Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-07-12

has gone away, except one, and he
can never come back this side the
grave
Janet, you have had story, and
never told it mel / said, severely.
is this fair or just, | asked, since
from the very smallest beginning of
Hillyer's and my romance you have
known alp
Its such morsel of story she
said, apologetically; and it scarcely
had any real beginning, and can new
er 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 shad-
ed 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, aud their two
brothers, Jack and Frank.
'We were to spend the summer
abroad, wandering wherever we liked,
dawdling 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 con-
corning it, and all of us combining to
driye George, our supposed captain,
distracted with our squabbling; but
it was all good-natured squabbling,
and we got good bit of fun out of it.
Il am sure you know, too, that at
that time Jack chose to consider him.
self engaged to me, and l, faute de
mieur, and because he was such
dear jolly boy, with the kindest heart
in the world, let him keep on think
ing SO.
'We went through England, post
ing 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 oc-
cupy the box seat. / shall never for
get that delicious drive. June eve
nings are lovely any where, but above
all so in England, where in every
roadside is crowded with sweet wild
fiowers,and every stone wall has back
Of it a carpet of freshest green shad.
owed by darker foliage, through which
one catches glimpses of Elizabethan
or Gothic homesteads.
Through the soft warm air we
drove, and gradually London doomed
upon us, picturesque in its glory Of
old, old time, and bright in the gold
en- 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, by.the.way remained perfectly
stolid, but whose eyes could not help
darling little impudent look into my
laughing ones. You see, l remember
every detail that evening. Indeed,
they have come back to me often
enough since then.
we had to make all haste to our
hotel, as Dora, George, Jack, and
were to dine with a certain Mrs. Lam
caster, lady who prided herself on
her artistic taste and her artistic re-
unions, and who lived in a most
charming house in Portman Square,
which to be once seen was to be for
ever remembered.
We were to dine at half past seven.
A soft musical chime was just strik-
ing the half as we entered the low long
withdrawing-room it was unlighted,
save for the dancing flames of wood
fire and the fastdying twilight that
came still more subdued through the
colored windows.
'Our hostess met US most cordially,
presented us to the two or three near
est US, and then, as we were the last
to arrive, and our entrance was al.
most simultaneous with the announce
ment of dinner, we prepared to walk
in. | was just wondering which of
the seven black-coated, white tied,
yellow-haired fraternity would fall to
my lot, and wishing with all my soul
that l might go in with Jack, when
Mrs. Lancaster touched my shoulder
with her fan, and said,
'Allow me, my dear, to present
your cavalier-Lord Southwell, Miss
Berne.'
Il bowed my Acknowledgements. and
then looked at him. Behold, Sylvie,
my dear, it was our noble coachman
of the Virginia Water coach!'
so this is your beginning said /
"a lord, par eremplep
1T is not my beginning at all, says
Janet, but only the aUant scene
what, another victim still? Oh,
Janet. Janetn
You shall hear nothing moro at
all if you don't stop. Lord South
we'll was not victim
Go on, then, dear, / was only jok-
ing: do let us get on to the middle
before Hillyer comes. What did your
lord do or say upon meeting you
again p
He said nothing; / don't think he
remembered me but l thought of
Jacks tip, and wondered if with it
he had purchased the bit of steph-
anotis that reposed on the left breast
of his coat. BY this time we were
at table, and | began to feel quite at
ease. My feft-band heighbor was
man of pre-Raphaelite tendencies, a
nephew OF Mrs. Lancaster, who di.
vided his time pretty equally be-
tween his plate and a fair, red
haired GIRL in a yioiaf ryaru uhoas