Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-03-08

fore I could utter q word of apology
and regret she had glided, sided, O
skated away, and I stood looking like a
fool, and wondering whether I'd better
glide, slide, or skate after her, when /
saw something glittering on the ice at
my feet. / stopped and picked it up
a fairy tooth! You needn't look so
horror-stricken, Earle; it wasn't a real
one, of course.
"Tisn't likely I couli have struck
the young creature SO violent a blows as
to knock a tooth that had grown there
out of her mouth without knocking her
down. 1t was a false one, but the tint
est l had ever seen in my life, false or
real. l looked at it a moment, put it
in my pocket book, took my hat from
an urchin who had been patiently hold
ing it, and then, the absurdity OF the
thing striking me, ! laughed loud and
long, until the passers-by must have
thought I had suddenly come into a
large fortune. After I got through
laughing, I recalled the face of the
young girl, and the more my fancy
painted it, the more charming it grew,
until I had persuaded myself that if not
the most beautiful, it was certainly the
most chaaming it had ever been my
good fortune to gaze upon; and the
first questiOn-not a wise one, l saw
when too late-that asked Constance,
when she came down into the parlor to
receive me-, was,
"sWho is the small woman who left
this house a short time ago-brown as
a gypsy, dark arched eyebrows, nose
retr0usse, mouth like a baby's, gray
eyes, with a queer look in them, and
wooden glovesP' a.s.at aaf r.,
".Pray how long did you look at
her?' said Constance! "t 49,
"ETwO minutes answered L.
"'You saw a great deal in two min
utes,' she retorted, with a d~isagreeable
laugh. what q capital traveller and
sight-seer you would make! You could
rush through a gallery of paintings,
for instance, and carry away as many
in your minds eye as those unfortu~
mates who, not possessing your extra
ordinary talent
"sDon't chat, that's a good child |
interrupted. who is she?'
"'She,' answered Constance, with a
curl of her lip, is a young person, one
of my aunt Fidelia's favorites-by-the-
by, Tn not included among them,'
with a shrug of the shoulders and a
grimace-'who comes here every af-
ternoon, Sundays excepted, to teach my
little sisters their A Sos. And think
narrowing her steel-blue eyes and
wrinkling her white forehead) 'she took
a great lioerty when she left this house
hr tkn l0or nno-nI ~ thu nno.I- n~I
their friends, and a still greater when
she stopped long enough in your way
to have her photograph TAKEN
"Ofcourse | said no more on the sub
ject, but turned to some theme more
congenial to the irate beauty, who, BY
the-way, hadn't raised herself in my
estimation by her, to say the least OF
them, ill-natured remarks about the
poor little daily governess. To tell the
truth, old fellow, I'd been ~suspecting
for some time that my lilly maid as [
used to call her in the first days of nv
spooneyism, was not entirely free from
slemish, and that only her hair. and not
her heart, was bright and golden.
"That right | dreamed an old and
withered bag, quite in the style of the
lntCOSLb "lbSAICo, SdulC W NY OCOcIdCS
and, with many strange imprecations
and much shaking of a bony fist, de.
manded-a tooth.
"'It Is our queen's,' she said; sand
woe to him VINO, having found it, re
fuses to restore it to its rightful owner
81 don't refuse to restore it to its
rightful owner | said, with irmness;
Il will give it into the mouth mean
the hands-of the queen herself, no
other.'
"Dare you defy me?" shrieked the
bag. 'Be-w-a-r-e!' and growing like
a young thunderstorm, she disap-
peared.
swell, sir, I did nothing but think
about the brown-faced governess and
the mite of a tooth all next day, and the
next, and at last | determined to find
put where she lived ana Sc I'd it back to
her-anonymously, of course. 1t was
such a ridiculous thing for a man to
carry around with him. If it had been
a handkerchief, or a glove, or a ribbon,
or q flower but it wasn't.
"HOW to tind Out where she lived be-
came the question, solved for me by
sheer good luck that very evening, when
| went to call on Constance.
"Miss Howard was not at home, but
Mrs. Fairman (Aunt Fidelia) was, and
had a message for me.
"sThe very thingp'I inwardly ex-
ulted, as [ entered the room, with out
ward composure and dignity. You re-
member Aunt FideliaP"
ga slim, keen, blue eyed, rather dra-
matte old lady, with ne nonsense about
her. and a very decided way of speak
ing?"
1.-The same. Constance has gone
skating,' she said. Her orders are
that you follow her. L suppose..you'll
obey themP'
"'Can't I stop and rest a few mo-
mentsP p asked L.
"The old lady smiled. Il haven't
the slightest objection she said; 'on
the contrary, I shall be glad to have
you. l like you as we'll as | like any of
them-perhaps o little better. Have
Won anv newS2'