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

music from some hidden nook, and gay
couples were passing and repassing on
their way to and from the lawn, where
refreshments and Waiting were enjoyed.
. a friend OF mine writes me that she is
worth cultivating," he pursued. GO You
will find her great addition to the
pleasures of Brierthorpe,' he predicts"
Laura Loringw gasped Miss Linda
why, your friend must be Joking.
She's dreadfully paSsee. You wouldn't
fancy her at all. She quotes SHAKES
peare, and makes preserves, and teaches
mission schools, and is so dowdy. l don't
believe she ever had Irritation in her
life" .-. ...
" Indeed! what misfortune! Poor,
misguided girl. I've half IA mind to give
of my friend fell in love with her while
he was studying medicine somewhere
here"
"No? Really? She must be gears
older than our set. You don't like paSSee
girls?"
g. like charming girls, past, present
or future"
g But passee girls are not charming"
" No? Then / am not acquainted
with any such unfortunates," he said
gallantly.
8 No; they are sharp and thin, with
crow's-feet about their eyes, and seams
in their foreheads. They are all angles,
| mentally and physically, and they have
the air of trying to pass for sweet six
teen"
They were approaching rustic seat
beneath an ancient pine tree, upon which
a lady and gentleman sat chatting.
Let US hasten, please, Mr.. Erskine,"
said Miss Linda, suddenly. Let US turn
into this path; it is short cut to the
! lawn'-it proved long one. ~ am be-
ginning to feel quite chilly. ought to
have brought my wrap"
"Let me fetch it," he asked.
wouldn't give you so much trouble,
thanks. | am sure there is sea-turn.
If you will walk little more quickly,
shall be all right"
Shall we join the waltz as prevent.
i've against chills? BY the by, did you
recognize the two people in the rustic
seat yoAder?"
Were there two people there? Shad-
ows, maybe"
g If the shadow is as beautiful as the
lady who turned when we drew near,
what must the substance be that cast ity'
Answer in our next" returned Miss
Linda, f1ippantly, who did not relish the
praises of another.
On the whole, Mr.. Erskine was well
enough satisfied and employed with his
present friends without making any
great effort to seek paSSee woman, who
might, after all, turn out indifferently
pleasing AT least Miss Linda was graf
itidd to see that he took no step toward
that end. He, however, put the same
question TO his landlady on one occasion:
Do you know anything of a Miss Lor-
ing, Mrs. Pasty?"
Bless We, dye mean Laury Loring?"
THAT is her name, | believe"
Why, she lives up ter Seven Oaks
It's putty place, Seven Oaks is-but
mortgaged-with no end of gables and
p'inted roofs and diamond panes in the
winders, and heap of staircases and
passages to lose yer way in, and that
leads almost anywheres; and sliding
panels in the wainscot, and portraits in
the halls, out of which the gentlemen
and ladies walks at dead O. night in their
satin and laces, and toasts each other in
the big dining hall. But, law save US!
they amt got much to brag of, them
Lorings amt, now, but the house and
grounds and the ghosts of fine fore
fathers. The help says as how they live
mighty nigh the wind; and Miss Laury
sne'd never wear hoops, and amt got no
taste in Citing herself up. Old maids
don't mostly hev."
is she an old maid Miss Laura?"
6 reckon so; never see forty agin, if
I'm Judge; only, ye see, the Loring hair
holds its own from the cradle to the
grave, and that's kinder misleading. She
don't hev no attentions from the young
fellows, though maybe that's cause she
don't live handy-some folks like to hev
their sweethearts within arms-length. |
believe the Episcopal rector did take to
going there to consult some old books,
but he he'd call out West. It's romantic
like out to Seven Oaks; if ye're partickler
John d harness up and take ye there any
day; it's only matter of four miles"
But Mr.. Erskine was not particular;
he intended to go there, sooner or later,
before he left Brierthorpe, just to please
his friend, but he anticipated no pleasure
from the excursions: an old maid in rusty
alpaca, with the airs of miss, presented
no attractions to his minds eye, and he
rather looked forward to the occasion as
an ordeal, and put off the evil day from
week to week. But Fate was even might
Ter than the will Of Mr.. Erskine; she car
ried him to Seven Oaks in spite of
himself. 1t occurred to him one morn
ing, when pleasure Jagged and Miss Linda
had gone to neighboring town for
shopping, that
A southerlv wind and a cloudy sky
Proclaimed it hunting morning.
He had been advised that he would bag
plenty of birds in the Deepden woods,
and he boldly took that direction; but,
finding that the Deepden woods were a
fraud, he accepted the further advice of
a woodman in the green solitude to 90
on to Loring's Folly" AS prettya bit of
wood as you're like to see, and the birds
they takes to it kindly; only the old man
Loring, you see, he built mill there,
where the brook be, and he thought he'd
coin money there, but the brook il froze
up in winter and dried up in summer,
and the mill fell to pieces-but the birds
Il