr
squabbling; but it was all good-natured
squabbling, and we got good bit Of fun
out of it.
am sure you know, too, that at that
time Jack chose to consider himself
engaged to me, and ! .taUte de mieGr, and
becaused he was such dear, jolly boy,
with the kindest heart in the world, let
him keep on thinking 50.
We went through England, posting as
much as we could, stopping at all the
cathedral towns or villages that had
pretty names and prettier bits of scenery.
In this way we reached London one fine
warm June evening. We had taken the
coach from Virginia Water to please me,
who had never before beheld one, and to
whom it seemed untold bliss to occupy
the box seat. | shall never forget that
delicious drive. June evenings are
lovely anywhere, but above all so in
England, where every roadside is
crowded with sweet wild flowers, and
every stone wall has back of it carpet
of freshest green Swallowed by darker
foliage, through which one catches
glimpscs of Elizabethan or Gothic home
steads.
Through the soft warm air we drove,
and gradually London loomed upon us,
picturesque in its glory of old, old time
and bright in the golden sunlight.
The guard blew his horn, our noble
coachman assumed, if possible, a still
more careless and Indifferent air. and we
ratified down Piccadilly up to the White
Horse Cellar; then we all scrambled
down, and Jack tipped the guard and
our noble coachman, whose face blythe
way remained perfectly stolid, but whose
eyes could not help darting a little i'm
pudent look into my laughing ones.
You see | remember every detail of that
evening. Indeed, they have come back
to me often enough since then.
ave had to make all hast tie to our no.
tel, as Dora, George, Jack and | were to
dine with a certain Mrs. Lancaster, a
lady who prided herself on her artistic
taste and her artistic reunions, and who
lived in most charming house in Port
man Square, which to be once seen was
to be forever remembered.
We were to dine at half-past seven.
A soft musical chime was Just striking
the half As we entered the low, long with
drawing ROOM it was unlighted, save for
the dancing tlameso 4 wood fire and the
fast-dying twilight that came still more
subdued through the colored windows.
Our hostess met us most cordially, pre-
sented us to the two or three nearest us
and then, as we were the last to arrive
and our entrance was almost simultane,
Gus with the announcement of dinner
we prepared to walk in. was just won.
dering which of the seven black-coated
white-tied, yellow-haired fraternity
would fall to my lot, and wishing with
all my soul that | might 90 III with
shoulder with her fan, and said:
"Allow me, my DEAR to present youl
cavaier-Lord Southwell, Miss Berne.
| bowed my Acknowledgements, and
then looked at him. Behold, Sylvie, my
dear, it was our noble coachman of the
Virginia Water coach!
% tnls Is your beginning, S'lu !
lord, par erempie!"
ITS not only my beginning at all, y
says Janet, ''but only the arant-scene."
What, another victim still? Oh,
Janet, Janet?"
"You shall hear nothing more at al
, if you don't stop. Lord Southwell wa:
not a victim
go on, then dear, l was only joking
do let us get on to the middle before
Hillyer comes. What did your lord DO
or say upon meeting you again."
He said nothing; don't think he re-
menhered me; but thought of Jacks
tip, and wondered if with it he had pur-
chased the bit of stcphanotis that repesed
on the left breast of his coat. BY this
time we were ut the table, and | began
TO feel quite at ease. My left hand
neighbor was young man of pre-Raph-
aelite tendencies, n nephew of Mrs. Ian