The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-11-01
TOM.

And plead for the rights of all!
--J0hn g. Whittier, in November Atlantic.
TOM.
81 suppose / must call. Eleven
o'clock. The old gentleman said Twas
not to stand upon ceremony, so I'll run
down to-day. 1t is dismally lonesome
here, and somebody said the Lawlor
girls were the bellies of the place. Who
was it told me that Julia Lawlor was
the belle of Rushtown, and that Dolly
was the incest little thing in the world ?
I'll go down and prove the assertion y
All this in soliloquy, as Mr.. Thomas
Bardell donned his daintiest walking
dress, drew on his lavender kills, put
on his glossiest silk hat over his crop of
curling hair, and, surveying his hand
some, faultlessly-attired self in the long
mirror, sailed forth.
RushtOwn was a collection of coun-
try seats, mile from populous bor-
ough, and the Bardell Place was one of
the most stately of the many superb
houses of which it was composed.
Thomas Bardell, my hero, was the
nephew of the late owner of the Bar
dell Place, and on the death of that
gentleman had Inherited his entire
property, greatly to his own amaze
ment, Mr.. Julius Bardell, deceased,
having quarreled with every relation
he had in the world, and announced his
intention of leaving every dollar to a
charity.
That he did not, but, relnting, made
will in his nephew's favor, brought
Mr.. Thomas Bardell from a college in
Germany, where he was fipishing his
education, to Rushtown.
He was twenty-four, an orphan, hand
sOme and talented, and had some pri-
vate fortune before his uncle's DEATH
That he was unspoiled, modest, and
one who held all women as little lower
than the angels, may be attributed to
the fact that he had a mother who was
true Christian lady, who loved him,
and whose death, when he had just at
tanned manhood, was the heaviest sor-
row of his life.
Rushtown, was an unexplored coun-
try to my hero, but DR.. Lawlor being
the only physician in the place, his res
idence was easily found.
= Tho hall door stnod or,nr tho narlo~
door also was stretched invitingly wide,
and, after vainly waiting for the ring to
be answered, Mr.. Bardell stepped in
side the yestibule.
A voice, high above his head. and in
the parlor, called,
Tom, is that youP'
The speaker, Dolly Lawlor, whose
name, be it here recorded, was Mabel,
but who had been called Dolly from her
cradle, being at the top of high step
ladder, scrubbing the paint over a
French window, heard voice say:
sit is Tom, certainly
Hand me my soap, that's good
fellow said Dolly, from the lofty perch
where she was seated, facing the back
windows; 'syou know am afraid to
look down or turn around on the ladder,
l am SO sure to get giddy."
Where is the soapp" came in a voice
muflied by laughing.
Close down by the ladder, where it
has just dropped. Don't dare to laugh
at me, sir, for / am in the depths of
affliction. Papa has invited the heir to
that splendid Bardel Place to drop in
without ceremony. Did you ever, and
we just in the middle of spring clean
ing? So left Jane to finish upstairs,
and came down myself to make the par
lor decent. There goes my brush! Hand
it up; that's DEAR
The brush was handed up, Dolly not
daring to take her eyes from a level,
already feeling her head spinning with
giddiness.
"We can't be grand, of course, and
the house will look mean enough after
Bardell Place, but we can be clean
she continued, scrubbing vigorously at
the paint. - And you know, Tom, he
is sure to fall in love with Julia, and it
is such splendid chance for her, poor
dear. She does so hate our economies.
sons to finish her blue muslin, and she
can't help clean, because it will spoil
her hands, and they are so pretty.
Julia is lovely in blue, because her skin
is so fair, if her hair and eyes are dark.
She will just be perfect when she is
rich, Tom. l hope she will have him,
and papa and l can jog along forever.
We don't mind cheap things as poor
Julia does. There! That paint can't
be whittier. I'm coming down. and you
can move the ladder over to the other
window for me, Tom.7
But, cautiously descending the lad
der, Dolly only caught heeting
glimpse of tall figure out at the
garden gate.
Well. she said, Juggling at the
heavy ladder, g if Tom was in such a
hurry that he could not move the lad
der, he might at least have waited to
Bay gc,d morning.
Tho /, being the sweetest-tempered of
wont a, though merely passably
pretty girl, Dolly assembled the ladder
again, and soon forgot Toms rudeness
IN the absorbing duties she had under
taken.
In the meantime Mr. Thomas Bardell,
making with laughter, wendell his way
inwardly determining to
make his next call at DR.. Lawlor's
when Miss Dolly was less engrossed in
he task of cleaning paint and the diff
,ulty of maintaining her equilibrium.
!" For that must have been Miss
Jolly, with the natty little boots, and
link calico dress. She had lovely
'rOwn hair, though could NOT see her
ace.
The next call made by the heir of the
}erdel Place found the parlor shining
nh cleanliness, Miss Julia Lawlor,
eally beautiful girl, arrayed in the +
'lu6 muslins, at the piano, and Dolly, L
leo, in blue muslin, knitting. The APP