The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-12-01
TOM.

81 SUPPOSE Unjust call. Eleven o'clock.
The old gentleman said l was not to
stand upon ceremony, so I'll run down
and somebody said the Lawler girls were
the bellies of the place. Who was it told
me that Julia Lawler was the belle of
Rushtown, and that Dolly was the incest
little thing in the world? I'll go down
and prove the assertion"
All this in sollloquy, as Mr.. Thomas
Bardell donned his daintiest walking
dress, drew on his lavender kids, put on
his glossiest silk hat over his crop of
curling hair, and surveying his handsome,
faultlessly attired self in the long mirror,
sailed forth.
Rushtown was collection of country
seats, mile from a populous borough,
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 Bardell Place, and on
the death of that gentleman had inner
tied his entire property, greatly to his
own amazement, Mr.. Julius Bardell, de.
ceased, having quarreled with every re-
lation he had in the world, and an
nounced his intention of leaving every
dollar to a charity.
That he did not, but relenting, made a
will in his nephew's favor, brought Mr..
Thomas Bardell from a college in Ger
many, where he was finishing his educa-
ton, to Rushtown.
He was twenty-four, an orphan, hand
and to1pntnI and h oI 70
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 a true Chris
tain lady, who loved him, and whose
death, when he had just attained man
hood, was the heaviest sorrow of his
life.
Rushtown was an unexplored country
to my hero, but DR.. Lawlor being the
only physician in the place, his residence
was easily found
The hall door stood open, the parlor
door also was stretched invitingly wide,
and after vainly waiting for the ring to
be answered, Mr.. Bardell stepped inside
the vestibule.
n NOlCC dDOfC Ills uCdu, anu Ill
the parlor, called:
tom, is that your"
The speaker, Dolly Lawyer, whose
name, be it here recorded, was Mabel,
but who had been called Dolly from her
cradle, being at the top of a high step
ladder, scrubbing the paint over a French
window, heard voice say:
cit is Tom, certainly"
Hand me my soap, that's good fell
low," said Dolly, from the lofty perch
where she was seated facing the back
windows; you know l am afraid to look
down or turn around on the ladder, / am
so sure to get giddy."
"Where is the soap?" came in a voice
muf1ed 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 af.
Fiction. Papa has invited the heir to
that splendid Bardell Place to drop in
without ceremony. Did you ever, and
we just in the middle of spring cleaning?
So left Jane to finish upstairs and
came down myself to make the parlor
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, al
ready feeling her head spinning with
giddiness.
owe 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 a splendid chance for her, poor
dear. She does so hate our economies
she has gone over now to Mrs Simpsons
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 can
jog along forever. Wedon't mind cheap
things as poor Julia does. There! That
psint can't be whittier. Pm coming down
and you can move the ladder over to the
other window for me, Tom"
Bat, cautiously descending the ladder,
Dolly only caught fieetting glimpse of
tall figure out at the garden gate.
Well" she said, Juggling at the heavy
ladder, 1" if Tom was in such a hurry
that he could not move the ladder, he
might at least have waited to say good
incoming"
Then, being the sweetest tempered of
women, though merely passably pretty
girl, Dolly assembled the ladder again,
and soon forgot Toms rudeness In the
absorbing duties she had undertaken.
In the meantime Mr.. Thomas Bardell.
shaking with laughter, wendell his way
homeward, inwardly determining to make
his next call at DR.. Lawlor's when Miss