The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-05-26
PASSEE.

Dir. Erskine was an idler that summer,
IS well as stranger, in the pleasant town
Of BrierthOrpe. Just up from typhoid
fever, the doctor had ordered him to take
his ease and forget business. Mr.. Frs
which Brierthorpe was not slow to dis
cover. He was not without "means,"
the gossips further vouchsafed, and he
possessed fine figure and a comely coun-
tenanCe, with manners so genial and pol
ished as to be irresistible. Naturally the
first families were anxious to make the
acquaintance Of gentleman so attract
i've, especially as young men were not
abundant, and the supply of marriage
able daughters greater than the demand.
But they were anxious 10 show him the
Civilities due to the stranger within their
gates,-of course not with the remOtest
idea, we know, of throwing Florence
Ann or Ruth Ellen at his very promising
head. And what the first families mad "a
mind to do, that they speedily accom-
plished. The Misses Hardacre, having
gone out to row in leaky boat managed
to come to grief one afternoon in Mr..
Erskine's neighborhood, where he was
varying the solitude by fishing and sketch
ing by turns, with his wherry anchored
near. He made haste to 90 to their assist
anCe, to be sure, as their boat, having
hit sharp tooth of the hidden rocks,
threatened to capsize. He took them
into his own craft, palpitating with pleas.
ure at the success of their stratagem,
and he rowed them against the tide to
the border of the paternal acres. The
young ladies were rendered fluent by the
emotion called gratitude. Papa would be
50 glad to make the gentleman's acquaint-
ance; their preserver would always be
remembered; would he give them his
card and address, that papa might call
and thank him." and SO forth and so on.
Mr., Ersklne was not sorry that ro-
mantle episode had arrived to vary the
monotony of his retirement. The young
ladies were pretty, and spoke with the
accent of cultivated people, and wore
the fashions of good society; and he was
waxing more or less weary of books and
middleaged mediocrity at his boarding
house. He felt natural craving for So
,Ciety. Pere Hardacre called and did the
atfable thing, and invited the young hero
to his house; and before the week ended,
Brierthorpe rang with the report that
Mr.. Erskine had rescued Miss Linda from
a watery grave at the risk of his life, and
was on such intimate terms with the fam
lily that the usual deROuem5ent was immi-
nent. This, however, was not exactly
the case. 1t is true that Mr.. Erskine be-
came tolerably at home in the Hardacre
mansion; that he rowed and drove with
the girls, especially Miss Linda; that he
taught her to sketch little, and spent a
good deal Of his leisure on the croquet
ground; that he danced more frequently
with her than with the other young ladies
to whom the force of circumstances and
society had obliged the Misses Hardacre
to introduce him; that he walked in the
moonlight with Miss Linda-that season
so conducive to lunacy-and had the gen
eral air of having been smitten by her
charms, as well as Brierthorpe could in
terpret.
g wonder" said he one evening, elf
you know Miss Laura Loring who lives
in this neighborhood somewhere?" 1t
was the night of Mrs. Cores garden par.
ty, and they were lettering in the Pine
Grove, through which the Chinese Ian
terms shed light as gorgeous as that re-
Elected from painted windows, while the
band discoursed some melancholy dance