Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-06-06
0vershooting the Mark.
BY SUSAN ARCHER wEIs.


Il really don't see what is to be
done" said Mrs. Sutton, as She medi-
tatively folded letter stamped with a
foreign post-maTk.
The letter was from Charlie, who was
spending his last college vacation in
Europe, and who now wrote to an
nounce his speedy return, accompanied
by his friend, Mr.. Philip Warrington.
Charlie Sutton was evidently very
proud to call Mr.. Warrington his
friend. He had met him in the course
of his travels, and always wrote of him
a. "a splendid fellow, clever, handsome
and''-with view TO the special consid-
Grafton of his mother and sister-''rich.
and of one of the first families of B.
And now, in accordance with his
mothers instructions, he had invited
his friend to spend a week with them,
before going on to his more Southern
home, and she must expect them in a
few days.
There was one drawback to Mrs. SUIT
tons satisfaction i'm this arrangement
and ii was TO this that her remarks on
closing the letter, referred.
This will be capital chance for you,
Isabel - she said, addressing her daugh-
ter: lin fact, the best probably that
YOU will ever have. But it requires
more tact than you have yet shown ;
and. besides. there is Alice. who might
spoil all, as she did in the affair of Col.
Sawyer. really don't see what is to
be done as regards Alice"
Alice was Mr.. SuttOn's niece, whom
he had taken TO his home on the death
of her parents. She was at that time
fifteen. and a her cousin Isabel had
lust made her entree into society, she
was found to be somewhat in the way,
and was sent to boarding-schoOl.
Here she had remained until the past
winter. when. being nineteen, it was
found positiy ely necessary that she
should come home and be introduced
into society.
But. unfortunately as Mrs. Sutton
considered, Alice's sweet face, and
graceful. winning manners had proven
with some persons greater charm than
than the bold beauty of the rather fast
Isabel Sutton-Col. Sawyer ia special,
To entrap whom the anxious mother and
daughter had employed the whole
amount of their talent and energies.
He had, upon seeing Alice. trans
ferred his attention from Isabel to her
self. and had actually proposed to Mr..
Sutton for the hand of his niece instead
of his daughter.
Ii made no difference that Alice de-
clined the honor. Isabel had lost her
best chance: and though of course, her
cousin could not be properly blamed in
the matter. yet she was dangerous.
And now that another and yet better
chance was about TO offer in the person
of Mr. Warrington, Alice must, in
some way or the other, be gotten rid of
for the time.
That evening, at tea, Mrs. Sutton,
after adroitly leading the conver-
sation in the proper direction, remarked
TO her husband:
.'By-the-by, my dear, when did you
last hear from your Aunt Curtis: L
fear that we have of late rather neg
lected the old Lady
$50 have often told yOu," returned
her husband. who was an enterprislng
business man. not so wOrldly-minded as
his wife. "Aunt Curtis was very kind
to me when | was boy, and certainly
deserves more attention than | have had
time TO beStow. She is old and infirm,
100, and yet in four years not one of my
family have been TO see her."
"Why it is such lonely, out-of-the-
way country place. replied his wife,
''that really to go there seems quite an
undertaking. Yet | don't wish to neg
lect the old lady. She wrote last year
that she would like To see the girls, now
that they are grown up; and Alice's
mother, you know was her favorite
niece. am sure she would be gratified
at a visit from us. Indeed. now that we
speak of it, | and the girls may as well
run upto Copley Farm for a day or two.
What do you say, girls
LET us 20, aunt, by all means,' was
Alice's quick reply. Il should like TO
see nv mothers aunt; and you know it
is lovely in the country at this season."
Isabel shrugged her fair shoulders,
but prudently said nothing; and on the
following day the three ladies were AT
the quiet. old-fashioned little farm
house, some twenty miles from the ciry.
1T seems pity to leave the poor old
lady so soon, said Mrs. Sutton, ''she is
50 infirm, and that hOusekeeper of hers
is not. suppose, eyer-attentive to her
comfort. Then she seemed so fond of
You. Alice. and enjoyed so much your
reading to her. / wish that one of you
girls would remain longer: | am sure
it would DE comfort TO the poor old
lady"
Alice needed no persuasion. She was
a kind-hearted and amiable girl. and
her sympathies had been enlisted for
this lonely, infirm old lady, her moth
er's aunt, who seemed so forgotten and
alone in the world. Her own mother
had been of very delicate health, and
the young girl, accustomed 10 attend